VShot! Hot in front…! Let the pressed apricots pass! In French orchards, it’s the shot. Rising mercury has boosted nature’s cycle. “We are witnessing a phenomenal acceleration”, testifies Bruno Darnaud, president of the AOP Peaches and apricots and arborist in the Drôme. He estimates that the harvest is ten to fifteen days ahead of schedule this year. Apricots hurry…
The unusually hot month of May upset the calendar. The wheel of the small round fruit’s growth spun at high speed. And, under the golden rays, it very quickly took on its orange color. Consumers won’t complain. For once, the expression “full of sunshine” takes on its full meaning. And the new heat wave that hit France this mid-June will not help cool the machine.
Under pressure, arborists are already beginning to weigh production. “We will surely be disappointed by the final volume, compared to our initial expectations”, says Mr. Darnaud. In its forecasts drawn up at the beginning of June, the Ministry of Agriculture was counting on a harvest of 134,400 tonnes. In elastic rebound of 127% over one year. It is true that 2021 will go down in agricultural annals as the black year of hoarfrost. At the beginning of April, a polar tongue had reduced the embryos of the earliest fruits to lint over a good part of the national territory. If, this year, orchards still suffered from the bite of the cold, the apricot trees were, for the most part, put under shelter.
smaller fruit
The reason for a lower tonnage, reduced by 15%, is linked this time to the switch from very cold to very hot. The apricots turned orange without being chubby. The supercharged development came at the expense of size. The cherries have also shrunk. However, in the eyes of large retailers, the fruit is beautiful when it is large. The ideal size, qualified as 2A, is a caliber between 45 and 50 mm. This year, the dominant speed is a notch lower, between 40 and 45 mm, corresponding to the A caliber.
In the primeur section, thinness is therefore less valued. Producers expected the price to fall anyway this year, after, it is true, a peak reached in 2021, up 38% compared to an average established over the period 2016-2020. But the tone rose, after a promotional offer that stuck in the throats of arborists. “Carrefour offered size A apricots at 2.79 euros per kilo. That is a sudden drop of 20% to 30%. It involves everyone. The brand does not play the game, with prices disconnected from market reality”protests Mr. Darnaud.
You have 8.39% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.