At the same time, demand from food retailers for European apples is high due to the lack of produce from overseas during the summer months. As a result, the below-average harvest in Europe meets an empty market for dessert apples. There are hardly any surpluses and therefore fewer apples than usual, which are sold to the industry for peeling.

For the market for dried apple pieces, this means that although the costs for packaging and transportation in the country of origin have fallen slightly by around 8%, this is not reflected in the final price. Instead, they can only buffer a small part of the raw material prices (which are up to 35% higher than last year). In addition, the toll increase and higher costs for the disposal of packaging in Germany are leading to higher sales prices.

Industry experts expect prices to remain high until next year's harvest. "The price will hold steady in the coming weeks," says our interviewee. A slight increase is also still possible. Nobody dares to say when or whether prices will fall again in the near future.

As a result, the olive fruit stopped growing earlier than desired and the harvest season started earlier than usual - in the last week of August and the first week of September. A silver lining on the horizon: thanks to the subsequent rainfall at the end of October, the olives that go into oil production once again increased in size and weight. It is not yet possible to say how high this will ultimately be, as it will continue until the end of the year. The situation is different for table olives: Here, the harvest has already been completed and is estimated to be around 430,000 tons. This is the worst harvest level on record.

The price of raw table olives is 50% higher this year (namely €0.40 per kg) than in 2022. Other factors are also influencing the price of olive products: there is a shortage of labor throughout Spain. And: due to the high prices currently being paid for olive oil, producers are weighing up whether to focus more on this production instead of canned goods.

Meanwhile, experts from Egypt are reporting good forecasts for their olive production. It is not yet clear what impact these developments will ultimately have on the prices of olive products. We will stay tuned and continue to report for you.

First a look at Turkey, where the fully hung trees are currently being harvested and the fruit processed. After a trial production at the beginning of November, farmers and producers demanded high prices. However, due to the existing surpluses on the market and the resulting lack of demand and sales, these prices quickly fell again - despite the high inflation in the country.

The price trend in Spain has been similar in recent days: Increased costs for raw materials, sugar (an important ingredient for canned fruit) and labor led to prices 5% above the previous year's level. However, in order to remain competitive on the international market, prices fell rapidly here too.

In China, the harvest also looks promising and producers are well prepared to process the high-quality citrus fruit into canned fruit. This is because they have invested in peeling and cutting machines over the past two years, thereby increasing their production output. What's more, the prices for canned fruit have fallen slightly. However, unlike in Turkey and Spain, insiders in China do not expect prices in the mandarin market to fall too much compared to the previous year. There are many reasons for this. On the one hand, the price of sugar has been high since the coronavirus pandemic and is currently higher than last year. Secondly, there are also various environmental and fire protection costs that producers have to factor in. The exchange rate, which no one can predict, also plays a role.

Conclusion: There is a large supply of mandarins worldwide. Demand is low. Nevertheless, a further fall in prices is unlikely and a renewed rise is more a question of time - in other words, now is a good time to buy mandarins - just as it is for stocking up. Please feel free to contact us.