Availability for Polish apples is still on a good level, although he has also started removing some of the apples that were in controlled atmosphere storage, says Aniruddh Ramesh, director of Polish apple exporter LVMG Grupa: "At the moment, we're still able to buy apples from our growers on demand and we have opened one of our own controlled atmosphere chambers to maintain a balance. As a result, we can say we're keeping it steady in terms of our available supply."
Ramesh doesn't feel as much pressure from the demand as other Polish exporters claim. Demand is strong, but not overwhelming, he explains. "Domestic demand for apples has been fine. The export demand, according to many other exporters, is high. However, when we look at the export volumes, we export these volumes every year. Basically, we're not overwhelmed by demand at this point. But yes, going by statistics, export to Egypt and India has been on big numbers this season."
© LVMG Grupa SP. Z O.O
Most of LVMG's volumes go to India, but a small portion also makes its way to the Vietnamese market, Ramesh states: "As always, it remains a challenge to match the quality expectations of the customers in India. The quality has been relatively better in Poland this season, though. However, we still need to be very sure of the quality that we ship. Next to India and the European markets, we also export a relatively small volume to Vietnam as well."
Overall, Ramesh has hopes for a longer season compared to last year. "Prices have been more or less stable for the apples themselves; we do see additional costs related to the CA storage costs. We expect to have a longer season than the last one, as we have more apples in our CA chambers, while also having more apples from the growers we work with. All in all, we hope to have a longer and consistent season," he concludes.
For more information:
Aniruddh Ramesh
LVMG Grupa Sp.z o.o.
Email: [email protected]
http://www.lvmg.pl
