A record high volume of peaches and nectarines is exported from Georgia this year. As of August 5, it reached 24 thousand tons. The Minister of Agriculture of Georgia Levan Davitashvili announced this in Kakheti, where he met with local farmers, representatives of the refrigeration industry and exporters in the village of Chumlaki, Gurjaani region, Novosti-Georgia writes.

“We have a successful season this year. A record volume of peaches and nectarines is exported. At the moment, the volume of exported products is 24 thousand tons. I think the season in Kakheti will end successfully. The export from Shida Kartli has already started and will last for another month. This is the result of our consistent policy,” Davitashvili said.

According to him, the state has eliminated weaknesses in the supply chain – product quality and infrastructure issues, lack of refrigeration equipment.

“Several years ago, there was only one farm, and today there are more than 40 refrigeration farms in Chumlaki alone. The establishment of infrastructure is co-financed by the state. All this ensures the competitiveness of Georgian peaches in export markets,” Davitashvili said.

With government support, a green corridor principle operates, through which goods freely enter the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the border with Russia.

For the harvesting of peaches in Kakheti, workers are also hired from other regions of Georgia

Сообщение Record volumes of peaches and nectarines exported from Georgia появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit experts note the increased exports of peaches/nectarines from over the past week, mainly to Russia. According to market players, several factors contribute to the growth in export volumes, including an increase in the supply of high quality peaches available for exports, a decrease in wholesale prices and in supply on the Russian market from Turkey, the leader in peach exports to Russia.

Peaches are an important source of Uzbekistan’s export earnings in the fruit segment; in terms of importance, they are comparable to cherries. Both positions are second only to fresh table grapes. In 2020, Uzbekistan exported 85.8 thousand tons of peaches, including nectarines, worth $ 64.9 million. However, in the 2021 season, the peach harvest in Uzbekistan was seriously affected by weather anomalies in winter and early spring. It resulted in high prices, approximately twice the last year’s levels. In mid-June, when the mass harvesting of peaches in Uzbekistan started, EastFruit wrote that “Peaches in Uzbekistan have to be much cheaper in order to compete with Turkey on the Russian market”, noting high uncompetitive prices of Uzbek peaches on their main traditional external market, Russia. As of June 17, the average wholesale price for quality peaches was 25,000 sums/kg ($ 2.4). Since then, prices have almost halved; as of July 22, 2021, the average wholesale price for peaches in the domestic market is 13,000 sums/kg ($ 1.23), but still much higher than in previous years. For instance, the average wholesale price of peaches on the same date in 2019 was 5,000 sums/kg ($ 0.58). At the same time, the average wholesale prices on the Russian market in the 2021 season are lower than in previous years.

Read also: Peach exports from Uzbekistan in 2021 are expected to be significantly lower than last year

According to participants in the logistics services market, requests for vehicles for the shipment of peaches/nectarines from Uzbekistan to Russia increased sharply in mid-July 2021, i.e. on 15-22 July. It increased several times if compared to the first half of July. What factors contribute to the growth in export shipments of peaches and their lower prices, which in turn is not a sufficient factor to increase exports?

According to Uzbek exporters, the main reason lies in weather anomalies in Europe. In an interview with EastFruit experts, the head of a large export company Musaevs Exim LLC, Nodirbek Musaev, talked about it:

“Firstly, the supply of export-quality nectarines has significantly increased in the domestic market of Uzbekistan since mid-July. 10 days ago, there were few volumes available for export. In other words, over the past week, large quantities of network-quality nectarines became available on the market.

Secondly, and most importantly, the harvest of stone fruit in Europe has suffered greatly from severe frosts, bad weather and other weather anomalies in spring and early summer this year. Therefore, the main directions of export of peaches/nectarines from Turkey this year are the EU countries, respectively, there are few offers from Turkish exporters in the Russian market. As you know, Turkey is the largest supplier of peaches/nectarines to the Russian market. This supports the prices for network quality nectarines in Russia. Now Russian retailers buy nectarines of network quality at about $ 1.60 per kg. At the largest wholesale market in Moscow, Food City, prices for nectarines of this quality fluctuate between 120-130 RUB/kg ($ 1.63-1.76).

Сообщение Peach exports from Uzbekistan have grown sharply over the past week: what are the reasons? появились сначала на EastFruit.

