Fruit harvest in the Czech Republic grew by 8 percent year-on-year to 149,205 tons last year, but in a ten-year comparison it dropped by almost 20 percent, Fruit Growers Union chairman Martin Ludvík said today at Fruit Growers Days in Hradec Králové.
Ten years ago, about 190,000 tonnes of fruit were harvested a year in the Czech Republic. Fruit harvests have declined in recent years above all because of frequent extreme changes of weather, mainly frosts, hailstorms and rain.
In 2011, for example, fruit crop was decimated by spring frosts and the harvest dropped to the record-low 101,000 tonnes. "The other negative factors leading to a drop in the potential production of the Czech fruit growing include the ageing of orchards, a drop in the number of newly planted trees and the transformation of a part of orchards into organic production with lower yield," Ludvík said.
The average harvest volume was 144,476 tonnes in the past five years, he said.
The harvest of apples, which are the main kind of fruit grown in the Czech Republic, reached 120,602 tonnes last year, but in a five-year comparison the amount was average. Ten years ago, the average apple harvest was 160,000 tonnes a year.
From the other kinds of fruit, pear growers recorded a successful year in 2013 as pear harvest increased by 29 percent to a record 7,437 tonnes.
The amount grew thanks to newly planted pear trees which are now beginning to come into full production, according to Ludvík. "Pear trees are one of the few positive cases of the Czech fruit growing as they have become the second most important kind of fruit grown in the Czech Republic," Ludvik said. "Their potential harvest can be up to 10,000 tonnes a year."
There are about 17,800 hectares of productive fruit orchards in the CzechRepublic, of which 9,080 hectares are apple orchards.
