Brazil's apple exports to Europe doubled in January to August on a bumper harvest at home.

Shipments rose to 14,940 tonnes from 7,300 tonnes a year earlier and revenue rose 111 per cent to $15.8mn, according to figures published by Correio do Povo and republished by the fruit exporters' association Abrafrutas on 13 October.

The EU–Mercosur trade agreement that growers partly credit did little to help: the European Union's own tariff schedule already let their fruit in duty-free in the months it arrived

"In terms of easier access, we had the removal of import duties, which averaged 10 per cent," said Rafael de Oliveira, vice-president for sales at Agapomi, the apple growers' association of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state.

The bigger factor, he said, was the size of a Brazilian crop that "returned to normal after four years of small harvests".

The interim trade agreement between the EU and the four Mercosur countries has applied provisionally since 1 May. The European Parliament has yet to give its consent, having voted in January to seek an opinion from the EU Court of Justice.

Under the agreement's EU tariff schedule, fresh dessert apples, customs code 0808 10 80, sit in staging category "0/EP". The ad valorem duty, charged as a percentage of value, falls to zero from the first day.

The specific duty, which applies only when fruit is priced below the EU's entry price, a minimum import price, stays.

But the EU's standard duty on those apples is seasonal. For fruit entering at or above the entry price it is 4 per cent from January to March, zero from 1 April to 31 July and 9 per cent from August to December, under the bloc's 2026 Combined Nomenclature, Regulation (EU) 2025/1926.

All 7,259 tonnes of Brazilian apples that reached the EU in the first seven months of this year arrived between April and July, Eurostat figures show. Their average value on arrival, €99 per 100 kg, was well above the entry price of €56.80 per 100 kg in force from April to June.

In every year from 2019 to 2025, at least 85 per cent of Brazil's apple arrivals in the EU fell inside the duty-free window.

The 9 per cent rate, the only one close to Oliveira's figure, applies in months when Brazil, whose harvest runs from January to May, lands little fruit in the EU – never more than 1,195 tonnes a year over that period.

[explore reporter="eu" products="080810" partner="BR" period="monthly" metric="quantity" view="chart" years="2019-2026" title="Brazil's apples reach the EU between April and July" subtitle="EU imports of fresh apples from Brazil by month of arrival, tonnes, 2019 to July 2026 (HS 080810). The EU duty is zero from 1 April to 31 July"]

The timing points the same way: growth was fastest before the deal applied. Brazilian apple exports to the 27 EU countries jumped 203 per cent to 3,220 tonnes in January to April, before the agreement applied, then rose 34 per cent to 4,969 tonnes in May to August, Brazil's Comex Stat export data show.

Over the same May-to-August stretch, shipments to Russia, which the agreement does not cover, rose fivefold to 2,752 tonnes, a bigger gain than the EU's.

[chart slug="brazil-apple-exports-eu-pre-post-may"]

Brazil's arrivals grew as the EU's imports of apples from outside the bloc fell 27 per cent in January to July, to 117,703 tonnes, lifting its share to 6.2 per cent from 2.9 per cent, Eurostat figures show.

The newspaper's "Europe" also includes Russia and the UK.

In January to August, exports to the EU rose 71 per cent to 8,190 tonnes and those to the UK 46 per cent to 2,061 tonnes, while shipments to Russia quadrupled to 4,678 tonnes, adding slightly more tonnage than the whole EU.

Portugal and Ireland took four-fifths of the EU volume; Germany, France and Italy took almost none.

[explore reporter="eu" products="080810" region="non_eu" period="monthly" metric="quantity" view="chart" years="2023-2025" pin="BR" title="EU apple imports from outside the EU, by month, 2023–2025" subtitle="Tonnes by supplier, HS 080810; the EU duty is 9 per cent from August to December"]

Brazil's total apple exports rose 254 per cent to 48,404 tonnes, and the EU's share of them halved to 17 per cent from 35 per cent. India alone took 18,100 tonnes.

"Europe is very demanding on residues. And it is an important market for Brazil, but it is not our main market today," Oliveira said.

A Schio truck carrying stacked wooden apple bins outside the company's packing plant in Vacaria, Rio Grande do Sul

GLUT AT HOME

What drove the shipments was a glut at home. "After two years of very small, weather-hit crops, the 2025/2026 crop is simply the biggest in our history," Moisés Albuquerque, executive director of the Brazilian Association of Apple Producers (ABPM), said in July.

The US Department of Agriculture's office in Brasília puts the 2025/26 harvest at 1.2mn tonnes, up 20 per cent, above ABPM's own forecasts of 1.05mn to 1.15mn tonnes earlier in the year.

Packed Gala, the main variety, averaged R$102.6 (about $20) per 18 kg box at Vacaria, in Rio Grande do Sul, in February to July, down 22.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to HF Brasil/Cepea prices. Producers "received approximately 30 percent less than the prior year", the USDA said in a report on 14 October.

[explore layer="prices" price="ds:61455" pperiod="365d" pto="2026-10-15" title="Gala apple producer price at Vacaria, Brazil" subtitle="Packed Cat 1 large, R$ per 18 kg box, weekly, 2020 to 9 October 2026"]

"We should have exported more, mainly to control prices on the domestic market. But the late harvest and the war in the Middle East limited shipments," Oliveira said.

Albuquerque said in July that competitors had redirected fruit they could no longer sell in the Middle East into Brazil's other markets, and that the conflict "brought important logistical problems, including a shortage of containers, which made shipments difficult".

[chart slug="brazil-apple-exports-eu-destinations"]

"The EU-Mercosur agreement may increase Brazilian apple exports to Europe, but the gain is likely to be limited, since the window when Northern Hemisphere supply runs short is narrow," the USDA report said. "According to Post contacts, the agreement creates an opportunity to export more, but not significantly more. Exports have risen in 2026, largely due to weakened domestic demand."

THE 9 PER CENT WINDOW

The 10 per cent figure has circulated since the deal was signed. A USDA report in February said apples, "currently taxed at 10%, will achieve duty-free status after ten years", and FreshFruitPortal reported in May that "10 years will have to pass before the fruit's 10 percent tariff is eliminated entirely".

In the agreement's schedule, the ten-year staging applies to a separate line: cider apples shipped in bulk between 16 September and 15 December.

Where the agreement can make a difference is in the 9 per cent window. Chile, New Zealand and South Africa landed between a fifth and two-fifths of their EU apple volume in August to December in each of the past three years. Brazil landed 1 per cent in 2023 and 2025, and 14 per cent in 2024.

It shipped 4 tonnes of apples to the EU in September, Comex Stat data show.

Fuji, about 40 per cent of Brazil's crop, can be kept in cold storage for up to 11 months, according to the USDA.

Oliveira said prospects for next year were good "because Europe has a short crop of Gala, our main variety in Brazil", and that the sector aims to double its total export volume next season. The World Apple and Pear Association forecasts the EU's Gala crop down 9 per cent this year.

"We are anxious about the rain forecast for October and November to see what the real size of the Brazilian crop will be," Oliveira said.