Browse Data and Analysis

Already reeling from high fruit prices, Korean consumers will face another year of expensive, lower-quality apples. Korea’s apple production for marketing year (MY) 2023/24 fell 25 percent year-on-year after orchards suffered a series of adverse weather events in 2023.

The combination of drought, water irrigation limitations and abnormally high temperatures during flowering and fruit-setting phases have limited the EU’s citrus production potential in MY 2023/24, which is projected to stay at similar levels as the also short MY 2022/23 crop.

Ample opportunities exist for U.S. agricultural exports to South Korea. Highlighted in the chart above, U.S. agricultural product exports were a record $9.5 billion in 2022, up 2 percent from 2021. South Korea is the sixth largest export market for the United States, thanks in part to a successful free trade agreement (KORUS) between the two countries and a robust demand for high-quality U.S. food products.

World peach and nectarine1 production has seen significant growth in the past decade, rising more than 20 percent from 19.6 million tons to 24.2 million in 2022/23.

Korean fresh pear production is expected to decrease 20 percent in Marketing Year (MY) 2023/24 as adverse weather events struck orchards throughout spring flowering and into the summer. Supplies of high-quality pears are expected to be below average because of high rates of damaged fruit.

EU commercial apple production in Marketing Year (MY) 2023/24 is forecast at 11.5 MMT, a decrease of 2.45% compared to the previous year.

Dutch apple production is expected to be down by 12 percent while the pear harvest will increase by an estimated three percent. Unfavorable growing conditions in the beginning of the growing season resulted in lower yields for apples.

On August 2-4, 2023, the World Apple and Pear Association (WAPA) presented the 2023 EU apple and pear crop forecast at the 48th edition of the Prognosfruit convention.

In MY 2023/24, EU production of peaches and nectarines is estimated to amount to 3.6 million MT while cherry production is anticipated to amount to 657,435 MT.

The total cherry production forecast in Türkiye in Marketing Year (MY) 2023/24 is 900,000 metric tons (MT), which is 8 percent higher than MY 2022/23, due to favorable weather and soil conditions.

Germany is the third-largest importer of cherries in the world after China/Hong Kong and Russia. From 2010 to 2022, between 52 and 77 percent of the cherries consumed in Germany were imported, with the majority of imports originating in other EU member states.

The Spanish strawberry sector is robust, with production mainly destined for the domestic market, the EU, and UK. Other berry production, especially blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, has become an alternative in recent years to strawberry production as a value-added crop for Spanish farmers.