For one Polish apple exporter, Asia seems to be a good bet for expanding their market, says Jan Nowakowski, manager for Polish apple distributor Genesis Fresh: “The apple season has been okay for us, we’re moving volumes as scheduled. This season we’re specifically looking at expansion into new markets in both Asia and Africa. We’re looking at potential buyers in India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Egypt. Demand has been stable, demand from Asia came a little earlier than I expected. They seem to want apples from November, sometimes even October. This year it might also have something to do with markets not supplying them as they normally would, like Italy. From what I hear they has some bad crops, leaving a gap in the market for us. Volumes aren’t too big, but we will see what comes of it.”
Although some exporters seem to be having trouble exporting apples to Egypt, Nowakowski explains that there have been ways to still ship apples to this market. “The Egyptian market does have its challenges, like there is an electronic system and in terms of currency they have to be able to afford the trade. However, we have multiple options of getting our apples to the Egyptian market, even if it means finding a middle-man. Overall if Egypt has demand for our apples, we’ll find a way to get them our apples, regardless.”
Energy prices aren’t supposed to increase significantly from January, according to the Polish government. However, Nowakowski states that he does expect a small increase in the energy costs. “Naturally, the entire continent of Europe is dealing with high energy prices. The Polish government may have stated that prices wouldn’t go up, but they will slightly increase at the very least. I don’t think energy prices will go up dramatically, but we’ll see higher prices for sure. It’s hard to predict what the market will look like in January. In any case, we’ll have to accept that prices for energy are higher and will have to find a way to compensate these costs,” he concludes.
