“Fruit growers nowadays talk of only a few things: dry weather, rain and harvest,” says Kris Wouters of Woutersfruit. “Not every grower is capable of irrigating, and this can be seen in the expected amounts of top fruit. Growers who can irrigate are also affected by the weather, because many leaves on the trees have been burned by sunshine. Fewer leaves influences the size of the fruit, but not quality. As a result of the dry weather, flavour and sugar contents are exceptionally good this year, but that’s the only thing positive in this situation.”
When it starts to rain at the end of this week, it will be too late for a lot of fruit. “We naturally want rain very badly, but pears have already stopped growing in the driest places. Rain could make up for part of the damages, but not for all of it.” The weather didn’t have much influence on the colouring of the pears. Some pears are a bit more yellow, but Conference is green and sunshine doesn’t affect that much. For Gala and Elstar apples it’s a bit more difficult regarding colouring, because these are picked in three weeks.
“We don’t yet know when Conference pears are officially released, but that date will be around 15 August. The harvest is earlier than normally because of the weather. The period from flowering to picking is ten days shorter than in previous years,” Kris says. “Apple stocks have been empty for some months now, and pears emptied a few weeks ago. The new harvest will arrive on a completely empty market. Good prices are expected for good-sized fruit as well. For the small fruit available in large volumes it will become difficult regarding pricing. Yet growers aren’t worrying about prices at all now. They’re only concerned with one thing right now, and that’s the dry weather.”
For more information:
Kris Wouters
Woutersfruit
Kasteellaan 21
3454 Rummen
+32(0)475283696