This week, Russian farmers from the southern regions started harvesting peaches, according to analysts of the EastFruit project. This season the harvesting started at least 10 days later than last year that was caused by a cold and long spring. At the same time, the quality characteristics of peaches were almost not affected, with rare exceptions, and the total harvest will not be lower than last year, producers say.

Prices for the first batches of peaches from local farms vary in the range of 60-100 RUB/kg ($ 0.82-1.36/kg), which is on average 18% cheaper than last year. At the same time, producers of these stone fruits note that they cannot set higher prices due to large volumes of imported peaches from Turkey and Central Asia on the market available at the level of 100-120 RUB/kg ($ 1.36-1.63/kg).

Today, peaches from local farms are sold only in small batches. Farmers plan to enter the market more actively by the middle of this month.

Сообщение Peach season has begun in Russia появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit experts note extremely low volumes of peach exports from Uzbekistan, despite the fact that the peach export season usually enters an active phase at this time of the year. In their opinion, about a fifth of the current season of Uzbek peach exports is lost.

Peach is the second most important source of exports revenue in the fruit segment of Uzbekistan and is second only to fresh table grapes. As a rule, the exports of peaches from Uzbekistan starts in June, when their peak harvest in the republic begins. Depending on the changing weather every year, June accounts for 3% to 16% of the annual volume of shipments to foreign markets. Over the past 5 years, from one to several thousand tons of peaches from Uzbekistan were exported each year in June, and in 2020 – more than 12 thousand tons! However, according to EastFruit experts, only a few batches of peaches were exported this season.

Peach exports from Uzbekistan enter an active phase in July, accounting for one third to a half of the total annual export volume. Although the first decade of July ends in a few days, peach exports remain extremely low.

The main reason is the high price of peaches in Uzbekistan this season. As of July 1, 2020, the average wholesale price of quality peaches in the capital markets of the republic was 18,000 sums per kg ($ 1.7), which is approximately 3 times higher than on the same date in 2020 and 4 times higher than in 2019. For comparison, in Russia, the main and traditional export market for Uzbek peaches, the average wholesale price is only 20 cents higher and was $ 1.9 per kg on the same date. Exporters from Turkey offer peaches at $ 0.90-0.95 per kg on FCA terms. In addition, at the beginning of July 2021, the average wholesale prices for peaches in Tajikistan were 3 times, and in Georgia – 4.5 times lower than in Uzbekistan. Accordingly, exporters from these countries can supply peaches to the Russian market much cheaper than Uzbek exporters.

In turn, high prices for peaches in Uzbekistan indicate low yields in the 2021 season that resulted from weather anomalies in Uzbekistan in winter and early spring. Although the main regions for the exports of peaches, the Fergana Valley and the Khorezm region, suffered to a lesser extent, the damage from frost in the central zone and southern part of Uzbekistan for peach orchards was significant. At the end of March, the damage to peach harvest due to weather anomalies in the central and southern parts of the country was estimated at 50-70%.

In mid-June 2021, EastFruit already wrote that “peaches in Uzbekistan have to be much cheaper in order to compete with Turkey on the Russian market”, however, the prices are still significantly higher than in the main competitors on the Russian market.

In the past few years, Uzbekistan has been actively increasing the exports of peaches and has been one of the ten largest exporters in the world since 2018. From 2017 to 2020, the volume of peach exports almost doubled in physical terms, from 43.1 thousand to 85.8 thousand tons. In 2020, Uzbekistan ranked 5th in terms of physical volume of peach exports and 8th in the world in value terms.

Considering that peak exports of peaches from Uzbekistan lasts about 100 days, about a fifth of it can be considered already lost for Uzbek exporters. Consequently, there is no need to mention last year’s volumes, and the final data on peach exports in the 2021 season will depend on the further dynamics of its prices in Uzbekistan and in foreign markets.

Сообщение Peach exports from Uzbekistan in 2021 are expected to be significantly lower than last year появились сначала на EastFruit.

There has been panic on the Georgian fruit and vegetable market for several days as on June 29, 2021, the provisions of the RF Law on the Safe Handling of Pesticides and Agrochemicals were said to come into force. Information on the safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals will be exchanged with national or authorized organizations that provide state control in the field under the law. Furthermore, plant products intended for import from the Eurasian Economic Union non-member-states will be inspected in places of production and verification of compliance with mandatory requirements for the use of pesticides and agrochemicals.

This was communicated mainly by traders who form exports volumes and complain that due to uncertainty in the market, the exports of fruit and vegetables has been suspended. As a result, prices for Georgia’s main export fruit and vegetable products – blueberries and peaches – have decreased during high season, which began later due to the cold spring.

