Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Half of Russian apple crop goes for processing
More than a half of the Russian apple crop is processed. According to Fruit-Inform, in the past 2 years, Russian enterprises annually processed no less than 700,000-750,000 tonnes of apples. Moreover, over the past 4 years, apple processing volumes have grown by 35% that is an indication of higher apple juice consumption in the Russian Federation.
An increase in consumption is also confirmed by an upward trend in apple juice concentrate (AJC) imports and simultaneous negative performance in AJC exports. For example, in 2008, Russia imported only 67,000 tonnes of AJC, and Russian enterprises processed 500,000 tonnes of apples. In 2011, Russia's AJC imports grew to 94,000 tonnes, while apple processing volumes increased to 750,000 tonnes. As regards Russian AJC exports, they fell 1.5 times in the past 4 years.
In 2012/13, thanks to good apple production and relatively high prices in the country, Russian enterprises are expected to process 855,000 tonnes of apples.