In the cages, the apples of Kastoria remain unused – Producers are at an impasse

This year’s apple production in western Macedonia remains unsettled as traders seem reluctant to buy, while the war in Ukraine, a wave of energy price hikes and Egypt’s ban on certain types of imports due to the IMF have had a serious impact the commercial distribution channels of the product.

In western Macedonia and in the areas of Komnina, Mesovouno, Pyrgoi Milochori and Emporio of the Municipality of Eordaia as well as in the lakeside northeastern zone of Kastoria, approximately 75,000 tons of apples are produced, with the producers being at a standstill.

As the president of the Agricultural Association of Kastoria, Thomas Moschos, reports, the first commercial transactions in early apples “started at 0.16 euros/kg and reached a few days ago in the “Gala” variety at 0.09 euros/kg, when the cultivation cost per variety ranges from 0.25~0.33 euros/kg”.

The area of ​​Kastoria produces approximately 25-30,000 tons of apples – mainly red – with excellent physicochemical properties, due to the microclimate of the lake.

In the area of ​​the municipality of Eordaia and in the apple-producing areas of Pyrgos and Mesovounos, as the president of the Agricultural Association of Eastern Eordaia and Vegoritida Tasos Aivazidis reports, “merchants ask for our products at 0.25 euros/kg or to take them at open prices – for what this means later in paying the producer.’

Growers who used to store their apples in cold storage, aiming for a better price during the winter or for export, are now avoiding it because they don’t know what will happen with electricity prices. Andreas Triantafyllidis, president of the community in Milochori, Eordaia, one of the important apple growers, with its own cold storage and deliberating rooms, explains, speaking to APE-MPE, that he is in a dilemma as to whether he will store his apples, as he did in the past years, since the energy costs are prohibitive for such energy.

Nikos Koutliambas, president of ASEPOP Velventos, one of the country’s successful Cooperatives, says that apart from the war in Ukraine, Egypt, which usually absorbs 67% of Greece’s red apple production, played an important role in the problem of the supply of apples . As he states, “the Egyptians, due to the general instructions of the IMF, have chosen to include the apple in the list of products subject to strong import restrictions, while on the contrary, fruit and food are imported freely”.

The mayor of Ptolemaida, Panagiotis Plakentas, visited, today at noon, the Mesovouno area, where he had a meeting with the producers, in an effort to promote their requests to the government.

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