Polish apple producers are expecting an increase in apple volumes this year compared with the 2010/11 season, despite the country’s key apple growing region receiving almost a year’s worth of rain during the last three weeks.
Speaking to Eurofruit Magazine, Dominik Wozniak from leading Polish apple cooperative Rajpol said that Poland’s apple sector was forecasting a rise in production to between 2.2m and 2.3m tonnes this season from under 2m tonnes last year.
In the case of Rapol itself, Wozniak said the 100-strong group, which is primarily based around the central apple-producing region of Grójec, was anticipating a crop of around 25,000 tonnes compared with the previous year’s 17,000 tonnes.
However, continual, heavy rains in central Poland over recent weeks may result in quality problems for much of the crop, with water-logged orchards making spraying difficult.
“In the last three weeks, we have had a year’s worth of rain and that will not be good for quality,” said Wozniak.
Although the Gala crop is expected to deliver normal sizes, the rains have particularly affected the Ligol and Jonagold varieties, leading to larger-than-average fruit sizes, meaning that some of the crop may be unsuitable for many markets.
For this reason, Wozniak says his company will be aiming to export greater volumes to Russia and some areas of Scandinavia where larger sizes are favoured, rather than western European markets, such as the UK, where smaller fruit is preferred.
As with Rajpol, Marcin Stasiak from fellow cooperative Sun Sad is also predicting an increase in production, from 12,000 tonnes a year ago to around 17,000 tonnes this season.
However, he admitted that it was “difficult to predict what lies ahead” in terms of the climate and whether further rains could affect harvesting, which is scheduled to begin in three weeks’ time.
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