As the end of the Polish apple season draws near, it's been a positive season overall, says Mateusz Wajnert, head of sales for Polish apple exporter Galster: "The current apple season has been a good one. It's been too good to really complain about anything, but not good enough to be labelled as a very strong season. This has marked yet another season in a row where spring prices do not compensate for storing the apples for that long. However, I don't want to sound too negative, overall, it's really not been a bad season. We were able to conduct our business with our regular customers, which is the most important thing for us, in order to keep these long-term relationships close to us. With that in mind, we look towards the development of our partnerships in the coming seasons with optimism."
The current spring frosts in Poland could pose a challenge for the apple production, but Wajnert emphasizes there is no point in speculating either way. "Looking at the crops for the new season, the fruit that was in the process of blossoming was abundant for us. However, a few days of frost at different stages of the apple trees' development could have caused some losses. Now we can't be certain what the frost will end up meaning for the total volumes. We're experienced enough to hold off judgements that are either too optimistic or too pessimistic for some time. Instead of speculating and assuming, we'll have to wait a bit in order to do a thorough analysis to know anything for sure. However, the facts are the facts; we did experience nights with frost in our orchards, and many of our befriended fruit growers did as well. It's clear that frosts may still occur, maybe the risk is smaller than it was this week, but it can definitely occur again."
Overall, the major challenges that Polish apple exporters will have are nothing new under the sun, Wajnert explains: "We'll approach the next season with similar challenges that we've already experienced. For us, the most important focus will be to grow with the customers who have been with us for a long time. It'll be a challenge to find more growers with Royal Gala in their orchards, this is the variety that is most popular among our customers."
Galster is also expanding further for the production of sweet cherries. "We don't just export apples, we also do sweet cherries. Last month, we planted another three hectares in our sweet cherry orchard. Year by year, we feel stronger when it comes to this specific product, and we intend to become even better in our practices than we already are!" Wajnert concludes.
For more information:
Mateusz Wajnert
Galster Sp. z o.o.
Tel: +48 660 042 551
Email: [email protected]
www.galster.pl