START OF NEW TOPFRUIT SEASON

A new season of Dutch apples and pears starts again this week. Under favorable weather conditions, a team of more than 400 seasonal workers is again working hard in Staay Food Group’s orchards to bring in the harvest. On the 135 hectares of the new Dutch Staay site ‘Westende’ in Fijnaart, Noord-Brabant, bulk of the pears has already been harvested.

The national Dutch apple yield is only 1% less this year but last year’s crop was also 18% less than the year before. Fortunately, last year’s small crop of volume maker Elstar has been corrected somewhat with a +10% higher yield. Junami (less acreage), Wellant (less fruit) and Golden Delicious (less acreage) are the big decreases among apples.

In pears, we see 9% decline compared to a fairly average crop year in 2023. Volume maker Conference also stands out positively with a smaller 6% decline. The big faller is the Doyenne du Comice with a more than 45% decline due to hail damage and the fact that this year the trees naturally gave less fruit after last year’s high production

Arming against climate change
More and more extreme weather is increasingly affecting harvests. Both Staay growing locations and affiliated growers, are investing in development of new, robust varieties. In addition, work is being done on protection by hail nets. Research is also being carried out on solar panels above the crop, which in addition to providing green power, also offer protection against bright sunlight, strong winds, frost and precipitation.

Last growing season was again full of extremes. “2024 was a difficult growing season with many cold, dark days and also a lot of precipitation, including in the form of hail,” says Eddy den Dunnen, crop coordinator at Staay location Westende. “Fortunately, we see that the plots with younger trees still deliver good yields of coarse falling fruit in addition.”

Cosmetic hail damage
Overall, Staay Food Group sees a nice supply of quality pears emerging of good size besides. However, in The Netherlands there are also a serious number of plots that have been more severely affected by hail. To achieve the desired volumes, this year the sector cannot avoid also grading some pears with slight cosmetic damage.

Coarse sizing
The changeable weather also had an advantage. There has been a lot of natural fallout, allowing the remaining fruit to better grow into larger sizes. This combined with some reduced volume could start to make for a favorable market, without oversupply.