June 26 2007, 09:16

Apricot harvest will decline thrice in Armenia in 2007

Apricot harvest has declined thrice down to 15-16 thousand tons in 2007 comparing to more than 50 thousands of tons of harvest a year ago. Garnik Petrosyan, the Chief of Plant Production Department, the Ministry of Agriculture of Republic of Armenia provided this information to "Delovoy Express".

He said that severe frosts injured apricot orchards a lot. Frosts caused the total loss in agriculture worth to the amount of $1.29 mln, and most part of the loss was preconditioned by poor apricot harvest, Mr. Petrosyan added. The Chief of Department points out that Armenian apricots are mostly exported to Russia. The export amounted to 8-9,000 tons past year; the Armenian processing enterprises preserved 5,000 tons of apricots. Mr. Petrosyan thinks that the deficit for apricots will be observed on market this year because of the poor harvest, so that the price for this fruit may grow.

The analysts of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal" inform that Ukrainian apricot has also been severely injured by spring frosts. According to the tentative estimations, apricot production will be approximately twice as low than usual. But, apricot orchards suffered in 2007 less than a year ago, so that apricot harvest 2007 will grow 50-70% comparing to 2006; it may amount to around 45-50,000 tons.