Water shortage leaves hundreds of tonnes of Swiss plums unsold

Hundreds of tonnes of Swiss plums cannot be sold and are rotting after the harvest fell well short of expectations, SRF reported. The Swiss Fruit Association had forecast 3,600 tonnes, but growers harvested only about 3,200 tonnes of the blue-violet fruit.

Mathias Faehr, a fruit grower from Allaman in the canton of Vaud, said he had never experienced a harvest like this. He manages two plots covering about 4.5 hectares.

“We have to throw the plums away because mould is forming on the fruit,” Faehr told RTS, the French-language Swiss radio and television broadcaster.

The Fellenberg plum variety, which dominates the Swiss market, must have a diameter of at least 33 millimetres. Water shortages left many plums too small to meet that requirement.

Faehr was allowed to irrigate the trees on one of his plots with tap water several times during the summer. He abandoned the other plot. “It is a total loss,” he said, estimating that about 20 tonnes of plums were too small to sell and would rot on the trees or on the ground.

Changing consumption habits

The crop problems come alongside concerns about the plum’s declining popularity. Luc Magnollay, vice president of the Swiss Fruit Association, said younger generations have different consumption habits.

Earlier generations may have been used to making mainly jam and compote or freezing plums to build up supplies for the winter, Magnollay said. Younger consumers, he added, tend to eat fresh fruit instead, costing plums market share.