the spring heat forces market gardeners to throw away 70% of their strawberry harvest

In the middle of the plot, among the farm workers, Chaouki Sabani picks strawberries at ground level, but most remain on the ground. “We throw a lotrecognizes the employee. We throw away the equivalent of 70% of goods. It’s huge, it had never happened and it hurts my heart.”

A catastrophic harvest under the eyes of Laurent Dirat, the owner of this six-hectare farm, located in Gramont (Tarn-et-Garonne). “To see this spoiled merchandise, it breaks my guts”, he said.

This unprecedented situation is due to the early heat which accelerated the ripening of the fruit. “The heat that we have been experiencing for three weeks, where we have temperatures of 10 or even 15 degrees above normal, means that the strawberries ripen in two days.explains Laurent Dirat. That is to say that we would have to pass three times a week to be able to harvest, and for that we would have to have exactly three times as many employees.

There are already about fifty of them, so it would take 150 to pick all the strawberries in time. Impossible for this market gardener who denounces the inaction of large retailers: “These strawberries will be slightly overripe, and therefore unsaleable.”

“What I really regret is that the supermarkets cannot help us because these strawberries would make exceptional jam and you can’t find jam strawberries in the supermarket.”

Laurent Dirat, owner of a strawberry farm in Gramont

at franceinfo

Disgusted, Laurent Dirate plans to reduce his production by a third next year. “I don’t want to relive a year like this”admits the producer who also wonders about the future: with global warming, growing strawberries will be more and more difficult. “With too high temperatures, we won’t be able to. On the other hand, replace it with what? You know, I rack my brains every day, it’s complicated.”

His gaze at the moment often turns to North Africa. “Already for a few years, a sector has been developing, that of protein crops, pulses, which come originally from the Maghreb. It is difficult to be able to change completely, but in any case, everything is completely restored. question.” A necessary reflection to know what the orchards of tomorrow could look like.