November 1 2007, 08:38

Dramatic price decrease for commercial and dessert apples is recorded in Poland

According to information provided by Polish trade sources and the data of the daily price monitoring, conducted on Polish wholesale markets by the experts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, the prices for Polish commercial apple have declined 25-45% during the recent two weeks. In some cases the prices for commercial apples declined even twofold. The price for dessert apple has also declined, although the price drop for apple, as well as for pear, was less significant, just 5-10% in average.

To the experts' opinion, one of the main reasons for the dramatic price decline for commercial apple was the completion of apple concentrate production plans and the purchases of the sufficient volumes of this product by many leading producers of EU-15. The price for Polish concentrate continued increasing - it has just become non-competitive on the market of "old Europe". As a result, Polish apple producers feared to accumulate the stocks of too expensive concentrate. They have sharply reduced the purchased volumes and the purchase price for apples till the level which let them produce concentrate for affordable price.

The same fact also explains the sharply decreased demand of European consumers to apple concentrate from Ukraine: as a result, the prices for this commodity have stabilized and even somewhat decreased. According to Andriy Yarmak, the Head of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, apple concentrate is still purchased for 20-40% higher price in Poland than in Ukraine despite of the dramatically decreased price for commercial apple in Poland. This price correction is probably just temporary; the trend of price growth for commercial apple has started to resume on Polish market during the recent week.

We'd like to remind that in the framework of the fourth international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader" all leading producers and buyers of fruits and vegetables will have a unique opportunity to conduct business negotiations in the format of wholesale-retail center. The largest retail chains of Ukraine and Russia, and also wholesalers of Ukraine, Russia, Poland and other countries will participate in this activity. The other good opportunity to purchase apple concentrate this season is the supplies of Georgian apples. To do that, we recommend importers and exporters to participate in the first international forum and business-tour "Fruits and Vegetables of Caucasus 2007" to be held on the 27th-29th of November 2007 in Tbilisi and Batumi.