Is this year’s apple harvest in France too good? Paradoxically, it is the good quality of the fruits collected in the orchards at the beginning of the school year that partly explains the current difficulties of compote manufacturers and, ultimately, could cause an increase in prices on the shelves.
In France, fruit growers send their apples first to cool, while the rest, i.e. the less “pretty” and smaller apples, are sold to manufacturers who mainly make compotes with them.
“Every year, about 20% of the volume of apples made in France transforms on average,” indicates Adrien Mary, general delegate of the fruit group of the Federation of Canned Industries (FIAC). “This year, we are around 15%,” concedes Pierre Venteau, director of the National Association of The Apple and Pear Association representing fruit producers.
But that’s not all, since the fruit is also sold more expensive to manufacturers.
An increase that Pierre Venteau confirms: “They reflect the prices we need in the orchard to find economic balance and be able to continue our economic activity,” he emphasizes.
Costs increase by 20% among producers
“If prices increased by 100% compared to last year, they only increased by 25 or 30% compared to the smoothed average price of the last four or five years,” explains Pierre Venteau. And this is explained by the exceptionally low prices of 2022.
“We had an influx of apples in our oldest region, Provence, which had suffered from the heat on the trees,” explains Pierre Venteau. “This generated important conservation problems and generated a very important volume for the processed fruit industry,” he explains. he continues.
This year, manufacturers have not only not benefited from the same influx, but they are also paying the price of increased production costs for horticulturists. According to Pierre Venteau, producing an apple currently costs 20% more than last year. He points to “the increase in the price of diesel, fertilizers and a 10% increase in labor costs.”
An increase that will be reflected
Like manufacturers, who are seeing cost increases across all of their inputs, they will likely need to inflate their own selling prices.
“The sector is doing everything possible to contain inflation,” says Adrien Mary. But, a few weeks before the commercial negotiations with distribution players, which the Government has proposed to limit inflation, she admits that it will be “complicated to avoid an increase in prices on the shelves.”
As for the possibility of sourcing beyond French borders, it unfortunately offers few prospects for compote manufacturers. The culprit: citrus, whose low production this year has caused a postponement in the demand for concentrated apple juice.
Source: BFM TV
