According to Polish fruit growers, "the smaller harvest, estimated at about 60% of last year's, will likely result in this season being much better for the sector," said Jacek Skoneczny, vice president of the "Unia Owocowa" Association and President of the European Fruit Center.
However, we shouldn't forget that the apple production will still amount to 3-3.5 million tons, with about half of that going to the processing industry and the remaining 1.5-1.8 million tons intended for fresh marketing. The country consumes about 800 thousand tons per year, so we will still need to deal with a surplus of around 700 thousand tons. Thus, we will have to intensively promote our products and make sure that they are exported," said the vice president of the "Unia Owocowa" Association.
In the 2018 season, Polish fruit exports to new markets increased very dynamically. This was linked to the export of goods through producer groups and the intensive promotion of Polish products abroad. Polish apples took over Egypt (65,000 tons exported in 2018), and consumers from India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are going to get to know more and more about Polish fruit. "We must work on increasing the volume of exports to these countries, as well as opening new ones, like Thailand, Indonesia, and Taiwan. We must remember that we are facing huge competition in these distant markets, where other European countries like France, Italy, Serbia or Ukraine also want to ship their fruit," said Paulina Kopeć, Secretary General of the "Unia Owocowa" Association.
The Association's experts stress the importance of keeping extensive foreign contacts in the sale of fruit products. Currently, 'Unia Owocowa', together with the Union of Polish Fruit Growers, is implementing an information and promotion campaign on the United Arab Emirates market. The "Unia Owocowa" Association is a place where we can meet and tackle problems together; it is an organization that allows us to keep in touch with other similar organizations in Europe and in the world," said Kopeć.
