Apples tend to be apples, but juicers are pessimistic: what prices do they promise?

According to Vitalija Kuliešienė, president of the Commercial Gardens Fruit and Berry Association, this year’s apple harvest will not be record, but it will be better than last year. However, it will not be enough to fill the entire Lithuanian market.

“Last year was a disaster, not a season, only 20% of Lithuanian apples. Market. This year’s harvest is average, not the highest, but the quality is better than last year. There will be apples, but they will not be enough, because they are still not enough for Lithuanians to fill the market, although even in the best years, a large part is still imported from Poland, ”V. Kuliešienė told BNS.

She says that the purchase price of apples for processing will undoubtedly increase this year and could reach around 0.20 euros, up from 0.06 euros last year. At that time, the price of table apples should remain at a similar level to last year.

“For apple processing, the price of concentrated juice is expected to be expensive this year, because the yield is much lower in Poland, but not the best in our country either,” said V. Kuliešienė.

Juicing season is later this year.

Although there will be more apples this year than last year, the juicers say they don’t have much work to do yet. According to them, the apple season is delayed, so the juice pressure peak should start at the end of September.

Laimonas Lopata, the head of the Savos Sultys network, which has ten printers in Lithuania and four in Latvia, says that the season starts very slowly, some printers have not even started working yet.

“Everything is late this year, and potatoes are late, and strawberries, the same apples, are at least two weeks late. Last year we started work on August 14, so we are not working in some places this year, we will start this Saturday, “he told BNS.

He says that prices for services should not go up.

“Prices have remained the same, nobody here has raised or lowered them. The competition is high, there is not much room to raise those prices, ”said L. Lopata.

Danutė Norbutienė, director of the Sultė juice press, located in the Šilalė district, says the press has worked twice so far and customers are still waiting.

“So far we have only worked twice a week, there are not as many who want. In Samogitia, maybe the apples will ripen later, I don’t know. But the harvest, we think, will be more, because in six years, no matter how hard we work, last year was the lowest. We look forward to more this year. There were few summer apples, so we don’t have that influx, but we are waiting for the autumn ones, ”D. Norbutienė told BNS.

She says she fears the coronavirus pandemic could affect customer flow as well.

“We also don’t know about Covid-19 this year. Maybe people will be more careful, maybe they won’t drive. People can save, now this situation is not clear, we don’t know what the reaction of the people will be,” he said.

According to juice presses, about 90 percent. the juice is squeezed from the apples, but this year more pears have been crushed, so the juice from them has also increased.