Warm winter and hail reduce French apricot harvest

The French stonefruit harvest suffered badly due to the weather conditions, according to Theo Kampschoer of Kampexport. “Because of the warm winter, the early apricot trees from Languedoc blossomed first, after which many flowers fell. Besides, the trees did not have the necessary winter rest due to the lack of cold hours. This results in 50 per cent of the regular harvest. Sizes are mostly in 4A and 3A, and only few apricots of size 2A are available.”

“In the Rhône Valley we expect a harvest of 30 per cent at the most of the main strain Bergeron because of the hail. Customers who want to supply punnets of 10 by 1 kilogram, will have to accept that it is product Class II with light hail damages, because apricots that have suffered much damage are sorted out,” Kampschoer explains. “There will always be companies that are luckier because they have their entire harvest under hail netting and who will have regular harvests. Even more so if they lit candles on the weekends of sudden frosts, even though that costs about 5,000 Euro per hectare.” 

“French apricots are mostly staying in France at the moment. A good export market exists for high quality of the more luxurious types for smaller retailers or the better market trade on German, Swiss and British markets, but we do not yet have the volume to supply large customers,” Kampschoers says. “Currently prices for the best, red strains are between 3 and 4 Euro per kilograms. The yellow and orange apricots are at a level between 2.20 and 2.50 Euro.”

“Like every year we have competition from Spanish apricots once again. The quality of the first Spanish apricots was not great and that was tricky for us. When rejected batches enter the market, the prices decrease,” Kampschoer continues. “All in all it is another difficult season.”

“With peaches and nectarines we will start the first good strains at the end of week 24. That is two weeks later than last season, but quality and brix levels have to be good first. I expect we will have harvests amounting to 70 per cent of a regular harvest for peaches and nectarines, provided the weather stays good and we do not get too much rain or hail,” Kampschoer concludes.