Low EU production favours French exports and rising apple prices

French apple exports to the EU have risen sharply in the past seven months due to the dramatic fall in the production of Member States. Apple exports to Germany have doubled this season. Despite a decline in the French crop, French apple exports reached 355,281 tons to all destinations in the first seven months of the 2017-2018 campaign, representing a 2% rise and close to the five-year average.

Rising demand and falling imports are favouring higher prices on the domestic market (+ 12% compared to the previous season). Despite the fall in the French harvest in 2017, sales rose by 7%. Spring frosts meant that the French 2017 apple crop fell by 3% to 1.47 million tons – the lowest level since 2012. The decline in production mainly concerns the South-East regions, which were affected by both freezing temperatures and a summer heat wave. Output in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and PACA fell by 12% and 10% respectively. This fall in production mainly concerned Golden varieties (-18%) and two-colour varieties. The freeze also led to losses in Italy, Germany, Belgium and Poland, resulting in European apple stocks, as of 1 March 2018, being 37% lower than at the same time last year and 33% below the five-year average, according to WAPA