There’s a lot of uncertainty about the Greek apple harvest. The demand is not high and the apples kept in cold rooms might remain unloved this year According to Matoula Katsika who is the Sales and marketing manager at Greek Exporter of fruit A.C. Kissavos: “Over the last few months it appears that the Greek apple harvest hasn’t really seen any significant changes. Demand is down but the market is not as keen and there’s a large amount of apples in cold rooms we’re not able to sell. As time goes by, there’s some doubt circling us.”

According to Katsika the report, there’s plenty of competition even on the Greek local market. Because consumers have less money than they can spend on their purchases, they will tend to choose the most affordable choices. “In the Greek market, we observe increased imports of fruit and vegetables, but at the at the same time European items are not used or offered at prices that are lower than price. Furthermore, the effect of the inflationary pressure on households’ incomes have slowed consumption of consumers. Consumers now favor products with poor quality simply because they’re less expensive.”

The prices they offer aren’t competitive with the price of competitors and the Greek exporter and producer has higher cost of inputs than imports, Katsika explains: “The costs are acceptable however there’s no demand. Problems are centered around consumption. There are also large exports of apples that eat up those on the Greek market. Our costs are increased through an integrated approach to management of protection for plants, while imports of products from countries that are not a member of the EU do not follow the fundamental rules regarding plant protection. They are not in compliance with rules that are imposed by the European Union.”

There are many reasons behind the lack of success, Katsika states. “There are definitely still around 30% of our apple, and it isn’t going to be sold. We should not forget that the harvest last year of apples in Greece was already extremely diminished. The global apple recession occurs due to the conflict in Ukraine and the current economic condition of Egypt as one of the countries that took in huge volumes, more than 60% of our fruit for long, as well as the increase in the rate of recession that occurred with the outbreak of military conflict in Israel. The war in Ukraine forced transportation routes to be changed and caused prolonged delays in delivery of the containers.”

“We believe that this chaos will be resolved quickly and that things can be remediated. The cherry harvest has already begun. new season of harvesting cherries however, the process is not without its bumps and downs. In the spirit of Kissavos does, we are doing everything we can to maintain the highest quality of our product and to maintain our standing in the market for us to be able to offer greater export opportunities,” Katsika concludes.

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Matoula Katsika

A.C Kissavos

Tel: +30 24940 22261

Email: kissavosagiassales@gmail.com

https://kissavosgroup.gr