The stone fruit campaign is continuing in the Ionian and Metaponto areas in a year affected by a heavy hailstorm in early May that destroyed almost all of the early production. Various early apricots remained unsold and were left on the trees, but the crisis also seems to affect other varieties. FreshPlaza talked about it with Franco Lillo, technician for OP AssoFruit Italia in Scanzano Jonico (MT).
"Apricot varieties not affected by the abnormal weather and that will be available until August are Flopria, Mediabel, Orange Rubis, Kioto and Farbela. Most orchards are of the Orange Rubis cultivar and harvesting operations started a few days ago."
"Although all these varieties have good grades and an excellent quality, there is a lot of produce available as the high temperatures of the past few days hastened ripening, leading to a drop in prices, currently below €0.50/kg."
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"When it comes to nectarines, quality and grades are not that good and there are shelf-life problems. The abundant rain during the growing and ripening phases had a series of consequences: stones seem atrophied and rotting such as Monilia has appeared, reason for which some growers have decided to leave the produce to rot on trees. We are currently harvesting the Nectaprima and Big Bang varieties. Prices are slightly higher than those of apricots (€0.70/kg)."
"Despite the hailstorm, it seems volumes are abundant and fruits seems to be ripening all at the same time due to the sudden increase in temperature. The 2019 stone fruit campaign remains unstable for various reasons and it looks like it will be even worse than the strawberry campaign just ended."