The apple market - France

"An apple every morning keeps the doctor away"... Like this famous adage, apples are widely recognized as one of the healthiest foods and a staple of our diet. Available all year round, and consumed both as fresh fruit - in this case table apples - and processed in a wide variety of forms, apples are the most widely consumed fruit in French households, as well as in Chinese and Korean ones. The apple market includes many varieties, such as Golden, Gala, Pink Lady and Granny Smith. It caters for all budgets, with entry-level apples as well as "top-of-the-range" apples, notably those with PDO or PGI certification. Worldwide, the apple market is exponential, boosted by the frequent appearance of new producing countries. Indeed, world production increased by 115% between 1985 and 2020. China is the world's leading producer, accounting for half of global apple production with a 49% market share, most of which is destined for its domestic market. To a much lesser extent, it is followed by the United States and Turkey. French production and exports, meanwhile, haveplummeted since the 1990s, having almost halved. France is less and less competitive and concentrates its production on "top-of-the-range" products, prompting many producers to convert to organic farming. Nevertheless, France is importing more and more, supporting the apple processing industry, a market that is itself growing rapidly.