Joël Boyer, the president of France’s AOP for plums, has highlighted the excellent quality of this season’s plum crop, a result of the excellent climatic conditions currently prevailing, according to a report from Végétable.
'With a balanced and rather warm climate, this year we have outstanding fruit quality and optimal yields in our orchards,” said Boyer. “The very sunny weather seen in recent weeks, as well as the intense heat of early July, has given us a very high quality crop with the ideal sugar content.”
To promote consumption of the fruit, and raise public awareness of its taste and dietary qualities, the AOP has created 14 recipes to please both young and old consumers, including duck carpaccio with plum chutney and tiramisu with greengage and jasmine.
Although the number of households purchasing plums has grown every year, penetration reached only 38.2 per cent in 2014. Yet, according to Végétable, 75 per cent of French consumers are convinced to buy them in store even when they had not planned to. New varieties, grown predominately for their taste, are believed to be driving new consumers to the category.
