Kazakh importers forced to look for alternative to expensive Polish apple
Staff Writer |
The rise in prices for apples in the second half of the season in 2017/18 had a negative impact on the volume of their consumption in Kazakhstan. Imports of apples to this country in January-May 2018 also fell by 21%, according to EastFruit analysts.
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These trends forced Kazakh importers to look for an alternative to an expensive Polish apple, whose import volumes fell by 44% to 33 thousand tons in the reporting period. An affordable alternative was an apple from Iran. If earlier Kazakhstan almost did not buy an Iranian apple, then for the first five months of 2018, it imported 9.5 thousand tons of this product.
The supply of apple from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan also increased. Thanks to the development of the infrastructure for storing apples in Uzbekistan and expanding the area of apple orchards, this country began to actively export apple to Kazakhstan in the winter-spring period. And although the volume of supplies remained insignificant - only about 1,3 thousand tons for the first five months of the calendar year, the positive trend was indicative.
China also took advantage of the situation with the high cost of apple in Poland, increasing the supply of its products to Kazakhstan and bringing the volume to a record 12 thousand tons in the reporting period. For the entire 2017 calendar year, China supplied 21,1 thousand tons of apple to Kazakhstan, becoming the second largest after Poland supplier of fresh apples to this market.
According to EastFruit forecasts, in the 2018-19 season, Uzbekistan will further increase its presence in the Kazakhstan market, bringing the supply to 8-10 thousand tons.
It is expected that the export of apples from Poland will also recover, as in 2018 the country will harvest a record apple harvest, which, according to some estimates, can reach 5 million tons. This means that up to 100 thousand tons of products can be imported from Poland in the reporting season. It is also not a secret that part of the Polish products will not be consumed in Kazakhstan, but will be on the Russian market. ■