The Ordal peach harvest starts marked by especially small fruits and with the forecast of at least 25% of the harvest compared to last summer. These are the direct effects of a drought that the producers of this fruit from Penedès face with resignation and “great concern”.
In rainfed crops, the forecast is that there will be plots “almost completely lost”, while in irrigated fields, farmers have advanced the water supply to try to stop the drop in production. Despite the adverse situation, the president of the Association of Producers of Préssec d’Ordal, Josep Rà fols, guarantees that the fruits will be of “excellent” quality because the smallest measure will lead to a higher concentration of sugars.
Although the farmers have appreciated the rain of the last week because it has brought a “rest” for the crops, RÃ fols specifies that the water has been completely insufficient for the peach trees. And it is that the rained liters have been absorbed in a very superficial layer, less than a span deep, and have not come to nourish its roots.
“The plots where there is no support irrigation are almost lost,” he laments, since in these fields the size of the peach is far from commercial standards, a situation that they also encountered fifteen years ago, “when there were many trees to be harvested.
In the case of crops where there is a support irrigation network, it had to be activated in mid-April, more than a month earlier than usual “and there is some fear that the water will run out and not hold all the Campaign”. “We are all in a learning process, because we have never had to work in these conditions,” he stresses.
To get the most out of the little water available to Ordal peach growers, RÃ fols explains that they are doing “very strong thinnings” to choose which fruits have more options to be harvested in better conditions and a commercial size. So they throw to the ground those fruits that have practically no future.
With the campaign just started, farmers now fear especially for the later varieties, which are harvested at the end of August and beginning of September, since there is no forecast of abundant rains and very high temperatures are expected in the coming months.
If things continue like this, producers find it difficult to reach the 500,000 kilos that were harvested in 2022, “which was already a very complicated harvest.” However, RÃ fols assures that the forecast is that the peaches that will reach the market will be of “very excellent” quality because the best pieces will have been prioritized on the trees, marked by high concentrations of sugars.
The clayey and limestone soil, the manual way of cultivating and the effect of the sea air are the characteristics that most mark the final product, remember the farmers, who point out that the Ordal peach is a highly valued fruit, but also very expensive. Taking into account the drop in production and general inflation, RÃ fols admits that this year they will have to raise prices by around 15%. This will mean between 1 and 2 euros per box, which last year ranged between 6 and 15 euros, depending on the variety and size of the peach.
Apart from the drought, RÃ fols regrets that the peasants maintain an eternal battle with the wild boars, which summer after summer spoil their fields. He relates that the females enter the crops accompanied by numerous young, which they try to supply with peaches by breaking the trees or shaking the branches until they leave no fruit to harvest.
Producers have been looking for a way to stop these looting for years. After failed attempts, the peasants have opted for electrified systems. This is the case of RÃ fols, which during the spring invested in surrounding all the fields with three cables that transmit discharges of up to 10,000 volts. “It has been the only way to get them not to enter,” he asserts, although he admits that “there is no margin to be confused for a single day.” not a single day.”
With the start of the harvest, the producers start this coming weekend the traditional Ordal Peach Market, in the center of Sant Pau de Ordal. It will be the 18th year that farmers set up their stalls every weekend in June, July and August, in an event that attracts customers from all over Catalonia, especially from the Barcelona metropolitan area.
Rà fols celebrates the good reception given to this small and unique monographic market, which in recent years has had more than 13,000 visitors. This year, products are expected from the nine producers who grow this fruit from Penedès, although he explains that two of them have already decided to fold after this campaign due to the “demoralization” caused by the drought and the ravages of the wild boar.
In this sense, remember that now in the Penedès there are only about 110 hectares of Ordal peach cultivation, distributed between the municipalities of Subirats and Avinyonet. Forty years ago, he says, there were more than 1,000. The fact that it is a product cultivated in a very traditional way and the lack of generational prominence, points out Rà fols, are leading the sector to a continued decline.