For Manel Simon, the General Manager of the Catalan Fruit Business Association (Afrucat), “the area affected by the Urgell canal basically produces apples and pears, while the heart of the stone fruit production is located in the Baix Segre, where at present there are restrictions to the irrigation that represent half of the amount of a normal year.”
The Chairman of the Stone Fruit Committee at Afrucat, Benjamín Ibars, has affirmed that “the irrigation in the Baix Segrià area is highly technified; we irrigate at night to avoid evaporation and the farmers control the meters, but with the restricted amounts, what is clear is that there will not be enough water to save the entire harvest. We will produce quality fruit, but we certainly won’t reach the entire amount.”
“At present, the survival of the trees is not at stake, but there are still three months before the harvest and we have been at 30º C since the 1st of April.”
Added to the shortage of produce are the high costs of thinning, labour in general and the rest of inputs that the fields depend upon, which will doubtlessly increase the prices of the fruit.
The water situation
The estimates made by the Association present a 4% increase in the Catalan production potential of peaches and nectarines, reaching 448,330 tonnes.
Regarding the average from recent years, Lerida will harvest 5% fewer peaches and nectarines (149,570t), Tarragona 10% fewer (25,460t), Barcelona 59% fewer (2,300t) and Girona 28% fewer (1,180t).
After years of very low production and bad weather incidents (particularly frosts) in 2020, 2021 and 2022, this would be the first year in which Catalonia would recover some of its production potential.
According to Simon, “it should have been an excellent harvest, with very good flowering and setting and with higher thinning requirements that made production costs increase this year. However, the water restrictions are bringing uncertainty and we will have to face up to the campaign one week at a time.”
Up until the 19th of May, there had been 1 important episode of hailstones (7th of May) that affected Noguera (Albesa, Castelló de Farfanya, Algerri, Menàrguens…) with 856 ha affected, with around 70 ha belonging to sweet fruit, causing damage of between 80 and 100%.
Unlike the previous year, there have not been any serious effects caused by frosts, just some occasional damage.
The harvest time depends on the municipalities: initially a delay of around 7-10 days was observed compared to last year, but the good temperatures have shortened this.
According to regional boundaries, Girona is recording a drop owing to the grubbing out of stone fruit that means that they are increasingly specialising in apples. Barcelona blames the drought as its fruit growing sector is characterised as being rain fed, which this year will not harvest anything at all and the harvests in the irrigated areas will also decrease. Tarragona, in spite of not recording any incidences yet, has dropped its forecasts due to grubbing out and finally, Lerida, which hasn’t suffered from any bad effects, shows a recovery of the production.
