Sales for Polish apples have been strong this season, says Jan Nowakowski, manager for Polish apple distributor, Genesis Fresh. It has led to lower stocks being available at this point in the season compared to last season: “According to the latest WAPA figures, in Poland we still have 1 million tons of apples available, which is nearly 8% lower compared to previous season. This makes sense as the level of sales was good this season. As stocks are lower, I expect we will have a shortage of apples and not all growers will have available stock until the end of the season. On the other hand, we always secure enough volume to supply our partners until the end of the season in order to not leave any gaps.”
The fact that Polish apple exporters are still not able to regularly export their apples to Egypt, means there’s actually apples from the Golden-varieties still available. “From the start of this season, we’ve see very good demand for two varieties; Royal Gala and Golden Delicious. The second apple is popular this year, as there was a big shortage of apples in Spain. If the market in Egypt would be completely open for us, we would not have any Golden left at this point, I’m sure,” Nowakowski explains.
“The stock for Gala is coming to an end and Golden is about to finish within a couple of weeks. Right now, there are apples like Red Prince, Idared, Gloster, Jonagored or still Red Delicious moving. New cold-store chambers are opened and exported to various destinations in Europe and Asia.”
Nowakowski states that Red Prince is getting more popular among the consumers: “The most popular variety in Poland is still Idared. There was hardly any interest in these apples in the beginning of the season, which is good as we always keep this variety for the end of the season. Red Prince also gained a lot of attention, both in terms of the production in Poland as well as the demand from importers. Now is the time to move some volumes, too.”
Overall, Nowakowski feels it’s been a challenging season, and one that could end a little earlier than usual. “If there are no big changes on the market, I expect the season to be finished slightly earlier than it did the previous year. Meanwhile, prices for the apples will increase. This is also partly due to lower volumes of apples from the Southern Hemisphere this season. Overall, this year is going to be very tough for most of the apples’ growers and exporters, due to current energy costs and the rise of other expenses. We are also facing rough times nowadays in Europe due to the war in Ukraine, which has the huge impact on the whole industry,” he concludes.
For more information:
Jan Nowakowski
Genesis Fresh
Tel: +48223783405
Email: info@genesisfresh.com