According to the US Department of agriculture (USDA), the global peach and nectarine production is expected to decrease by 1.1 million tons to 21 million tons in the 2020 / 21 stone fruit season due to bad weather. With the exception of Turkey, most of the big countries with stone production will contract in this season.
In April, heavy snow in China's major peach producing provinces affected fruit production, resulting in an estimated drop of 500000 tons of stone fruit production to 14.5 million tons. In addition, Russia's continued ban on Chinese fruits led to a further decline of more than 30% in stone fruit exports.
In addition, EU production is expected to be 3.5 million tons, down 600000 tons from last year's record level. "Destructive weather has affected production in the major producing countries of Spain, Italy, Greece and France. In the past few years, excess peach production has also led to reduced acreage in Spain, Italy and France, "the USDA report said.
Due to the weather, the United States is expected to produce 26000 tons less than that in 2019 / 20 to 691000 tons.
Contrary to the trend is Turkey, which is expected to grow for the sixth consecutive year. This year's production is expected to increase by 40000 tons to 870000 tons due to good weather during flowering and harvesting. Exports will increase accordingly, which will stimulate further investment and expansion of Turkey's stone fruit industry.