Golden Delicious - will February bring a record drop in supplies?

The latest WAPA data shows a significant increase in the monthly decrease in Golden Delicious apple stocks in Poland in January. The volume of Golden Delicious apples that exited Polish warehouses in January (30,000 tons) was twice as high as in December 2024. Equally important, this volume was as high as in the best of the previous five seasons. According to WAPA information, Golden stocks in European Union member countries in early February were approximately 822,000 tons (compared to 922,000 tons a year earlier). Of this, Poland had 170,000 tons of this apple variety (compared to 215,000 tons a year earlier). These figures should be correlated with the prices of this variety in the Polish wholesale market. In January, there was an increase in Golden prices in the Polish wholesale market, but only in the first half of that month, with a cumulative price increase of only 3 percent throughout January. A more dynamic price increase affected Polish Golden apples in the second half of February. The average price in the wholesale market increased by 8 percent. At the beginning of March, this trend continued, resulting in current prices of Golden (usually purchased by weight in crates) ranging from 2.00 to 2.20 PLN/kg. The second graph clearly shows that these are significantly higher prices compared to previous seasons. Therefore, it can be assumed that such a price increase was caused by rising demand for Golden apples. If there is indeed a correlation between prices and stock declines, one can expect that the decrease in Golden stocks in Poland in February was exceptionally high - exceeding 30,000 tons, as WAPA recorded for February 2022 and 2023.