The cost of storing apples is leading to price increases for the apples themselves, says Janusz Kawęczyński, president of Polish apple exporter Fruit-Group: “It’s very hard to calculate which variety is the most in stock at this very moment, but theoretically there should be a lot of Idared and Jonaprince in stock. On the other hand, we know that producers missed the right time for picking later varieties, because of a lack of labour during harvesting.
"However, looking at what the market needs right now, it’s the Gala, Golden, Mutsu and Prince varieties. We have regular price increases. This is, among other reasons, due to the rising cost of storing the apples. We do expect both sales and prices to increase over the next few weeks, as the position of Polish apples on international markets will be stronger.”
Fruit-Group has also been investing in the cultivation of pears, but these are mostly destined for the domestic market in Poland, Kawęczyński explains. “The production of pears is growing year by year in Poland. Polish pears are available until the end of March. Now the season is getting longer with every year that passes, as growers are getting better at storing the fruit to maintain the quality that is required. So far, production isn’t very high, so export of these pears isn’t at a big level either. Most of the pears that we cultivate will be sold on the domestic market.”
The Polish exhibitors used to have their stand in the CityCube during Fruit Logistica, but were found in Hall 27 this year. Kawęczyński didn’t like changing location, but overall they’ve seen good traffic this year. “Moving Polish companies and changing our location is not well evaluated by both our clients and ourselves. We prefer stability. I did notice that this edition was better than the one in April. The amount of visitors checking our stand was on a similar level as it was before the pandemic, location didn’t matter in this regard,” he concludes.
For more information:
Emilia Lewandowska
Fruit-Group SP.z.o.o.
Email: biuro@fruitgroup.pl
www.fruitgroup.pl