Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Frosts Cause Damage Leading to Significant Fruit Shortages in 2006
The weekly journal of the Ukrainian produce business "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" reports very low temperatures engulfed Crimea for a record period of time. Experts are saying with a great deal of confidence that a large area of fruit acreage was severely damaged and/or killed by frosts in the region, which will negatively affect harvests. To make matters worse, the risk for fruit trees' root system to be damaged is great in intensive orchards. These have a less developed root system therefore leaving it mainly concentrated close to the surface and frozen ground. Ultimately, the real scale of losses can be estimated only after the end of the severe frosts and conclusions made after the orchards finish blooming. Low temperatures are still present and spring a ways off on the horizon.
The opinion of the Agricultural Marketing Project's experts is that fruit trees and vineyards of steppe rayons of Crimea are in a critical situation right now. Despite low probability for fruit trees and vine to be killed by frost, a majority of the fruit buds will be lost. In the southern coastal rayons of Crimea critically low temperatures were present for a shorter period of time and there is a chance that at least apple trees will be able to tolerate the extreme weather. The already pruned orchards are in the greatest danger (pruning starts already in January in Crimea, depending on temperatures) and up to 90% of the harvest could die in those orchards, which have already been pruned.