Poland: connections between orange and apple markets

Prices of apples used for processing in Poland, strongly depend on the worldwide citrus market situation. Less oranges means higher prices for Polish apple growers, as apple juice concentrate is used more frequently in case of an orange juice shortage. Such a situation can be seen in the current season. Despite of an 11% bigger apple crop than in the 2005/2006 season, processing apples in Poland (0,10-0,13 €/kg) are over 20% more expensive than a year ago.

The main reason is smaller citrus crop, mainly oranges in the USA – worldwide the main supplier of this product. According to Foreign Agricultural Markets Monitoring Unit in Poland, the orange harvest in the USA in the 2006/2007 season will reach 7,89 million MT, which is about 11% less than last year, including the Florida crop which probably will be 7% smaller (6,08 million MT). It is worth noticing that last year's citrus production in the USA was smaller than average ((9,3 million MT in 2004/05 and 12,9 million MT in 2003/04), because of storm damages. The US grapefruit crop is estimated at 1,232 million MT (1 million MT year ago and 2,165 million MT – two years ago).

According to experts, the total US citrus export in 2006 can be similar to one from 2003. Additionally, in October 2006 the price of frozen concentrated oranges juice (contracts for November) at New York Board of Trade were the highest in last 16 years - 4234 $/MT (2465 $/MT in October 2005).
Source:freshplaza.com