The harvest season for peaches and nectarines began last week. Nectarines, more demanded than peaches, dropped in price from 1.8-2 GEL/kg ($ 0.57- $ 0.64) to 1.30-1.50/kg ($ 0.40- $ 0.48) in two days. Although farmers expected better prices and high demand for their products, since this year 36 refrigeration farms are involved in the export process, while last year there were only 23 of them.

Blueberries have also dropped in price – refrigeration facilities for exports accept berries at $ 3 per kg! According to large producers that exports directly, the price has decreased due to uncertainty and to Serbian producers entering the Russian market. The exports price of Georgian blueberries is $ 5-5.50 now.

Information about the new requirements was confirmed by several official sources of the Ministry, but there is no detailed information on the requirements for fruit and vegetable products and how the inspection will be carried out. According to farmers, representatives of the food safety agency took samples of products from Kakheti for laboratory analysis, but the details and objectives of the tests are unknown.

Read also: Blueberry exports from Georgia can reach 5,000 tons by 2023

According to official data, Georgia exported 9,279 tons of peaches, 16,016 tons of nectarines and 663 tons of blueberries in 2020. Exports revenues from the sale of peaches and nectarines amounted to more than USD 21 million and those from the export of blueberries – USD 3.7 million. 80% of Georgia’s exports earnings of peaches and 95% of those from the exports of blueberries come from the Russian Federation.

Сообщение Is Russia banning imports from Georgia during the high season or are exporters trying to reduce producer prices? появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit analysts note that the beginning of the season for large peach exports from the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan in 2021 was marked by their relatively high prices. The average wholesale price for peaches in the country is now on average twice as high as usual price at this period.

The average price for high-quality peaches is now about 30 thousand sums ($ 2.8 per kg), at the same time last year, they costed 18 thousand sums ($ 1.8) and 15 thousand sums in mid-June 2019, which was about $ 1.8 per kg then.

Will traditional sales markets pay $ 1 more for Uzbek peaches, or will Uzbekistan give way to its competitors this year, as it happened with apricots and cherries? Let’s figure it out.

Peaches are the second most important source of export revenue in the fruit segment of Uzbekistan, after fresh table grapes. In 2020, almost 86 thousand tons of peaches worth about $ 65 million were exported. Cherries brought even less revenue to Uzbekistan than peaches last year! No wonder farmers of Uzbekistan reduce apricot plantations in favor of peaches.

Bulk of Uzbek peaches is exported to Russia directly, as well as through Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, although they also consume peaches from Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan recently began to export peaches to Turkmenistan, and small volumes were exported to the UAE, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.

Can Russia pay a higher price for peaches this year? By monitoring EastFruit wholesale prices, it is easy to see that the average fresh peach prices in Russia are currently lower than in Uzbekistan. By the way, Uzbekistan currently has the highest wholesale price for peaches in the region. For example, fresh peaches in Tajikistan are currently sold 3.5 times cheaper than in Uzbekistan. Even in countries where peach harvesting has not yet begun, such as Moldova and Poland, prices for peaches are lower because they are imported from Greece and Turkey at a lower price. Only in Ukraine and Belarus the prices for peaches are the same as in Uzbekistan.

What should be done with peaches? Why did the Department of the Republic’s Customs Committee for the Fergana Region announce the start of large-scale peach exports? Where are they exported to?

Uzbek peaches are exported mainly to the Asian regions of Russia and the northern regions of Kazakhstan, where prices are higher than the national average and where the influence of Turkish exports is not that big. However, export volumes are most likely not high enough yet, otherwise prices would be lower than they are now.

Despite the almost complete absence of Uzbek peaches on the Russian market, peach prices in Russia are now the lowest in the past few years. Peaches in Russia were wholesaled at $ 2 per kg average in mid-June last year, at $ 3.4 per kg in 2019, and at only $ 1.6 per kg this year. This means that the export of Turkish peaches to Russia has increased significantly this year. Turkey is the leader in the export of peaches to Russia by a huge margin from others. Last year, it exported 122 thousand tons of peaches to the Russian Federation, and Uzbekistan exported only 35 thousand tons. Accordingly, one cannot exaggerate the influence of Uzbekistan on the Russian peach market.

