March 07

March 2007, World Apple Report Highlights

Defining Your Story
Every apple firm needs to define clearly how it wants to be viewed by the public. If it is to win the hearts and pocket-books of consumers and retailers, it needs a favorable story that includes what the overall company stands for, how it conducts its business operations and what kinds of products it places on the market. Its story needs to be compatible with the firm's reality. Few apple companies currently have a strategy for presenting their positive story to the world. However, if they do not do so, others may define it in an unfavorable light.

Measuring International Competitiveness
Each year the World Apple Report develops a competitiveness ranking of 28 major apple producing countries on 22 separate criteria covering production factors, infrastructure and inputs and financial and market factors. Once again, Chile and New Zealand were the overall leaders in first and second place. Countries in the top overall rankings had few competitiveness weaknesses, those in the middle of the pack had weaknesses in several key areas and the laggards tended to be weak across the board. There was a wide gap between countries that were most and least competitive. However, all countries had room for improvement on some aspects of competitiveness.

The Regulatory Threat to Agriculture
This article discusses the handicaps that proliferating regulations impose on agriculture. It reviews a specific survey of California agricultural producers. Of over 1,300 usable responses, 44% classified the regulatory environment in California as either complex or very complex. This response was higher among fruit, grape or berry producers and among larger, more diverse operations. Asked about coping with regulatory complexity, "A staggering 45.2% had considered leaving agriculture, 44.5% had considered reducing operation size and 16.4% had considered moving operations out of California."

Special Statistics
Southern Hemisphere: Production and Fresh Exports of Apples, 2005-2007 (table).
Southern Hemisphere: Production and Fresh Exports of Pears, 2005-2007 (table).
Southern Hemisphere: Production and Exports of Concentrated Apple Juice, 2005-2007 (table).
International Competitiveness Rankings, 2007 (table).
China: Fresh Apple Exports, by Quarter, 1998-2006 (table).

The authoritative guide to the world apple business today.

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