Croatia Expects About 60,000 Tonnes of Apples as Cold Stores Fill Up

Harvest of about 60,000 tonnes despite the drought

The harvest of autumn apple varieties is under way in Croatia, and the country is expected to produce around 60,000 tonnes despite a long dry period with high temperatures, according to net.hr, reporting from the RTL Danas programme. Apples that do not go straight to market are being placed in cold stores, where controlled conditions preserve freshness and quality.

Storage is the mechanism growers use to time their sales. Fruit is held in refrigerated chambers so it can be sold at the most favourable moment rather than pushed onto the market during the harvest peak, when volumes are highest and the seller's bargaining position is weakest.

Osijek-Baranja centre fills its chambers

The Regional Distribution Centre for Fruit and Vegetables of Osijek-Baranja County is currently taking in this year's apple crop, and its cold stores — described in the report as having a capacity of 3,000 tonnes — will be completely filled. Director Alen Mamić said that since a public call was published on 12 June, the centre has signed contracts covering 3,090 tonnes, above the nominal capacity of 2,910 tonnes. “On one good way of storing goods we managed to increase the capacity of each chamber,” he said.

Quality control starts at the intake gate. “Analysis is carried out, samples stand right at the entrance and our laboratory does the analysis before the fruit is placed in the ULO regime, and the condition of the apple is monitored the whole time — it has the same organoleptic properties as if you had just picked it,” Mamić said. The outcome depends on controlled humidity, oxygen levels and temperature inside the chambers. Ankica Pranjić, head of the centre's operational and technical sector, put the storage temperature at 1.5 degrees and said it is best for fruit to arrive from the orchard as quickly as possible so that it can be cooled without delay.

Apples can remain in the cold store for up to two years. The distribution centre emptied its chambers within a year last season and has now filled them again, an indication that the stored volume cleared through the market inside a single marketing year.

Flat prices, rising costs

Despite general price increases, apple prices at the Osijek market have not changed. “Prices are the same as the previous season; given the rise in costs, from blue diesel and so on and so on, we hope that we will manage to finish the season at least at zero, if nothing else,” said Ivana Šunjić.

Storage in the cold stores costs 10 euro cents per kilogram, or 100 euros per tonne, a level the report attributes to financing from the county, whose stated aim is to help agricultural producers. “What matters to us is to stop the decline in agricultural production, to continue supporting and helping the production of both fruit and vegetables, and the Regional Distribution Centre for Fruit and Vegetables will follow their needs and we will continue to invest in the equipment that is needed,” said Nataša Tramišak, prefect of Osijek-Baranja County.

Processing as the next step

The stated end goal is to launch fruit and vegetable processing. Alongside the sorting and packing of apples, the centre's production plant already makes natural juice, which gives fruit that fails fresh-market grading a second route to revenue.