Global apple juice production in 2003/04 reflects a projected record production in China, the worlds top producer. Small production increases in Argentina, Chile, Italy, Poland, and Spain are helping to bolster the world trend by offsetting declines in Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. The United States is expected to have another year of declining apple juice production, down 6 percent from 2002/2003.
http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/horticulture/Apple%20Juice/Apple%20Juice%20Feature%20May%202004.pdf#search='apple%20juice%20concentrate%20production'
2003/04 reflects a projected record production in ChinaAnd they dump a lot of it on our markets as sweetener. It really hurts our grape industry.
Raisin Industry Relief
Three years ago several factors converged simultaneously on the California raisin market.
- Apple juice from China and Argentina were dumped on the domestic market displacing grape juice as a commercial sweetener. Production from 20,000 California raisin grape acres became surplus.
- Recent plantings in Turkey matured and provided lower cost competition in the European market. Production from 15,000 California raisin grape acres became surplus.
- Major wineries overestimated the rate of growth in the market, offering rural land owners attractive contracts to plant wine grape varietals. Over planting of wine grape varietals along the California Coast and in Oregon brought an oversupply of more than 25,000 acres to the domestic market displacing the Thompson Raisin variety.
- The total surplus from these three issues equal 60,000 acres (150,000 tons) and is the basis for the problems.
- The oversight organizations for the raisin industry were slow to react to these severe threats after a long string of years in which supply and demand were in balance. A full growing season and one half of another passed before raisin growers took action to reinvigorate these organizations and develop a program to bring a balance to supply and demand.