Apricot growers are in the middle of a rush. It is the peak season: the fruits are ripe and available in large quantities.
It has been about two weeks since the apricot harvest began in the Eastern Pyrenees. Harvesting often begins at 6:30 a. m.: "We try to pick in the morning, but sometimes we can't. When the fruits are ripe, they cannot be left on the tree. At the moment, we work all day long," explains Laurent De Battisti, a producer in Salses-le-Château where he owns 13 hectares of apricot trees.
To help him in his task, thirteen seasonal workers make round trips between the trees and the apricot boxes. "I don't know how many round trips I've made, it's like at the factory, we don't count," says one of them. A system that requires a great sense of organization, as Delphine testifies: "My role is to sort, I remove those who are stained so that when they arrive in the cooperative it is clean and the boxes are beautiful. Seasonal workers sometimes arrive in pairs or threes at the same time, so it's a panic, but we're fine. Everything must be close by, the crates, the pallets, so that when they unload the bags, they don't wait and go back immediately to the tree.
This year, we noticed that some orchards had produced less than last year: "the apricot needs cold to flower but we had a mild winter, I think we will have 25% less than last year", explains Laurent De Battisti. However, this does not mean that the rate will decrease in the coming weeks because the red apricots of Roussillon are expected just after.
Source: www.francebleu.fr
