At the Eighth Food Market and Trade Forum, Dr Bozena Nosecka, an expert from the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Food Economy, confirmed that "the shortage of water in the soil, due to a lack of snow in the winter, followed by a cool spring, has contributed to slowing down the growth of plants." Furthermore, "at the turn of June and July, we had the first period of drought, and the high temperatures and lack of rain in August have only resulted in the conditions for growing both fruit and vegetables getting even worse."
She added that estimates of the Central Statistical Office made in late September talked about a drop in the harvest volume of field vegetables in the range of 16%. "The most affected will be brassica vegetables, including cabbage and root vegetables. These reductions will amount to about 15 percent. The smallest decline has been recorded in the case of tomatoes, by around 10 percent," said the expert.
In the case of fruit crops, the situation is varied, as "we have to take into account both the fruits whose harvest period ended before August's massive drought, as well as those that were to be harvested later," noted Dr Nosecka. "Strawberries, as well as cherries and sour cherries, reached slightly higher production volumes than in 2014; by contrast, the black currant harvest was much smaller.
