Last week, during the annual National Conference of Walnut Growers of the Republic of Moldova, a new forecast for the current year’s walnut harvest was announced. Oleg Tirsina, chairman of the Union of Walnut Crops Associations of Moldova, believes that this year the walnut harvest will be “at least 30% higher than last year.”
In 2020, according to statistics, the gross harvest of walnuts (in-shell) in Moldova amounted to almost 15 thousand tons. This is significantly lower than the average volume- about 25 thousand tons, collected in the country over the past five years. The low production is due to the fact that at least half of all types of nut crops last year were seriously affected by spring frosts and summer droughts. The impact of this damage will be felt to some extent over another one or two seasons.
Perhaps for this very reason, even if the walnut harvest in Moldova is 30% higher than last year, it will amount to no more than 20 thousand tons, i.e. will be on average 5 thousand tons lower than the long-term average.
Earlier EastFruit reported that there was no consensus among walnut growers-members of the industry union in the first half of August regarding the assessment of the new walnut crop. The optimistic version of the forecast at that time was a 7-10% increase over 2020. The increase in the assessment to the level announced at the conference of walnut growers is motivated by good weather conditions in August and high forecasts of walnut production in large specialized farms.
At the same time, the union’s experts note that due to precipitation in the second half of August, diseases are spreading in the walnuts orchards. This requires increased attention of walnut processors to the tasks of sorting products, preparing them for storage and sale.
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