Early nectarine, peach and plum output from the southern Spanish region of Andalusia is likely to fall significantly on recent season averages.
Producer-exporters association Asociafruit, which represents some 80 per cent of stonefruit output in the region, says that the last two weeks of April and first week of May will be down due to late frosts and withdrawal from the sector.
Javier Rubiols, president of stonefruit section of Asociafruit, said: “In Cordoba and Seville, damage has been most significant in those farms close to the river and in those varieties that flower earliest. In higher areas such as Huelva, the effects have been minimal.”
The organisation further calculates that acreage under stonefruit production has fallen by 43 per cent in the last five years so that output is likely this season to reach just 52,000 tonnes compared to 110,000t in 2007.
