Lleida's pear production official estimates have turned out to be too optimistic compared to the reality that farmers have observed on their farms at the beginning of the harvest season. According to Jaume Gardeñes, head of Unió de Pagesos' fruit sector, there could be a 30% to 40% drop in the production of Limonera pears, a traditional variety in the area. This is significantly higher than the 15% decrease initially expected by Afrucat and the Ministry of Climate Action.
This downward trend would also affect other varieties, such as the Ercolini pear, where the official forecast of a 27% reduction also seems to fall short according to Gardeñes. Practically all the farms that grow the Conference variety, which is predominant in the region of Lleida, expect a nearly 50% drop in production.
Last year's drought has considerably impacted fruit trees, negatively affecting production volumes. Despite this, the fruit's quality is good and sizes are appropriate, an improvement over the previous summer when the lack of irrigation resulted in small sizes that barely reached commercial standards. The adverse weather this spring and summer, such as unusually low temperatures at key times and hail, have further complicated the situation for producers.
This year, pear production throughout Europe in general has been low, so Lleida's farmers remain hopeful there will be a positive development in sales. Gardeñes stressed that one of the main challenges for this year is the shortage of labour available for harvesting, a problem that intensifies every year. People are willing to work in fruit picking, but farmers can't hire them because they lack work permits.
Source: segre.com