Fruit crop this year will be about 400,000 tonnes, Agriculture Ministry

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry projects that the fruit harvest this year will be about 400,000 tonnes. The forecasts take into account the April frosts. The production of the young orchards with a higher productivity will compensate for the losses sustained as a result of the frosts, Mihai Suvac, head of the Phytotechny, Seed Growing, Horticulture and Nurserying, has told Info-Prim Neo. The April temperatures of minus 2°C and lower damaged the flowers and fruit of such fruit trees as apricot, cherry and peach trees, the Agriculture Ministry says in a communiqué. “The reproductive organs of the apricot, cherry and peach trees were 10-70% damaged, depending on the position of the orchards and how the orchard planting and maintaining methods were observed,” the communiqué says. According to estimates, there will be harvested about 310,000 of seeded fruit and 80,000 tonnes of pitted fruit, by 6,000 tonnes fewer than stipulated in the production plan.