Polish apples are flying out the door faster than they did last year, says Aniruddh Ramesh, director of Polish apple exporter LVMG Grupa. That doesn’t mean the trader is going to run out of apples faster this season though. “From the harvest time onwards, we have sent comparatively more fruits than last year due to a bigger crop and as well as good demand for our brands from the global export market. For sure, the situation of containers and global shipping is much better than what it was at this time last year. In beginning of the season we purchased a lot of good fruits straight from the tree and stored them in our CA’s. This means that we have a consistently good supply to provide to our customers’ demand for high quality fruits.”
Demand for Polish apples is high in the Asian market, but according to Ramesh the demand in Egypt has slowed down due to their current FOREX payment policies: “When looking at the varieties that are most popular, we see that Royal Gala, mainly all the stripped varieties of Royal Gala, is doing really well. The same can be said for Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Red Jonaprince. We observed a good increase in demand for Polish high quality fruits in the Asian market, but at the same time the sales to Middle-East and Africa, Egypt particularly, has slowed down. However, the Asian market has more or less been stable ever from the start of the season.”
With Christmas coming up, the trade for some Polish apple exporters will slow down significantly. Not for LVMG though, Ramesh explains. “Without a doubt the high storing cost affects the prices of fruits and pushes it up further. The Government’s decision on freezing the rate is a slight relief when compared to energy rates prior. Luckily Royal Gala is in good demand, so we can ship it fast. The demand for fruits during Christmas time is solid for us. Our current main export market is India, Middle East and the Far East, where sales are not impacted by the fact that it’s Christmas time. In fact, we’re overbooked with orders right before the Christmas break. We’re expecting an increase in sales in the coming months as we will start opening CA’s with other varieties as well.”
