Fresh produce association Freshfel Europe has expressed its concern at the recent Europêch' announcement predicting a lower crop for stonefruit in Europe this year, noting that, coupled with a third consecutive summer season, the current climate for the fruit could impact stonefruit suppliers and then extend to other fruit categories.
Discussing the situation at the European Commission Forecast Working Group on Peaches and Nectarines, Freshfel said that the lower volumes of stonefruit anticipated this season were not expected to lead to a more favourable market situation.
'The later start of the season will lead accordingly to a shorter marketing season, and might also lead to an overlapping between the early and the mid-season varieties,' warned Paco Borras, vice-president of the Freshfel Export Division. 'We are clearly moving towards a congestion of the market.
'Having a lower EU production will not be beneficial as the total sales period will ultimately be cut by two or three weeks, while smaller sizes might have an additional downward-spiralling effect on prices,' he added.
Despite negative reports from the last two seasons, Freshfel pointed out that the European Commission had not yet introduced adjustment mechanisms to cope with 'severe crisis situations', with several grower organisations calling for these to be implemented to partially alleviate pressure on the market.
Additionally, Freshfel said that European stonefruit's long-term future remained in doubt because of the spread of the sharka virus, which had been 'devastating traditional production regions', and called for the EC to refocus current research into the disease.
'The current research is exclusively looking at long-term solutions with the elaboration of new resistant varieties,' said Aneefel and Freshfel expert Pierre Avy. 'While this aspect cannot be neglected, more urgent current tasks need to be conducted, namely the evaluation and implementation of best practices for prevention of the disease.'
