According to EastFruit, Ukraine kept losing its position in Singapore’s fresh apple market in 2021. As of year-end 2021, Ukraine became 14th among the largest apple exporters to Singapore, having supplied only 42 tonnes – the same as in 2020.

Moreover, among European suppliers, Serbia and Croatia were ahead of Ukraine in terms of apple supplies to Singapore. Notably, Croatia has not previously supplied apples to the Singapore market, and Serbia has increased its exports by 1.5 times in 2021. France and Italy exported the largest volumes of European apples to this country of the ASEAN region – 1.9 and 0.7 thousand tonnes, respectively. Thus, Ukraine was only fifth among the largest European suppliers of apples to Singapore.

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“After a sharp increase in apple imports in 2020, we observed a downward trend in apple supplies to Singapore in 2021, despite the relatively low apple prices in the region. At the same time, all the main apple exporters to the Singapore market, China, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, have reduced their supply volumes. Apple imports from the United States fell most sharply, by 40%,” says Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “Thus, noteworthy is the sharp increase in the supply of apples from Turkey – it increased exports to Singapore by 37% or more than 350 tonnes over the year,” the expert adds.

In total, Singapore imported 40 thousand tonnes of apples in 2021, 45% of which was imported from China, and 35% from New Zealand and South Africa. The share of Ukraine in the supply of apples to Singapore in 2021 was less than 1%.

Сообщение Serbia and Croatia overtook Ukraine in terms of apple exports to Singapore in 2021 появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to EastFruit analysts, Singapore sharply reduced the volume of apple imports in 2021, despite their lower price. Ukraine is not among the suppliers of fresh apples to Singapore for the first time in recent years.

In the first three quarters of 2021, this Asian country imported 27.2 thousand tons of fresh apples – 17% or 5.4 thousand tons less than in the same period in 2020. Imports reduced from all five largest supplying countries: China, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States and France.

Notable is that China which had surplus stocks of apples and offered them at a record low price during the first nine months of 2021 also reduced their exports to Singapore. We published a detailed analysis of the Chinese apple market in 2021 in the article: “Apple market in China: high stocks, low prices, pessimistic expectations“.

In this context, the sharp increase in apple imports to Singapore from Turkey and Italy attracts attention. Turkey managed to increase its apple exports to Singapore by 62%, and Italy by 73%. By the way, we have been paying attention to the Turkish apple phenomenon for quite some time. The situation is different in Italy – producers clearly overestimated the demand for apples in the 2020/21 season and entered the summer season with record apple stocks, which they failed to sell before the start of the new harvest. Therefore, apples of the 2020 harvest are still being sold on the Italian market. Thus, Italian wholesale prices were low, and they actively offered their apples in the markets of Southeast Asia at a competitive price.

We remind you that the new season for apple growers and exporters in Eastern Europe may become much more difficult than the previous ones. We have provided a detailed analysis of the reasons in the article “#Freshapplecrisis“.

Сообщение Singapore sharply reduced apple imports and did not import apples from Ukraine in 2021 появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to EastFruit analysts, Ukraine sharply reduced the export of fruits and vegetables to Singapore in 2020. In particular, apple exports decreased by two and a half times in value terms, blueberry exports fell by almost four times, and walnut exports practically stopped.

If we talk about supply volumes in total from Ukraine to Singapore, then 41 tons of fresh apples were shipped versus 108 tons a year earlier and about 1 ton of fresh blueberries exported versus 6 tons a year earlier. Of note is that Serbia delivered to Singapore in 2020 practically the same volume of apples as Ukraine, however it had not supplied fresh apples to this country previously.

Read also: Horticulture of Ukraine 2020: fruit and vegetable degradation or temporary difficulties?

The main supplier of apples to the Singapore market remains China, which in the 2020 calendar year increased its supply volumes to 46,200 tons. The second place was taken by New Zealand with 8,900 tons, surpassing South Africa, which supplied 7,500 tons of apples to Singapore. The United States came in fourth place having exported 3,900 tons, while France dropped to fifth having reduced apple exports by more than a third to 3,200 tons. Turkey, Malaysia, Italy, Japan, and South Korea are also among the ten largest suppliers of apples to Singapore. Ukraine was only in 16th place among the ranking.

The main suppliers of fresh blueberries to Singapore were the United States with a supply volume of 668,000 tons – an increase of 24% per year. In second place was Chile, which also increased supplies by 27%. The largest increase in supplies was from Peru at nearly three times to 412 tons. In general, blueberry imports to Singapore grew by 20% in 2020. Among the unexpected suppliers of blueberries to this country, we note China with 42 tons, Zimbabwe with 27 tons, and Zambia with 24 tons.

Сообщение Ukraine reduced apple, blueberry, and walnut exports to Singapore in 2020 появились сначала на EastFruit.