It is obvious that prices for peaches may begin to decline dynamically in the near future in Uzbekistan to stimulate export. It is quite possible that the price this year will even repeat the path of cherries price  that was much higher at the beginning of the season than a year earlier and ends the season at a lower level than last year. Otherwise, a high demand for peaches from Uzbekistan is not expected – after all, peaches from Moldova, Serbia and even the southern regions of Russia will become available on the market in a few weeks.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, as of August 1, 2020, the share of the Fergana region in the total export of peaches from the country amounted to 35%. Probably, the tendency to increase peach plantations in Fergana region due to the reduction of apricot orchards (mainly local varieties) allowed this region to become an absolute leader among 13 regions producers of fruit and vegetable in terms of peach exports. The second place was taken by the Namangan region of the Fergana Valley (17%), the third by the Tashkent region (16%), and the fourth by the Khorezm region (12%). Overall, about 80% of peach exports were shipped from these four regions, with more than half from the Fergana Valley.

In the past few years, Uzbekistan has been actively increasing the export of peaches, and it has been one of the ten largest exporters in the world since 2018. In 2020, Uzbekistan ranked 5th in terms of the physical volume of peach exports and 8th in the world in value terms.

Source: Trade Map

In 2021, Uzbek peach exports are unlikely to reach last year’s record levels due to a likely decline in Uzbekistan’s peach harvest due to frosts in late February and mid-March. However, it should be noted that the main regions for the export of peaches, the Fergana Valley and the Khorezm region, suffered to a lesser extent. However, the damage from frost in the central and southern part of Uzbekistan for peach orchards was significant. At the end of March, the damage to the peach crop from weather anomalies in the central and southern parts of the country was estimated from 50% to 70%.

Сообщение Peaches in Uzbekistan have to be much cheaper in order to compete with Turkey on the Russian market появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit experts visited several districts of the Fergana region of Uzbekistan and noted a trend in the change in the ratio of stone fruit trees at local farms. There has been a reduction over the past 5-7 years in the area of ​​apricot orchards (mainly local varieties) in favor of peach plantations in regions specialized  and climatically adapted for these crops. The new orchards consisted mainly of trendy apricot varieties (Shalakh, Hungarian and others) for the fresh market, which are sold at a much higher price than traditional local varieties. At the same time, cherries are still in trend and there is a tendency to expand the areas of cherry orchards.

In order to stretch the harvest season and reduce the risk of price fluctuations for a particular product from year to year, local farmers often combine the production of cherries with peaches and apricots, dividing a farm into two (cherries and peaches) or into three parts (cherries, peaches and apricots). At the same time, the approximate ratio of these areas is often the following: if there are three crops, then a fourth or fifth part of the farm is planted with apricot, the rest is divided equally between cherries and peaches. If there are only cherries and peaches, the ratio is 50/50 or 60/40.

What is the reason for the reduction of the area planted with apricots?

How does diversification and combination of these stone fruits reduce the risks of price fluctuations? To get answers to these questions, EastFruit experts spoke with several farmers.

As it turned out, the main reason for the reduction of apricot orchards of local traditional varieties and their replacement by peach plantations is that the production of outdated apricot varieties has become unprofitable. Due to the low price, the proceeds from its sale do not cover the costs of its production. By the way, the downward trend in world prices for both fresh and dried apricots is global, as we wrote it in the article “Global prices for fresh and dried apricots consistently decreasing, quality requirements increasing”.

However, the unprofitable production of local traditional apricot varieties is characteristic of the Fergana Valley. Since this region is located in the northern part of Uzbekistan, the start of apricot harvesting here falls at the peak of the harvest in the southern part of the country (for example, in the Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya regions). Therefore, there are enough production volumes in the country’s markets, and the prices for apricots are already low during this period.

It turns out that growing here apricot of the same varieties as in the south of the country is unprofitable, given the shift in the harvest season due to the climatic zone and the relatively small distances between the south, central part and north of Uzbekistan which makes the transport component in the cost of apricots brought from other regions of the republic small.

What are the options for preserving the areas planted with apricots?

The regions of the Fergana Valley in neighboring Tajikistan specialize in the cultivation of apricots for the production of dried apricots. A video about how fresh and dried apricots are grown, harvested, dried and sold in Tajikistan is available here.

If we talk about traditional Uzbek varieties of apricots for the fresh market, even for the southern regions and the central part of the country, it is the early varieties that are most profitable, both for the domestic market and for export.

