For Appolonia, the complete apple harvest was finished in time before the weather got cold. But according to export manager Jakub Krawczyk, not all of the Polish growers were that lucky: “We have finished picking all the apples, but unfortunately harvesting wasn’t easy for everybody. There weren’t enough workers and so it was going quite slow. Most of our growers managed to finish their harvest on time, but you could observe that there were some apples on the trees mid-November, when the temperature hit minus degrees. This means that not all of the growers were able to harvest everything at the right time.”
The sales of Gala Royal apples have been very strong, so strong that it resulted in a price increase for the variety, Krawczyk explains. “Ever since the start of the season we’ve received plenty of orders, especially for 18kg bushels. Most of our customers agree that the quality is very good for Gala Royal this year, and they’re able to order more apples from Poland. It’s the most popular variety customers choose for the bushel boxes. Because there was big demand for this variety, the price for it went up. We did sell a lot of Gala, but we still have large volumes closed in chambers to keep the orders going until the end of the season.”
To Krawczyk’s surprise, the South American market has provided the Polish apple with an opportunity this year, which could become a strong relationship going forward: “A few South American customers from countries like Colombia and Panama decided to try our apples and are doing weekly programs with us. These are still relatively new markets for us, but we think there is a lot of potential for growth with these regions. Once we have a larger clientele in South America, more growers will get certifications, meaning it’ll be easier to sell there in the future. It’s a big surprise for us, because honestly we didn’t do any larger shipments to this region before. We’re also happy that we have started our shipments to Vietnam customers again, because Polish apples are well known there and our specifications match their needs.”
Thanks to their new packhouse, Appolonia is able to fulfil even more orders, so they hope to reach even more potential customers next year. “Right now our new packhouse is working at full capacity, we’re able to fulfil more challenging orders and can prepare them faster. That’s why we would like to invite all customers that are looking for good apples producers from Poland to contact us or even visit our facilities. We still have space for new customers, still have lot of top quality apples and hope we can do fruitful business together.” Krawczyk concludes.
For more information:
Jakub Krawczyk
Appolonia
Tel: +48 785 342 930
Email: jakub.krawczyk@appolonia.pl
www.appolonia.pl