A Windfall Year for the Apple Harvest

The farmers in the north were pleasantly surprised by the current season’s most welcome and abundant crop, which amounted to a 20% increase over last year’s harvest.

In summing up the current season the farmers of Northern Israel were very satisfied thanks to this impressive increase in their yields. The estimated 118 thousand tons of apples picked in the orchards of the Galilee and the northern regions constitute an increase of about 20% more fruit compared to the previous year.

This increase is surprising, considering last winter’s drought when the rainfall was particularly low in the north of the country. However, last winter’s especially cold weather was ideal for the deciduous orchards and enhanced this apple crop’s needs, yielding crops of outstanding quality as far as fruit size, color and taste are concerned

 

This success in the north was explained by the reduction of 25% in the irrigation water and thinning out the small fruit following the guidelines issued by the researchers at the Northern Research and Development center, to attain an optimal fruit load on the trees. Furthermore, this summer’s prevailing temperatures were relatively low, a factor which helped impart the fruit with its fine purple color in the colored apple varieties.

The apple orchards in Israel cover an area of 4.2 thousand hectares, and 95% of the fruit is grown along the northern border, in the Galilee and the north of Israel.  When there are fruit surpluses the apples grown in the orchards belonging to the Druze farmers are transferred to the Syrian market.    
 
Source: Hamodia Newspaper, published on September 16, 2014.