With an estimated harvest of 29,000 tons of prunes in 2024, the French prune sector is facing a 30% drop in the volumes produced compared with 2023 (40,000 tons) and with the historical average.
Interprofessional Prune Bureau (BIP)
"A high percentage of downgraded fruit"
Additionally, destructive and unfavourable weather events, such as the hailstorms that have affected the entire production area since early spring, and the excessive rainfall since the autumn of 2023 (+40% compared to a normal year), have deteriorated the quality of the fruit and will result in a high percentage of downgraded fruit that cannot be sold as a snack.
The Interprofession's estimate is set at 20% of the fruit, compared with 12% and 11% for 2023 and 2022 respectively. As a result, the volumes available for the prune market will not exceed 23,000 tons. By way of comparison, an average of 28,000 tons of prunes (volume expressed as dried plum equivalent) have been marketed by the French sector over the last 3 years.
Furthermore, this low harvest follows two consecutive years of frost, in 2021 and 2022 (17,100 tons produced in 2021 and 16,500 tons in 2022), which have led to very low stock levels for the processing sector. Finally, the rise in production costs, both upstream and downstream (inputs, labour, energy...), will only be accentuated by the drop in harvest volumes in recent years.
For more information:
Bureau national Interprofessionnel du Pruneau
2 rue des Magnolias
BP130 47303 Villeneuve-sur-Lot Cedex
Phone: +33(0)5 53 41 55 55
https://www.pruneau.fr/