The situation on the apricot market this year in Uzbekistan is rather an exception due to weather anomalies. In 2020, the wholesale prices for apricot were high only for two weeks – from the beginning of May ($4 per kg) to mid-May ($2 per kg), then by the 20th of May they decreased to $0.60 – at the time when the apricot harvest begins in the Fergana Valley. Having stayed at this level until the first days of June, average wholesale prices for apricots dropped to $0.30 per kg by the middle of the month.

By the way, farmers in the Fergana Valley may have another unused niche in the apricot business. “In Italy, you can buy locally produced fresh apricots 8-9 months a year, so farmers’ efforts are focused on extending the season not only by early varieties, including those grown under cover, but also by late varieties of apricots, which are grown in cooler regions and the hills. The sales season for apricots in Uzbekistan is very short, and prices for the last batch of apricots often rise to the same level as for the earliest varieties. Therefore, this can definitely be an additional opportunity for farmers of the Fergana Valley – focusing on late varieties and delaying their fruiting as much as possible with technological methods that are now quite accessible and known until the southern regions leave the market completely,” says Andriy Yarmak, Economist, Investments Centre, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Why are farmers in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan “switching” from apricot to peach?

First, the prices for peaches in the domestic market are on average twice as high as for apricots, as evidenced by data from the wholesale markets over the past few years.

Secondly, the assortment of local peach varieties by the ripening period allows you to stretch the harvesting and marketing season – from mid-June to October inclusive. In other words, if there are early, middle and late varieties of peach on a farm, you don’t need to put harvested fruits in refrigerators and you can continuously supply them to the market for almost four months and get revenue. This means you can more efficiently use labor, machinery and equipment, which is very important for such a seasonal business as farming.

Thirdly, if we are talking about laying new extensive orchards, in terms of the payback period, peach trees begin to bear fruit after 3 years, and apricot (local varieties) only after 7 years. Therefore, peach farm begins to pay off much earlier.

What does the combination of peaches and cherries give to a farm?

Such a combination, namely the division of the total area of ​​the farm into two parts – cherry and peach plantations, allows the farmer to supply his products to the fresh market almost continuously for 4-5 months (from the beginning of May to the end of August or September, depending on selection of varieties of cherries and peaches by the ripening period), without storing the products in refrigerators. This is extremely important in terms of efficiency in the use of horticultural, cooling and packaging equipment and for seasonal workers.

Taking into account local climatic conditions the harvesting scheme is as follows: the collection of early varieties of cherries begins and continues with later varieties in the first ten days of May. When the cherry season ends, the harvest of early peach varieties begins in 5-10 days, in mid-June, and continues with harvesting medium and late varieties until September-October.

How to reduce the risks of price fluctuations and weather anomalies?

According to farmers of the Uzbekistan district of Fergana region, one of the main reasons for the combination of cherries, peaches and apricots (dividing the total area of ​​a farm into three parts), along with the possibility of extending the sales season on fresh markets, is an attempt to reduce the risks of price fluctuations for these products and of crop failure.

For example, low prices for cherries can be offset by good prices for peaches and apricots, or vice versa. Likewise, a poor harvest on one of these crops is offset by a good or acceptable harvest for other crops from this set, as happened with apricots in 2021. In other words, diversification of the horticultural business is very appropriate in this case.

Of course, farmers in Uzbekistan should pay attention to frost protection technologies, such as above-crown sprinklers when the temperature drops to zero degrees, or machines for mixing air. Also, a promising direction is the cultivation of fruits under cover which allows not only to protect the fruit harvest from bad weather and birds but also to significantly improve the quality, reducing the use of plant protection products. We wrote about this in the article “Superintensive farm of large cherries from A to Z“.

Reduction of apricot plantations is a substitute for varieties

The observed significant reductions in apricot orchards, or the apricot part of horticultural plantations, mainly concern local traditional varieties that are sold in the domestic and foreign markets at the lowest price category. In most cases, peach plantations have been created in their place.

At the same time, there are cases of laying new apricot orchards or using more trendy varieties, such as “Shalakh”, “Hungarian”, etc. for the apricot part of farm plantations. In other words, there was not only a “switch” from apricot to peach, but also a “switch” from traditional apricot varieties to more expensive varieties of the fresh market.

The peculiarities of agribusiness in Central Asian countries, global technological trends in the fruit and vegetable business, current trends in the world and regional fruit and vegetable trade, as well as methods of finding business contacts for producers from Central Asia in the context of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic will be discussed at the online conference “Fruits, Nuts and Vegetables of Central Asia”, which will take place on June 8, 2021. The conference program is available here.

