The Polish apple season is wrapping up, says Adam Malengiewicz, sales manager for the Polish apple exporter. He states that one variety is still available in stock: "So far, the apple season has looked good, with all our stocks selling as expected. The blocked Red Sea has had a slight impact on the stability of supply to customers, but we have finally delivered the expected volume to our customers. In Europe, like most producers, we still have a lot of Golden delicious apples in stock."
It's been a challenging season, Malengiewicz acknowledges. The Red Sea crisis has made transport much more difficult. "We had to change the way in which we transported our apples to India, that was the most difficult, I think. Also, because of the blockade in the Red Sea, we had huge delays on some of the containers. The transit time on certain containers was double as long as expected by the shipping company. After a while, the delivery time stabilized, but initially it was a tragic situation."
According to Malengiewicz, an earlier start of the soft fruit season didn't help either, as demand for apples traditionally goes down when soft fruit is available: "Prices have been quite constant from the start, after paying the base-price, the price went up with the cost of storage in warehouses. There has been a critical change, as there's been an earlier start of the soft fruit harvest, like blueberries, which reduces apple consumption every year. As the harvest of blueberries is even earlier this season, the effects on consumption are already felt."
Malengiewicz expects an early start to the new Polish apple season. "I hope that the new apple harvest will be good. I hope that the ripening time of the apples will happen simultaneously, so that the apples will be more uniform and we'll be able to serve the end customer better. The harvest of apples will be much earlier this year. Ever since I can remember, being a little boy, who helped my father on the farm, I have not seen apples being so big and so ripe at this time of the year. So, this harvest season will definitely start earlier! I also hope that the Red Sea blockade will be repaired."
For more information:
Adam Malengiewicz
Ewa-Bis Sp. z o.o.
Email: [email protected]
www.ewabis.com.pl