W18: Apple Update
In W18 in the apple landscape, Karaman is one of Turkey's apple warehouse cities with 12M apple trees and 500KT of apples produced annually. It also has Europe's largest one-piece apple orchard with an area of 6K decares. During the apple harvest season, 13K people go to the gardens to pick apples. WAPA released Apple stock figures for April 1, 2023, showing a 12.6% decrease in Europe and a 5.7% decrease in the USA. In Europe, stocks decreased by 1,904,869T and in the USA by 957,097T. Egypt is one of the key importers of fresh apples, but its trade volume has decreased due to devaluation, rising food prices, and other economic problems. In the first seven months of the 2022/23 season, it imported 110KT of apples, almost half as much as in the same period a year earlier.
The Georgian apple market is struggling due to stable prices in local currency and high wholesale prices from Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland. Georgian importers are experiencing difficulties with sales of high-quality imported apples, and the "Kehura factor" is the main factor that negatively affects the market. The "Kekhury 2023 factor" will force the eradication of the Kekhura apple variety on the market, allowing Georgia to grow and export high-quality and expensive apples to countries with high-quality requirements. Saudi Arabia is a new export market for Bosnia and Herzegovina's apples, allowing the Middle Eastern nation to cover the losses resulting from sanctions against Russia. In the first two months of 2022, apples with a total value of USD 293.2 (EUR 265.3) were exported to Russia.
Iran exported 550KT of apples worth USD 170M in the first 11 months of the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The main importing countries were Pakistan, Iraq, India, Russia, and Afghanistan. Iran produced 4M tons, 7% less than a year earlier due to worsening weather conditions. Iran's apple orchards cover 247Kha, ranking third in the world in terms of orchard area and fourth in apple production. The temporary opening of the Belarusian market compensated for the decrease in exports to Egypt, with Poland shipping 6,241 tons to Belarus, which was twice as much volume before the embargo.
La Niña caused droughts in Latin America, affecting fruit production areas. Chile forecasted a smaller crop of apples, and Brazilian importers are concerned about the available volume of apples for the 2022/23 season. Lastly, in Colombia, the price of Red Delicious apples, Royal Gala, and Granny Smith decreased due to a high entry supply from Chile, particularly in the Corabastos market of Bogota.
