The heads of large horticultural agricultural enterprises in the south of Moldova argue that due to weak pollination, the potential 2021 harvest of cherries will be about 20% lower than in the dry last year. This was clear in May when the trees in the cherry orchards dropped a lot of fruits. Cracking of the still green fruits began due to the rains in late May – early June.
In the central and several northern regions, the situation is slightly better (in the sense that the pollination period took place a little later under more favorable weather conditions there). However, the ripening of middle and late cherry varieties is slow everywhere due to the large difference between night and day air temperatures. The period of peak harvesting and product entry into the market is shifted by another week. It means it will take place at the end of the second decade of June. Farmers are trying to sanitize cherry orchards, but light rains almost every day reduce their effectiveness. As a result, quantity and quality of the crop are forecasted to be lower by approximately another 5-10%.
According to expert estimates, the total area of cherry orchards in Moldova is 7.5 thousand hectares. The harvest of these stone fruits amounted to about 11 thousand tons in 2020, to 20 thousand tons in 2019 and to 19 thousand tons in 2018. If the negative forecasts prove to be correct, cherry harvest this year will be the lowest in the last six years.
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