Germany: Better apple sales

Apple sales have improved since the end of February. Besides the increased demand since mid January on West European markets, more apples are being exported to East-Europe, manly Russia. This means there's a better mood amongst market participants, even though the sales situation of the separate varieties is very varied.

Royal Gala fetches very good prices and surcharges can even be asked on it. Elstar is also popular among consumers at the moment. The further market development of the Jonagold/Jonagored remains doubtful. There are larger quantities of it available at the moment, which are often weak in colour. But the weak continuity in the export of these varieties towards the East also makes it a strain. The months/weeks in which this variety is usually sold most still have to come, in which there will be more clarity about whether the sales of the variety group have been successful. The fact remains that Russia only imported 39,000 tonnes of apples from the EU-15 countries until the end of December. They traditionally imported a lot of Jonagold/Jonagored variety apples.