Belgian apple and pear growers continue to cut back on their production area, as the country adapts its supply patterns to suit global demand for its products.
Belgium’s orchards will yield around 310,000 tonnes of apples and 177,000 tonnes of pears this year, according to the latest estimates, which represents a 40,000t (or 13 per cent) drop on the 2007/08 season.
The planted area under apples is estimated to be 8,080 ha, down 395 ha year on year, and this reflects the market, said Luc Vanoirbeek, horticultural policy advisor for the Belgian Farmers’ Union. For the first time, total Belgian pear production area exceeds apple area, remaining stable at 8,115 ha - the largest variety Conference covers 6,900 ha).
“Apples are a global product,” said Vanoirbeek. “The price of our apples has been under pressure for years, precisely because of competition, for instance from the southern hemisphere. This also explains the persistent trend towards a smaller production area and the switchover to pears.” He warned, however that higher prices may make growers think again. “The fact that we’ve seen signs of change in the past couple of years, higher apple prices are making growers think again about investing in new apple plantings.”
Belgium remains the third largest pear producer in the EU, after Italy and Spain, and the country produces one-third of the European Conference crop,
Vanoirbeek admits to a “positive feeling” about this year’s top-fruit crop. “I’m expecting the quality of our apples to be normal and retailers can certainly rely on getting the sizes of fruits they’ve been used to for years,” he said. Although early fruit has been picked, apple picking will start in earnest in the next week, slightly behind last year’s early schedule.
As things stand at the moment, the pears should also be of high quality and in the right size range, he added. The pear season is expected to kick off relatively early, seven days earlier than usual, albeit up to 10 days later than an exceptionally early start in 2007.
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