According to EastFruit, some apple juice concentrate (AJC) factories in Moldova will complete the season of raw material procurement this week. There have been no queues of trucks loaded with apples from the orchard at the gates of enterprises since mid-November. Consequently, the supply is drying out and factories will have to end the season early.
Nevertheless, the volumes of apples processed might end up being record high for the recent years despite a short season.
As factory managers note, in the summer the apple processing companies were working at approximately 50-70% of their capacity, which is a lot for this period of the year. Throughout the fall until mid-November, factories operated at 90-100 percent capacity, working at the maximum efficiency. Taking this into account, by the end of autumn close to 300 thousand tons of apples will be processed, according to the estimates of industry representatives. This is much more than earlier optimistic estimates, once again confirming probability for a rather optimistic apple production estimate for Moldova in 2023.
Higher apple processing volumes were possible thanks to a gradual increase in purchasing prices for industrial apples during the season. In August-September 2023 procurement industrial apple prices were within the range of 2-2.2 lei/kg. In October-November prices increased to 2.3-2.4 lei/kg , which is close to $0.12-0.13/kg, including VAT and costs of delivery to the factory. This is the highest price for the recent six seasons but not a historically record one. The maximum price level for industrial apples in Moldova was achieved In 2017-18, when some factories purchased apples for processing at 4 lei/kg.
High prices for industrial apples in Moldova were a result of a sharp increase in demand for the apple juice concentrate globally, while supply remained limited.
According to fruit processors of Moldova, sometimes local factories receive 20-40 thousand tons of apples during winter-spring period. However, they do not expect this to be the case in the current season at all.
In the recent seven years, the maximum amount of apples processed in Moldova is estimated at 340-360 thousand tons.
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