The online conference will be held on Zoom. Participation in the conference is free of charge, but subject to mandatory registration. Link for the registration is available here. We are happy to invite producers and exporters of Central Asia to register for the online conference.

The event starts at 14:00 (Tashkent, Dushanbe, Ashgabat), 15:00 (Nur-Sultan, Bishkek).

Сообщение Uzbekistan, second largest global apricot exporter is reducing it in favour of peaches появились сначала на EastFruit.

The Moldova Fruct Association, in partnership with the Livada Moldovei project and the Plant Production Research Center in Cesena (Italy) have launched an initiative to test new peach and apricot varieties in the country, MOLDPRES reported.

For this, 14 varieties were selected for testing in the southern and central regions of the country. Platimoon, Orihuela, Sweet Cap, Ufo and Alissa are some of the varieties that have been selected with the help of Italian partners and grown on the fields of two member companies of the Moldova Fruct Association.

“Moldova currently does not have the opportunity to research and test new varieties, and producers are forced to test different varieties directly in production and often risk their investments. We decided to take the first steps in testing so that people could see in practice how different varieties of peach and apricot behave, and then make the right decision,” Evgeniy Bumakov, agribusiness specialist at Moldova Fruct explained.

Experts say that at the moment there is a market for all types of fruits, but it is necessary to choose the modern varieties that are most demanded by consumers. According to experts, the field of research in the country has lagged behind, and reform is needed, along with updating other sectors and the legislative framework. This takes time, but the horticultural sector needs solutions now, so the association, together with partners, took the first steps to offer these solutions to producers.

“The Association invites representatives of research institutes to make recommendations. We are grateful to the producers who volunteered to try the varieties on their land. In the next period, all the accumulated experience will be used in the seminars that we organize for our members, as well as for all producers concerned,” Iurie Fala, Executive Director of the Moldova Fruct Association, concluded.

Сообщение Moldovan producers will test Italian varieties of peach and apricot появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit experts completed a preliminary assessment of damage to stone fruit (cherries, apricots, peaches, and plums), as well as almonds in Uzbekistan from the second wave of frosts that swept across the country in mid-March. As we expected, damage to stone fruit increased dramatically.

Since Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of peaches, nectarines and plums and the main exporter of fresh apricots to Russia, a decrease in the yield of these fruit will significantly affect stone fruit prices in Russia. The decrease in the apricot yield will have an even greater impact on the dried fruit market, because dried apricots are the main type of dried fruit exported. Russian importers will need to look for alternatives to Uzbek fresh and dried fruit.

The first wave of frosts at the end of February 2021, after a period of abnormal heat that provoked early blooming, caused serious damage to the early apricot in the central region of Uzbekistan. You can read about the estimated losses after the first wave here. If the partial loss of the early apricot harvest was undesirable but not critical, now it is becoming threatening for many producers, because the second wave led to an increase in losses not only of apricots, but also of other stone fruits, which bloomed by mid-March.

At the moment, Uzbekistan is expected to lose more than half of its apricot and almond harvest. Also, in some regions, the harvest of sweet cherry is almost completely lost, although for other fruit the harvest is still quite good. Losses of peaches and plums may be slightly lower than that of apricots and almonds, but perhaps comparable to those of cherries. Serious problems are expected also on the quality of the harvest since frost during and before flowering, as a rule, leads to fruit defects and prevents full pollination.

It should also be noted that there are still several months of growing season ahead, which can lead to new unpleasant surprises. However, we will present the regions that suffered more and those that suffered less, as well the regions where stone fruits and almonds resisted better to the bad weather wave.

We interviewed more than 30 producers  from different regions of Uzbekistan, that together represent 95% of the total production of fruit and berries in the republic (in accordance with data from the report of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on statistics on the volume of agricultural, forestry and fishery products for 2020).

In the overall picture of damage to the yield of stone fruit, the Khorezm region and the Republic of Karakalpakstan stand out positively, where the estimated loss of apricot yield is only about 10%. Unlike other areas, these regions did not experience any abnormal warming in February 2021. For example, the average temperature in Urgench (the administrative center of the Khorezm region) was noticeably lower than in the rest of the country, and only once in the entire month the temperature exceeded +15 degrees. In Nukus (administrative center of Karakalpakstan), the average temperature in February was even lower. Such weather conditions ensured the so-called calendar transition to spring and did not allow fruit trees to “wake up too early”, which is not a case in other regions of Uzbekistan. Obviously, producers of Khorezm and Karakalpakstan will be able to make good money on apricot this year, because a lower harvest in the country could lead to a significant increase in average prices for these fruits.

