This year’s rock pear production, whose harvest began a week ago, is expected to fall by 50% due to the drought and high temperatures recorded in July, the sector association estimated on Tuesday.
We had already forecast a drop of approximately 30% compared to the previous campaign, which was not very beneficial, but acceptable in the harvest year, but the drop will increase and we estimate that it will be around 50% compared to the previous year due to weather conditions,” Domingos dos Santos, president of the National Association of Rocha Pear Producers (ANP), which represents the sector, told the Lusa news agency.
According to the official, the situation of extreme drought that the country is experiencing associated with the high temperatures recorded in July, caused that there was no availability of water in the soil and in the few existing water reserves in the western region for irrigation, which was reflected in rock pear production. .
“We have pears with very high sugar levels, that is, with great organoleptic quality, but smaller, they weigh less, which causes them to break,” explains Domingos dos Santos.
The ANP estimated that there may be losses in the sector at the end of the year.
The market will have to compensate for part of this drop in production” with an increase in the selling price of the fruit to the consumer, “but it will never completely compensate it and it will always be dramatic for the producers, taking into account the increase in production costs that we have had in recent months in the field and in the fruit trees themselves and it will be very difficult to reflect it in the final consumer,” he concluded.
For the leader, in the Western region, where until a few years ago there was no lack of water for agriculture and, therefore, dams and water retention systems are almost non-existent, it is necessary “to think about the future of water in this region and horticulture” and foresee investments in this sense.
In the 2021/2022 campaign, production stood at 220 thousand tons of rock pears, of which between 60 and 70% were exported.
Brazil, the United Kingdom, Morocco, France and Germany are the five main destination markets for this fruit.
The ANP has five thousand associated producers, with a production area of 11 thousand hectares.
Produced (99%) in the municipalities between Mafra and Leiria, with the highest production being those of Cadaval and Bombarral, the Rocha do Oeste pear has a Protected Designation of Origin, a recognition of the quality of the Portuguese fruit by the European Union. .
Source: Observadora
