It is a promising start for Pink Lady production season, despite beginning one week later than last year and two weeks later than in 2011/2012. The results of the first eight weeks of the campaign are equivalent to the same period of the previous year (best launch on record) and even 5% better than two years ago, as reported by the Greenmed Journal. The Pink Lady market sustains the momentum in numerous countries, including Scandinavia, Benelux, Ireland, Spain, Eastern Europe and Portugal. Some difficulties affected other markets, such as in France, where overall apple consumption was down 20% in December 2013, and Italy where total apple demand was down 5% in the full year. Finally, in other cases, the harvest conditions, a delayed start to the season, availability of certain sizes of apple and the constant goal of optimising quality, have made it harder to meet demand in many areas, such as the UK, Asia and the Middle East. Given the available volume of marketable Pink Lady apples (115.000 tons, 4,5% more than in 2012/13) and the market dynamics of these first eight weeks, this season should end in the first half of May.