In the overwhelming majority of agricultural producing regions of Uzbekistan (in 9 out of 13), the loss of apricot yield is estimated from 40% to 90% and they make 88% of the total production of fruit and berries. According to a survey of producers, in these regions most of the late apricot varieties retained their harvest, and on the contrary, losses on early varieties and the average ripening period are estimated from 70% to 99%.

According to Azizbek Khamraliev, a farmer from Kuvasay, Fergana region, late apricot varieties, relatively new for Uzbekistan and adapted to local conditions (for example, the Orange Ruby variety) seem more frost-resistant. So far, according to the producer, he has not noticed any damage to the harvest of this variety and other new late type varieties. In his opinion, the establishment of apricot orchards by distributing its area among varieties from early to late can ensure a regular harvest from May to September, which is a global trend (see the presentation of Andriy Yarmak, FAO economist for more details). Moreover, EastFruit analysts believe that this method will also mitigate damage from such frosts, since later varieties are more protected in such situations.

The apricots and almonds were the most affected by two successive frost waves. Losses of apricot harvest can reach 60-65% on average in Uzbekistan at the moment. Almond yield losses are estimated within the same range, or even slightly higher.

About half of peach, nectarine and plum harvest in Uzbekistan can be lost.

Cherry crops seem to have suffered less in the Fergana Valley. However, even here, 5-15% of the harvest may be lost, and problems with the quality of the fruits may also arise. In the Metropolitan area, almost all of cherries have been lost, according to preliminary estimates – farmers expect to receive only about 10% of what they had previously expected. In Bukhara and Samarkand regions, only 50-70% of the expected cherry harvest will be gathered. On average in the country, losses in sweet cherry yield are estimated at 25-30%.

Several farmers surveyed have already noted that now the flowers of some fruit trees do not look “healthy”. Even though they bloomed after the February and March frosts, there is no certainty about the quantity and quality of their future harvest.

Such significant losses, on the one hand, can lead to an increase in prices in the domestic fruit market, and, on the other hand, low-quality fruits are unlikely to be sold at a high price on the fresh market. The supply of raw materials to producers of juices, purees, concentrates and dried fruits will also decrease, which means that high prices should be expected here.

According to EastFruit, in 2020 Uzbekistan exported to the Russian market directly more than 217 thousand tons of fresh and dried fruit and nuts worth about $ 224 million. However, in 2021 the volume of Uzbek fruit exports to Russia will sharply decrease.

Сообщение Prices of Uzbek apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines and almonds are expected to soar due to frost loses появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit specialists have been bringing attention to the current serious threat to future fruit harvests from the cold cyclone hitting Central Asia. Many growers and farmers in Uzbekistan are using traditional ways to protect orchards from sudden changes in temperature on budding or flowering trees. They prepare a mixture of manure and hay, place such heaps throughout the orchard, and set them on fire. The resulting thick smoke envelops the orchard and thus helps to protect trees from sub-zero temperatures.

Local resident Gulnora Abdunazarova-Seitmaganbetova posted the video below on her Facebook page showing another method of warming fruit trees in intensive orchards during a period of unexpected frosts in Uzbekistan. The video shows an intensive orchard in the Yukorichirchik district of the Tashkent region (Farm Eco Agro Product) with peach trees on which the first buds have already appeared.

The farmer placed 1,250 buckets mixed with a ratio of 30% ash + 70% diesel fuel (diesel oil) per bucket across 10 hectares. The buckets are located approximately 8 to 10 meters apart on opposite sides of the row spacing.

Read also: Bonfires in orchards – farmers of Tajikistan save the harvest

The mixture burns throughout the night, but you have to add new portions to the mixture every 3-4 hours so the work of maintaining the fire and heat goes on all night. 12 people were involved in this agricultural rescue work.

The outcome will be noticeable in 3 days. If the buds do not turn black, then the efforts were not in vain and the orchard and the future harvest are saved.

EastFruit will continue to closely monitor developments in the countries of Central Asia and promptly inform about all changes.

Сообщение Saving peach orchards – how to warm fruit trees in Uzbekistan (video) появились сначала на EastFruit.