July 08

July 2008, World Apple Report Highlights

Cap and Trade in Your Future
One of the most popular proposals for combating global warming is the introduction of a cap and trade system to control greenhouse gas emissions. This article explains the basic elements of a cap and trade system. It points out that how the system is implemented could have major implications for many in the fruit production, packing, processing, distribution and marketing system. Decisions on the levels of caps, pollution taxes or trading rules will be highly political. Agriculture in each country needs to be actively involved in the debate about how the cap and trade system is implemented there.

More Dominoes Falling
The hope that the economic slowdown in the United States would not be contagious for its trading partners appears to be fading as a sequence of gloomy economic news has begun to emanate from Europe, Asia and elsewhere. The fact that the slowdown has been accompanied by inflation in food and oil prices has complicated remedial efforts by central banks and governments. Major consumer research groups are already reporting significant shifts in consumer attitudes and behavior as a result of the economic slowdown with lower income consumers being hardest hit. So far, apple sales have been little affected, but that could change in the 2008-09 season.

How Apple Movement is Affected by Shorter Crops
This article examines apple movement out of storage in the United States for the December 1 to March 1 and March 1 to June 1 periods for the six seasons from 2002-03 to 2007-08. The total apple crop in 2007-08 was down about 5 percent from the previous season. In general, movement out of CA storage was higher in the December 1 - March 1 period in 2007-08 than in the previous three seasons, but movement out of regular storage was substantially lower. However, regular storage holdings on June 1, 2008 were almost double those of June 1, 2007. In the Northwest region, the major source of fresh apples, similar patterns of movement were seen with CA movement up substantially in the December 1 - March 1 period, but regular storage movement down. In a year of relatively short apple crops, a larger proportion of apples can be held in CA storage.

Special Statistics
United States: Movement of Apples, Selected Periods, 2002-03 thru 2007-08 Seasons (table).
Northwest U.S.: Movement of Apples, Selected Periods, 2002-03 thru 2007-08 Seasons (table).
EU and U.S. Comparison of Organic Agriculture, 2005 (table).
Selected Countries: Share of Consumer Expenditures Spent on Food, 2004 (chart).

The authoritative guide to the world apple business today.

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