Repeated temperatures below the critical threshold of almost minus three degrees have written off this year’s entire harvest in many places. Even bales of burning straw or other effective protection against short spring frosts did not save the sets. The straw between the fruit trees in Choustníková Hradiště in Královédvorsk was still smoldering on Wednesday, when the thermometer showed five degrees above zero.
“I don’t remember anything like this in the forty-five years I’ve been making fruit. The frost totally burned all the crops. And what little is left will not be salable. Non-standard apples are not even worth harvesting. The costs would exceed the possible profit,” stated the owner of the Hradišť company Malus Antonín Krobot. Although the grower’s insurance will cover part of the expected loss, it will still not cover the costs incurred.
The supernatural also bothers
Orchards after last year’s reduction of an area of 55 hectares, in the Czech Republic with rare fruit in baby food quality, the orchardist is going through with undisguised embarrassment. Until recently, he went there every day with joy. Today, a man who is not immediately put down would almost cry. Keeping the vast fruit plantations in optimal condition for the next three years, as mandated by the subsidy, will not be possible without a bridging loan.
“We will not harvest anything. We can only hope for a better next year. However, there could be a threat of a bumper crop like two years ago, when many fruit growers left their apples on the trees due to low purchase prices. But I have to pay the costs from something in order to comply with the subsidy rules,” says Krobot.
Photo: Vladislav Prouza, News
Looking at the frost-scorched flowers, the orchardist was almost on edge
We won’t harvest anything. We can only hope for a better next year
The Krkonoše fruit grower has to last another three years due to subsidy obligations. “Then I’ll see. If it doesn’t work, I will dispose of the orchards and rent out the plots,” predicts Krobot. The orchardist recently reduced the size of the orchards by a third. “I wanted to match their acreage with projected revenues, warehouse capacity and the cost of part-timers. This is to further reduce the sets in order to finance everything,” he adds.
The fruit union intends to intervene
The Fruit Union of the Czech Republic intends to intervene due to the fruit-growing disaster that affected the whole of the Czech Republic in order to compensate fruit growers beyond the scope of standard insurance with the Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborny (KDU-ČSL). “The insurance amount will not even cover survival with such extensive damage. Previously, there were state compensations for frosts. So we’ll see. We will also discuss how to save South Moravia. Frost can still be expected on Friday,” Martin Ludvík, head of Czech fruit growers, told Novinka. “We are counting the damages, which will be unprecedented in the entire republic,” he pointed out.
Ludvík sees the cause of the scale of the unprecedented disaster in the so-called advection frost, characteristic of the winter period, when cold currents – compared to local spring frosts – affect a large area for a longer period of time. “There really hasn’t been anything like this here in modern history,” Ludvík pointed out.
However, consumers do not have to worry about the lack of apples on the Czech market. A crop failure in Czech orchards will not affect their price too much. “Poles or East Germans froze too. The range remains to be seen in the market. Slovakia and the Balkans mostly got away with it. South Moravia did decently,” explained Krobot. “Supermarkets will import fruit from anywhere, for example from New Zealand. The prices of apples are already outrageously high and it is difficult to move them,” he says.
Damage to the fruit crop will be extensive due to the frost, especially in the Czech Republic
Economy
