That corresponds to just 2200 tons, as the Agricultural Information Service (LID) announced on Friday based on information from the Swiss Fruit Association.
The plums were also rare. The fruit farms picked 1,300 tons from the trees, 40 percent of the average. To secure plum cakes and other delicacies, 50 percent of this stone fruit was imported.
In contrast, the cherry season went relatively well. 1500 tons or 72 percent of an average harvest were picked. But ten percent were rejects. Because too much water rose from the ground into the cherries, the fruits burst and some of them were already moldy on the twig.
The pome fruit harvests were not much better. The decline is significant. In addition, apples and pears show a lot of frost damage, so that they do not look the same as usual.
On the one hand, the frost hit the fruit during the flowering period, so that there was less hanging in the trees. The few fruits then grew too big. On the other hand, in places with enough fruits there was such a bad summer that they hardly grew. This in turn resulted in small fruits.
In the case of cider fruit, the harvest also fell into the water. At the beginning of October, the fruit association assumed that the cider factories would receive around 60,000 tonnes of cider apples and 6300 tonnes of cider pears for pressing. That would be 20,000 tons less than the average in recent years.
Christoph Suter from the Ramseier cider factory told LID that this year’s cider fruit harvest would not cover the annual need for cider fruit in Switzerland. This is around 70,000 to 80,000 tons. But there are reserves so that there is no threat of a shortage.