Poland’s apple sector is hopeful of achieving a much improved export campaign this autumn thanks to recent favourable weather conditions, which growers hope will mark a recovery from the rain-affected, disappointing 2010/11 season.
Apple production volumes slumped by 30 per cent to 1,859,000 tonnes during the recently-completed 2010/11 season as heavy rains affecting the crop’s development, according to data from the country’s Central Statistical Office.
Radoslaw Poniatowski, from Polish apple marketer Agro Alians, told Fruitnet that the primary cause of the fall in volumes had been heavy rains and flooding in several regions during May 2010, which damaged the crop during its sprouting stage.
Poniatowski said the export campaign, which was completed at the end of April, was also adversely affected by higher prices for apples in both the EU and eastern European markets, which weakened Polish exporters’ ability to compete on price.
Adam Szultecki, from Warsaw-based fresh produce exporter Vegdis, said the recent apple season had been a “disaster” in volume terms, although he stressed that most of the problems had been concentrated in the north of Poland, rather than the key production region of Grójec.
“This year was very difficult because there was a big shortage in volumes, but next season looks like it will be more of a normal year,” he said.
Szultecki said the availability problems led to Vegdis postponing the planned launch of ‘Great Fruit’, a new brand for Polish apples in Russia.
Despite the volume shortage, Poniatowski said the overall quality of the fruit during the 2010/11 campaign was good, with the Polish crop recording larger average calibers and no major scab defects.
Looking ahead, he said the 2011/2012 campaign appeared “more promising”, with the sector forecasting a harvest of around 2.3m tonnes.
“We had some frosty nights in some parts of Poland during May, but the Grójec area, where the majority of Polish apple production is concentrated, was not strongly affected,” Poniatowski added.
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