One of summer’s most anticipated fruits has been ruined by bad weather: farmers are in a panic out of the season. All the details.

There is great fear among farmers. It may not be one of the most representative fruits of the hot season on our tables this year. The concern comes directly from France, where farmers have complained about A Potential famine for a fruit everyone loves. Estimates are not very reassuring, and steps have already been taken to protect at least part of these crops. However, the production will inevitably give negative signals. Let’s shed some light on it.

Encouraging news for French farmers, but not only, is pinned in a document Agresti Conjoncture, an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture. In this publication, the estimates for the production of this fruit in France, calculated until June 1, 2023, are revealed.

The figure may also look good, but its potential and the real harvest must be taken into account. The exact estimated figure is 125,000 tons. Not a bad number, except that this fruit could grow and produce more. Heavy rains and bad weather are the main reasons for this decline in productivity.

A summer fruit that won’t see the light this year: bad weather is to blame

Therefore, heavy rain and bad weather are no small problems, which always cause inconvenience, especially for crops. This time it was the apricot, a fruit I liked very much because of its sweetness and freshness. Unfortunately this year it can hardly be found at the greengrocer’s.

What is France doing to solve the problem? Basically, not much can be done if six crops are destroyed, there is only a risk of lower production and feeding to the next crop. Let’s see some crop data and estimates.

By some estimates, French apricot production is estimated at -2% compared to 2022, but it’s still +21% compared to the years 2018-2022. Having said that, the crop coverage for this year amounted to 11,000 hectares, distributed as follows: in Occitania about 3,900 hectares, an increase of 4% compared to 2022, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region about 5,500 hectares, a decrease of 5% compared to 2022 Finally, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, there were 1,500 hectares, a decrease of 1% compared to 2022.

These numbers are at high risk of being jeopardized by inclement weather, which could worsen these estimates given the harvest, but at this time no accurate data can be collected.