Greece

 

Despite widespread belief that demand is sluggish, prices of raw materials and final products for peaches in Greece are rising this year.

 

Canned Greek peaches are expected to rise 4.5% this season, the report said.

 

Greek peach production was "significantly lower" than last year, with a total reserves of 375,000 tons. Raw material prices have risen by 4.2% this season and are currently priced at 0.25 euros/kg ($0.29/kg).

 

In early July, the weather changed rapidly from rainy season to high temperature, which led to early harvest of peaches. The average price of peach cans with standard quality specification of 24x1kg last season was 15 euros per box.

 

 

 

China

 

Canned peaches in China have been processed since the end of June, and some of them are in stock in the last season before processing.

 

The April frost affected the harvest of 83 peach varieties. According to estimates in the Food News magazine (IEG Vu), production has fallen by about 40% compared with last year.

 

According to China's agricultural statistics, peach production in China increased from 12 million tons in 2013 to 14.3 million tons in 2016. The vast majority of peaches are sold fresh in the Chinese market. About 1 million tons of raw materials are processed into cans for export.

 

In the past two years, China's export of peach cans has fallen to the level of 2009, while the export of fresh peaches has increased by 75% from 37.3 million tons in 2013 to 65,000 tons in 2014. Since 2014, China's export of fresh peaches has been increasing steadily every year.

 

 

 

Spain

 

Contrary to Greece, the price of raw materials for Spanish peaches is falling, and the price of canned high-quality raw materials for peaches is slightly lower than last year's level.

 

 confirmed that Spain's top quality raw materials for processed peaches cost 0.25-0.27 Euro/kg, compared with last year's price of 0.26-0.28 Euro/kg.

 

This year's peach production is estimated to be the same as last year's, reaching 125,000. 80% of this will be used for canning.

 

 

 

International disputes

 

The introduction of a 10% tariff increase on imports from China by the United States will affect the global trade in canned peaches in the second half of 2018, because half of the peaches in the United States are imported from China.

 

An American buyer said: "We heard from some suppliers, retail chains, that Chinese exporters will not pay tariffs and ask us to confirm prices or cancel delivery... This is a very difficult situation."

 

China is a major supplier of canned peaches in the United States. Last year, the United States imported 54,650 tons of canned peaches from China, worth $69.6 million. Greece is the second largest supplier of canned peaches in the United States.