The apple harvest is coming to an end in Thuringia. The first apple farmers draw a sobering balance.
Gotha (dpa/th) - At Fahner Obstbau in the district of Gotha, fears of a bad apple harvest after a hot and dry summer in 2022 have been confirmed. This year the company harvested just 34 percent of the expected apples, said Jörg Dornberger from the board on Tuesday. Instead of around 11,600 tons of dessert apples as planned, just under 4,000 tons were harvested. The picking is not yet complete, but what is still to come is "actually not enough" to turn things around.
The company simply lacked water to counteract the heat and drought of the summer. "We don't have one here and none came from above this year either." The average harvest for sweet and sour cherries, mirabelle plums and plums is also 30 to 40 percent lower.
After the sunny summer, the apple harvest seems to be lower than last year, not only in Thuringia's most important location. Even if things are going a little better in other areas and an average harvest is emerging across Germany; The Thuringian crop yields are expected to be significantly below those of the previous year, as Axel Swoboda from the fruit cultivation specialist group of the State Horticultural Association said. Extremely hot days would have affected the fruit across the country.
However, Swoboda emphasized that no conclusive picture can yet be drawn. The ducking lasted until the end of October and results were still received until the beginning of November.
"This year has shown us all how bad it can get," said Fahner board member Dornberger. 48 liters of precipitation per square meter in June, July and August are just 20 percent of the value in the previous year. Parts of the plantings in the autumn of the previous year had already died. For example, the fruit cultivation on currently around 1000 hectares with around 150 permanent employees is not maintained in the long term. Every year there is a culture that fails. That all cultures failed, "that didn't exist at all" - "that's really awesome".
