In Belgium the top fruit season is slowly coming to an end. In the Netherlands stocks are slightly bigger. What will the coming season look like? Did the frost in spring have an influence on the flowering period of the apples and pears? Tony Derwael of Bel'export and Kris Wouters of Wouters Fruithandel think so. Tony's opinion is about the whole of Europe and Kris sticks to Belgium. The official estimates for the coming season will only be published by Prognosfruit at the beginning of August.
Tony Derwael, Bel'export
According to Derwael the European top fruit harvest will definitely be disappointing and he was also told this by colleagues from various European countries. "This is mainly because of the frost in spring and the bad fruit setting. I hear from various growers, also from the Netherlands, France and Southern Tyrol, that the harvest will be a lot less this year. This seems to be the case all over Europe. There are areas with a decrease in volume of 10%, but there is also mention of harvest damage up to 50 or 60%. Growers may possibly face a very difficult period."
Kris Wouters, Wouters Fruithandel
Kris Wouters, Wouters Fruithandel
Kris Wouters is of the opinion that with pears it may not be too bad. The harvest will definitely not be 100%, because of the frost important parts of Limburg were damaged. "In the night frost of 1 April about 50% of the flowers were frozen, but even then the harvest may still be reasonably normal. Possibly the pears may be a lot smaller and less Class I may be available, but as far as volume is concerned, the share, I think, will be between 80 and 90% of last year. The damage in Belgium is the result of the spring night frost of 1 April. The winter frost in February caused damage in some cases to young trees. In this case that means the death of a percentage of trees. This, however, plays more of a part in the Netherlands and with tree growers."
"With apples it is already clear that it will be worse," as per the trader. "Then we will probably more go to 60 or 70% of last year's volume. There are even parcels where hardly anything is hanging." Nevertheless the trader is of the opinion that this needs to be said carefully. "About this time of the year it is a recurring phenomenon, that there are complaints about the new harvest, which will be smaller. Looking back it very often is not all that bad."
Wouters even expects, that the production of pears and then especially Conference will increase in the coming years. "More has been planted and I think that the volume will increase all the time. Many traders will therefore look for new sales markets, but that is not easy." A pear with a 'rust coloured peel' is generally not very popular and countries really need to become aware of these. But we must start looking for new markets, because this season we have learned that there were too many pears to be able to make a proper price."