Canned Peach Struggles

Peaches have been in short supply this season with various contributing factors affecting the market. We source our Ambrosia sliced and diced peaches in juice and light syrup from Greece, Spain and China, some of which are experiencing issues that are impacting the crop and pricing. 

Greece

• Peach trees in Greece experienced severe frost during the flowering season in April.  At this time, it was anticipated that the supply was going to go down by 40%. However, as the harvest started, the situation seemed to be worse than anticipated, with supply being down about 60%.   As a result, canneries are being very cautious and quoting at extremely high prices that are subject to final availability, as they are not sure that they will have enough peaches to cover last year’s quantities.

Spain

• The peach yield from Spain is estimated to be similar to the previous year. They have started their canning operations with no carry over from last year and costs are subject to go up due to the peach shortage from Greece. In addition, exports outside the EU will likely be kept to a bare minimum, as yields are only adequate enough for the EU and their industry’s  local canning demands.

China

• The Chinese peach yield will be reduced significantly this season due to loss of planting area during last year’s flood. As a result, the price of raw material has already gone up by at least 50%. This, combined with very low carry over, an increase in Chinese domestic consumption, the astronomical cost in ocean freight and overhead, the landed cost of product to the USA could nearly double when compared to the same time last year.