At Jacobs Fruit, they are currently in the middle of picking organic Conference pears. The company, located in Sint-Truiden, Flanders, has just finished its Delbare apples, but for now is focusing entirely on pears. "Certainly the sizes are better than expected anyway," Hugo Jacobs of the organic cultivation company tells us.
However, spring has also left its mark in organic cultivation. "It has been challenging anyway of course," he continues. "The heavy rain and early hail have caused a fair amount of scab. We don't have to call it a tragedy, but we have suffered more than other years. On top of that, the hail in spring also caused Pseudomonas infestation, which resulted in many pears falling to the ground. As a result, the harvest was unfortunately somewhat smaller, but the pears still managed to bulk up considerably, especially in the last few weeks. So about the calibres, as indicated, we certainly have nothing to complain about."
The farm has started its picking since last Friday and the organic grower, who markets his fruit through BelOrta, expects to continue until next Friday. "Again, it's not that excessive, so we expect to have it round by then," Hugo laughs. "Then the demand will also come back up. It is still relatively quiet now, but it is still early. With the current temperatures, everyone's mind is still on summer fruit and it is still too warm for the full switch to hard fruit. From September, schools will start again and the appetite for apples and pears will also pick up."
Challenging organic cherry growing
Besides hard fruit, Jacobs Fruit also grows cherries during the summer period. "There too we saw that there were some problems due to the wet spring. With all the moisture, there were still quite a few struggles with rot and cracking of cherries that were not covered. Still, we can't speak of a bad season in sales. Despite the losses, the quality was decent and we were able to work with decent prices. It took a lot of effort to get the volumes together. A grower's life is not always a bed of roses, but we managed to do it again. We will also have to get used to it, because the weather conditions seem to become more and more extreme, but we are also getting more and more experienced. It makes us learn to deal with it."
Moreover, Hugo has recently started having help. The experienced organic grower had been looking for possible successors for his farm for a while. Nowhere does this seem to be a given anymore, but for Hugo there does seem to be light at the end of the tunnel. "Recently we have had an intern on the farm who is interested in organic cultivation. It is still an early stage and he is still young, but we are happy that we can quietly teach him the ups and downs of the business, which may enable him to provide a nice continuation in the future."
For more information:
Hugo Jacobs
Jacobs Fruit
Heath 114
3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Tel: +32 11 592464
[email protected]
www.jacobsfruit.be