With the opening of the regional fruit auctions and the ongoing harvest, the 25/26 apple season in South Tyrol, Italy, is gathering pace. Current forecasts point to encouraging quantities and quality, confirms Michael Sparer (right), fruit broker and managing director of the agency of the same name in Vilpian. "The Red and Golden Delicious harvest started just a few days earlier than usual this year, while the Gala harvest started at the normal time. The excellent harvest weather had a particularly positive effect on the shelf life and color of the latter variety, so we can look forward to a better overall average quality than last year."
Overall, the South Tyrolean apple industry can look back on an optimal summer without any serious heat waves from June onwards. Sparer: "Across the range, we therefore expect a high proportion of large fruit. Although these are well-received on the wholesale markets, they may be too large for certain food retail customers and overseas markets. The Indian market, for example, often explicitly asks for apples of 65/80 caliber."
© Sparer Obstvermittlung
Red Delicious (l) and Gala
Positive results characterized last year's export season
The past export season 24/25 was generally positive, the fruit broker continues. "There were some shelf life issues with Gala, so we were mostly sold out by February, about a month earlier than usual. Golden Delicious also had certain quality problems due to excessive rainfall during the harvest season, although we were able to offer seasonal produce almost until the end of the season. Due to lower domestic yields, the German market was very receptive this year. The same was true for Northern Europe and Scandinavia. There has also been consistently high, stable demand in the overseas market, although the weaker dollar exchange rates in the second half of the season caused us some issues. In addition, we were able to place large quantities of Class II apples at moderate prices, especially in Egypt, and Central and Eastern Europe also recorded relatively high demand for Class II produce in the second half of the season."
Sparer expects greater competition in the new 25/26 export campaign. "In contrast to last year, a good harvest is now also forecast in Styria and Germany, meaning that these two countries will also be fully represented in the export market. Certain sales markets in Eastern and Southern Europe are therefore likely to be somewhat more competitive this year."
© Sparer ObstvermittlungGolden Delicious
Decline in acreage for Red Delicious and Gala, club apples continue to gain momentum
At the production level, the cultivation of club varieties in particular continues to grow. "Cultivation capacities for Crimson Snow are tending to expand, as is the case for the Sambóa variety, which is mainly produced in the neighboring growing region of Piedmont and performs particularly well in Spanish and Italian food retail. Cosmic Crisp is also continuing to gain in importance, even outside Europe. SweeTango, on the other hand, is less suitable for export to distant markets due to its short shelf life and is therefore mainly found on the European market," explains Sparer.
"Looking at the proven standard varieties, we see that the cultivation of Red Delicious and Gala is tending to decline, while the total area under Golden Delicious has remained virtually unchanged for several years. The development of the area under Granny Smith is also worth mentioning: due to climatic conditions, this variety had lost much of its relevance until a few years ago, but based on the stable to slightly increasing area under cultivation, it now seems to be experiencing a renaissance," he concludes.
For more information:
Michael Sparer
Sparer Obstvermittlung
Nalser Straße 6
39018 Vilpian (BZ)
Tel. +39 0471 678 725
[email protected]
www.sparersparer.net
