The new fruit season is in progress: the arrival of the Williams pear, the most common variety in the region, has accelerated and the fruit is reaching its optimum ripeness. However, producers have only started harvesting the fruit in some fields of the Middle Valley.
Yesterday the harvest of this variety started in the Middle Valley and in Rio Colorado. Producers from the Upper Valley could start the harvest from Saturday, but according to estimates the harvest will gain strength by mid-month.
The lack of size is crucial. There also is a notable decline in the production of pears that will strongly mark this campaign.
Even though this is the second consecutive year that the provincial government hasn't made an official production forecast, which it used to do with other public and private institutions, internal surveys in the activity warn that the decline could reach 50%. This would place the volume of pears in the order of 400,000 tons.
Rio Negro's Secretary of Fruit Production, Alberto Diomedi, said the government had been unable to produce the report that predicts the harvest volume because the farms that they traditional sampled for the report had succumbed to the crisis.
"The report wasn't done in 2015 because of the crisis, and in 2016 it was impossible to do it as the small farms we used to base it on were no longer operational," the official said, describing a worrying picture. "The samples and follow-ups were taken from 150 traditional farms throughout the region, but 52 of those farms disappeared last year, and then due to the frost and other conditions, another 60 were rendered useless. Thus, it was impossible to do the forecast," he said.
The last report was made for the 2014/2015 season and it forecasted the region would produce an approximate 1.5 million tons of apples and pears, which is the valley's average production volume. According to Diomedi, apples production would be similar to the previous campaigns, but producers expect there will be a decline in the production of pears. Production has been decreasing for several seasons due to climatic contingencies, a decrease in the productive area, and the sector's crisis, which has even affected the realization of cultural work.
"There's a lot of defective fruit damaged by the frost. We know that the pear harvest will be much lower. We estimate that the total volume may reach 400,000 tons, when the usual volume is 700,000 or 800,000 tons. Apple production will amount to those numbers," said the Secretary of Fruit Production. He also said the fruit's quality would be very important this season. "We believe there will be many discards," he added.
This season has been atypical. Flowering was 5 to 10 days ahead of schedule because of weather conditions. "Regarding prices, the world trend is still good. The problem is that we can't be competitive because of our internal costs."
Next week the results of a study by the UNC, INTA, and other agencies on the cost of production will be published.
Source: rionegro.com.ar