According to the organization, Spain will have a 3.6% average reduction in production and will harvest up to 1,598,931 tons. An amount that, they stated, was higher than the average of the last five seasons.
Murcia's decrease in production is the second major setback in the communities, although the Valencian Community almost doubled it.
According to estimates, the largest decreases will take place in plums (-11%) and nectarines (-5%). Doughnut peaches are the only fruit that will have a higher harvest than last year.
At the European level, the 2016 harvest forecasts show there will be a significant decrease in production volumes of peach (-5%), nectarine (-8%) and Pavia (-2%) over 2015.
Furthermore, this drop in production is higher when compared to the average of the last five seasons (-20%, -7% and -17%, respectively).
Nectarines account for 33% of the 1,598,931 tons of stone fruit that Spain will harvest, followed by peaches (18%), doughnut peaches (17%), Pavia (16%), plums (8%) and apricots (6%).
According to estimates of the agricultural organization, all varieties will have a fall in production that ranges from 11% in plums to about 5% in peaches, nectarine and Pavia; apricots will have a slight 1.5% decline, while doughnut peaches, the only variety that will increase over the previous year, will go up by 4.8%.
Peach production is expected to amount to 289,715 tons, about the same as the average obtained in recent years; nectarine production, 528,122 tons; doughnut peaches, 276,015 tons, and apricot, 109,160 tons; all above average.
Estimates for Plum and Pavia crops, 133,812 and 262,107 tons, respectively, remain below the average of the past five years.
Community-wise, the largest producers of stone fruit are Aragon and Catalonia, as forecasts are that they will produce 496,445 and 382,840 tons, i.e. 31% and 24% of the national total, respectively.
Aragon's harvest will be slightly higher than in the previous year, while Catalonia's production is expected to decrease by -2.5%. However, the communities that are expected to have the biggest losses are Murcia and Valencia.
According to the president of Spain's Stone Fruit Agricultural foods, Javier Basols, said this campaign's production would be slightly lower than last year, even though there are new plantations that have entered production in recent years.
The extra early production in the early areas (Murcia, Valencia and Andalusia) was significantly affected by the frosts in late February and early March and the late and midseason fruit was affected by the lack of winter cold, which lead to a smaller production volume.
The areas that produce late fruits, Aragon and Catalonia, haven't received any frost so far, which threatens the production.
"Regarding the weather, the year has had very variable temperatures, which has generated a long and heterogeneous flowering" Basols stated.
The lack of cold hours can affect the production of early varieties, especially of nectarines and peaches, he said.
He also stated that the fluctuations in temperatures had caused a long flowering that, depending on the area, was causing delays or advances on harvest schedules.
"The weather is unstable and it can still alter these calendars" Basols added.
Overall, the closure of the Russian market, "is seriously impacting the industry and unbalancing the market," he said.
For the moment, he added, "temperatures in Europe are not conducive to stone fruit consumption and demand is still below normal."
According to data presented by different producers and disseminated in Europech, the European harvest of peaches, nectarines and pavia will amount to 2,734,877 tons, 6% less than in 2015 and 8% lower than the average of the last five seasons.
The French and Italian production is expected to be lower than last year, while production in Greece is expected to be slightly higher than last year; there still is no data available for apricots.
