There is a need to reorganize production on domestic apricot plantations

Although spring frosts have caused serious headaches for domestic apricot growers in recent years, this year the plantations suffered such severe damage due to the prolonged cooling and frosty period during the spring flowering period that 70-95 percent of the crop was destroyed. The frost did not only hit our country – the spring cooling also caused significant damage in the most important apricot-growing countries in Europe – but the extent of the frost’s impact is the greatest here. There are several reasons for this: in addition to weather anomalies, a fundamental problem is that the majority of our domestic apricot plantations are located in areas that are ecologically less suitable for apricots or unsuitable for planting.

Apricots are grown on approximately 5,000 hectares in our country, with the most important growing regions concentrated in Pest and Bács-Kiskun counties, as well as in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (1,100 hectares), Somogy and Tolna counties, but there are also significant plantations in Fejér county. However, due to the drastic frost damage that occurred in recent years, the previously initiated expansion of the production area has stopped; Between 2013 and 2020, the area of ​​plantations increased from 4,000 hectares to 5,700.

Due to severe frost damage occurring year after year, the annual yield shows significant variation. While before 2018, the harvested quantity ranged between 20 and 35 thousand tons depending on the vintage, in 2023 only 6-8 thousand tons of apricots were produced in the country.