Lower availability expected to lead to more balanced market conditions
The 2025 European stonefruit crop is expected to weigh in at 3.2mn tonnes, around 7 per cent less than in 2024 but 2 per cent above the 2019–2023 average., according to data from Europêch. This is primarily due to the impact of severe frosts on Greek production, which also affected the Turkish crop.
Delays in the start of the harvest and recent favourable weather in Europe have led to high prices in the first weeks of trading. Europêch heard how the lower availability in Europe and Turkey are expected to lead to more balanced market conditions in 2025.
A breakdown of the figures shows that Greek is anticipating a 21 per cent fall in production compared to 2024, with a peach and nectarine volume of 607,000 tonnes. This is due to a cold snap during the flowering period in March/April. However, this is still 17 per cent above the average for 2019-2023.
Spain, meanwhile, has suffered a series of hailstorms in recent weeks which have impacted production in Catalonia, Aragon and Murcia. It is set for a crop of 1.441mn tonnes of peaches, flat peaches and nectarines, 5 per cent down on 2024 but 7 per cent higher than the 2019-2023 average.
In Italy, volumes are expected to remain largely stable compared to last year at 921,346 tonnes. A slight drop in production in central and northern regions is expected to be offset by increases in the south of the country.
France is anticipating a peach and nectarine crop of 236,000 tonnes, again broadly stable compared to last year and 18 per cent u on the 2019-2023 average.
