The ongoing apple crop for 2022/23 for was initially estimated by WAPA at a volume very similar to the preceding crop. Since the month of August 2022, however, several Member States registered additional drought and heatwave events that will result on smaller fruit sizes and, therefore, lower volumes.
In the case of Poland, the Member State with the largest volume, the need for adapting production to what is marketable, this is structural adjustments, has been confirmed once more. There are several provisional sources of information about the size of this crop; they point to a possible final estimate could be smaller than anticipated due mainly to labor shortages among other factors.
The volume of Polish stocks on 1 July 2022, a part of which were transferred to the ongoing marketing year, was 518 930 tons. The surplus of these stocks on that date compared to the reference 5 year average represented just over 1% over the size of the crop.
The sector faces temporarily several challenges:
- Rising input costs (especially energy and other farm inputs)
- High costs on transportation
- Labor shortage (especially for harvesting).
Source - https://www.freshplaza.com
