Eve Kuldre, the manager of Paide Maksimarket, says that currently, the store only has foreign apples. "There are no Estonian apples, the last ones were in December. Now there are Polish and Italian apples," says Kuldre.
Kuldre explains that price is important. "If an Estonian apple costs €4.99 per kilo and a Polish apple costs 99 cents, then customers choose the cheaper one," she says.
The Halika apple farm in Põlvamaa sells Estonian apples. They have them until March. Apple grower Lauri Kasvand says that the weather affects the price. "The last summers have been bad. Rain and lack of sunshine make the work difficult," he says.
Kasvand says that the grower gets less than half of the store price. "The rest of the money goes to taxes, transportation, and the store," he explains.
Kasvand believes that the state should help. "There is a lot of manual labor in horticulture. Technology would help speed up the work. But we don't have the money to buy it," he says.
"If we want Estonian apples to be cheaper in stores, we need to support horticulture," adds Kasvand.