Industrial apples - prices going down?

For a moment, in August, the market for apples purchased for processing became calm and stable in terms of prices. But only for a moment. Once again, we are receiving information about price reductions in the industry's purchases. Is this the beginning of a trend, or rather a repeat of the turmoil from the end of July and August?

In the case of the dry industry, this had already occurred earlier, and now the vast majority of offers (although generally still few) have prices ranging from 1.00 to 1.10 PLN/kg (0.23-0.26 EUR/kg), up to a maximum of 1.20 PLN/kg (0.28 EUR/kg). In the case of the ordinary industry, in recent days offers to buy have appeared again with prices below one złoty. Currently, the range is mostly 0.96-1.05 PLN/kg (0.22-0.24 EUR/kg), with a maximum of 1.10 PLN/kg (0.26 EUR/kg).

This means a decrease in prices in August, in the case of the ordinary industry by just over 6 percent, and in the case of the dry industry by over 8 percent. It is difficult to resist the impression that this is the result of an attempt to lower prices again by processing plants. An attempt to take advantage of the temporary accumulation of apple supply in the fresh market (summer varieties).

At the end of July and August, there was also such an attempt, but it quickly became apparent that instead of a price drop, we had a strengthening of prices. Now, due to the mentioned accumulation of summer apple supply, the attempt may bring more lasting results, but it seems that in the longer term, it is also doomed to failure.

Apple harvests are worse than last year. That's already known. It also seems that the overall supply of apples for the industry will be smaller. This means that we are facing a season with relatively high processing purchase prices. There is no talk of significant drops. This does not mean attempts to cut even a few cents, even for short periods of time. Processors, as usual, will try to take advantage of every opportunity that arises.