All production lost. Mountain apple producers in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees are facing the worst harvest in their history. The reason: 10 days of frost when the tree had already flowered. “Some strong, with many hours of cold and up to negative 4 degrees and others milder. But, in short, 10 days of ice. And we had never encountered that before,” laments Josep Pintó, president of the Biolord cooperative, which has 12 producer members from the regions of Pallars Sobirà, Alta Ribagorça, Solsonès, Berguedà and Cerdanya.
The problem, he says, “is the high temperatures this winter.” “We have been at 25 degrees in January and that is not normal. What happens is that the trees advance their flowering a lot,” he explains.
10 years ago since the first commercial harvest of mountain apples from the Pyrenees. Producers have had good seasons and worse ones, but never before have they encountered a scenario like the one they foresee this fall. The producers consider the season 100% lost.
According to the president of the Biolord cooperative, Josep Pintó, the problem is that the high temperatures this winter caused the flowering of the trees to advance. Therefore, the frosts in May – which are not a strange phenomenon in the Pyrenees – have affected flowering. Furthermore, he explains, it has not been a specific frost, but, in total, there have been 10 days of frost.
Faced with this scenario, Pintó highlights what for him is evident: “farming in the mountains is a true heroic act.” “In the mountains the factors are more severe than on the plain: the winds are stronger, the storms are also stronger. We get rocked an average of 5 times a year, the wild fauna also affects us a lot. Everything has a higher degree of affectation than in the plain’, he adds.
To combat frost episodes like this year’s, Pintó explains that the best solution is to implement a sprinkler irrigation system. The problem, he says, is that a lot of water is needed, 40 liters per hectare and second, and, furthermore, it is expensive. A system that also has its complexity since, according to what he says, it cannot take more than 40 seconds for water to fall on the apple. All of this means that many producers cannot afford to implement it.
