“We tried to make smoke between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., in the night from Saturday to Sunday, in the plum orchards, but it was a lot of work for a result that is not good,” says with bitterness José Pérez, arborist in Temple-sur-Lot, in Lot-et-Garonne. With peaks at -6°C, as in 2021 which had been a dark year for Agen prune producers, 80 to 90% of its future harvest froze.
Although it is still a little early to make a full assessment, even though a new night of frost is announced from Monday to Tuesday, we already know that the producers of Agen prunes and kiwis are very affected while the balance sheet is more mixed for wine growers and apple growers.
Double punishment for the prune
“It’s a disaster, the frost that took place from Saturday to Sunday was particularly devastating,” comments Rosalinde Jaarsma, secretary general of the Agen prune interprofessional office, which represents 900 producers, 80% of whom are located in the Lot. -et-Garonne. The frost was all the more devastating as the mild weather of the last few weeks had accelerated the development of the plum trees. It is already announcing at least 70% losses. “If we make 20,000 tons, it will be a great maximum,” she says.
While last year, arboriculturists had a little stock of Agen prunes, this will not be the case this year. And the increase in the price of gas further complicates the lives of these professionals since the fruits are dried with gas. “This is one of the main expenditure items for the production of prunes”, points out Rosalinde Jaarsma. The most infuriating remains that there was “a very good harvest potential this year”, Rémy Muller, arboriculture adviser at the Chamber of Agriculture of the Lot-et-Garonne department, who could even have made 2021 forget.
“Less breakage than last year on kiwis”
“When you have a centimeter of frost on your buds, it freezes, that’s how it is,” blows José Pérez, who grows prunes from Agen but also apples and kiwis. On the latter, he has a sprinkling system but which did not allow him to save all his harvest, installed on 4.5 hectares. “The weight of the ice broke the shoots,” he says.
Beyond -4°C, he considers that the antifreeze devices are ineffective. “When the frost starts at 11 p.m. and lasts until 7:30 a.m., it can’t go well, it’s a winter freeze in the spring and not a spring freeze that lasts from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. about,” says the arborist. He hopes to save his latest varieties of apples but has already given up on the Pink Lady, which was in bloom… “Two years without a harvest, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he worries.
In Limousin, the frost was a little less intense than expected in apple orchards. If it is certain that there will be damage, the 180 producers of the Limousin apple AOP lack visibility because not all the flowers have thawed.
Arboriculturists will remain on a war footing to save what can still be saved for this last night of frost, even if in Lot-et-Garonne, the forecasts are counting on maximum temperatures of -2°C.