After consulting with the cooperatives in the sector, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Castilla-La Mancha has estimated that the production of apricots in the region in 2023 would decrease by 65% over the previous year.
According to Jose Carlos Blazquez, the sectoral spokesman of stone fruits, the persistent rains of the last 15 days have “had dire consequences for the apricot productions that were being harvested or that were about to be harvested, causing them all sorts of issues, such as cracking, making it impossible for producers to enter the plots, knocking down fruit, etc.”
After this episode of persistent rains, and after consulting with the cooperatives of the sector, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Castilla-La Mancha forecasts that in 2023 the region will produce 26% more stone fruit (peach, Paraguayan, Pavia, nectarine, apricot, and plum) than in the previous year.
According to forecasts, almost all stone fruits will increase their production compared to last season, with the exception of apricot, as its production will be even lower than the already small harvest of 2022.
It's a bad forecast for the apricot campaign, which is hard for a sector that had a bad year last year due to the important frosts that affected production at the beginning of April 2022.
Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias is confident that the fruits will enter the markets smoothly and with balanced quotes that allow compensation for the increases in production costs (inputs, labor) affecting farmers and their cooperatives. The sector also expects summer temperatures to arrive soon and remain constant in the main sources of consumption in Europe, as the warm weather favors the consumption of summer fruit.
Source: agrodiario.com