There's still a lot of Idared apples in Poland

2021-08-16 09:50

It's already August, the offer of apples from the new harvest is growing in Poland, and there are still significant stocks of apples harvested in the autumn of 2020 in the chambers of Polish fruit growers. This "overhang" weighs on the new apple trade and will be felt for a long time to come.

WAPA's latest figures, from the beginning of July, put Polish apple stocks at as much as 133,000 tonnes, compared with 11,000 tonnes a year earlier. Even in July 2019, after the record high harvest of autumn 2018, stocks were lower - 14 thousand tonnes. This shows the scale of the problem. Even with the "descent" in July from warehouses of a quantity comparable to that of June, stocks would still be at 30-40 thousand tonnes at the beginning of August.

The largest component of these stocks is, of course, Idared. Trade in this apple is growing slower than in other, more popular varieties. At the beginning of July there were 50 thousand tonnes of Idared apples in Polish cold stores. What a problem the trade of this variety is, it can be seen from the prices which, since June, have been at the level of 0.60 PLN/kg, in leaps to 0.70 PLN/kg for calibre 70+.

In recent weeks Idared has been mostly sold to industry, although it is still available on market shelves. Both in one and in the other of these distribution channels, the current prices are negatively affected. Apples from thinnings, of which there are not many, do not become more expensive than 0.40 PLN/kg, because this is the price of old apples for industry. The presence of cheap Idared in retail (cheap to buy from the grower) has affected and continues to affect the purchase prices of new apples, which have already gone down to PLN 0.90/kg for Piros.

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