Slight drop in European apple harvest

The EU’s 2020/21 apple crop is estimated to drop by 2%, according to USDA data, due to a combination of late spring frosts (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary), alternate bearing (France, Spain, Portugal), poor pollination (Hungary), drought/heat (Belgium, Austria, Poland, UK), and hail damage (Hungary, Romania). Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Greece reported a partial rebound from the very low production of 2019/20, but the combined increase was not large enough to compensate for the reduction elsewhere.  Market prospects are good as beginnings stocks were very low both for fresh apples as well as for apple juice and concentrated apples. The latter is important as the processing sector absorbs significant amounts of lower quality apples.