“The Blue Whale group, like all other apple and pear producers in France, was not spared by the successive frost episodes in the spring. Like everywhere else, the efforts to fight the frost were colossal with some producers fighting for more than 15 nights.
Our harvest predictions reveal significant disparities within the group between the producers that were not able to fight against the unexpected cold weather, and the producers who desperately deployed all their energy to save their production at all costs. Those who had access to water were definitely able to protect their orchards relatively well, except maybe in some areas of the Alps where the extremely low temperatures reaching -8/-10°C severely compromised the harvests.
A positive element amidst the unprecedented situation: the notable massive return of the fruit after a low 2020 production. This exceptional productivity can be observed today in the protected orchards where the departure load and late flowering give hope for a good harvest in terms of volumes. We are getting ready for a similar harvest as in 2020, which for us was an average harvest, especially with the rotation in the southwest. For the Gala and Fuji varieties, the large volumes should make it a normal harvest. For the Pink Lady®, on the other hand, we observe a significant loss of more than 20%.
Our organic production will increase by 20%. The same goes for the new varieties such as Blue Reine®, Candine®, Rockit® and Envy®, thanks to the planting pace of the Blue Whale producers and the new orchards entering in production.
We are confident that we will be able to accommodate our clients throughout the campaign, but we must ask them to help us promote the fruit affected by the frost. We are indeed worried about the impact on calibers, especially because of the cold temperatures in May, and about the misshapen, russetted fruit, even with frost rings sometimes.
Finally, for the apples, there are decent volumes of acceptable fruit, as a result of the investments over several years from the Blue Whale producers to protect their orchards, as well as the fact that our production areas are spread over historical land for apple production.
Our pear production, on the other hand, will be significantly reduced, with a total of approximately 4,000 tons. Our production basin in the Alps was severely affected, and so were the Williams productions in the other regions.
For the upcoming marketing season, we are really counting on our customers to help us get the best out of the quality of our upcoming harvests, in the interest of all the producers of the group. We are ready to do everything possible in order to better support them in their needs throughout the campaign.”
For more information:
Christophe Belloc
Producer and President of Blue Whale
Blue Whale
Phone: 05 63 21 56 56
https://www.blue-whale.com/fr
