"The severe frost in Ivanjica and its surroundings caused great damage to all fruit species, especially plums and raspberries. Some fruit growers lit a fire around the plums, and the extent of the damage will be known in the coming days. Unfortunately, a cold wave is being announced again, so this year we have nothing to hope for," says za OzonePress one of the largest fruit growers in Ivanjica.
These days, the frost is killing fruit in Ivanjica. The temperature drops to minus four degrees at night, which led to the freezing of leaves and flowers. And while the rain and cold weather have been good for the farmers, fruit growers in other parts of Serbia are looking anxiously at the blossoming branches.
Snow fell in Čačak, Šabac, Kosjerić, Užice, Arilj and Sjenica. Snow also fell in the area of Zlatibor and Tara.
It's too early to talk about the price
A mild and warm winter was the signal for the fruit to bud and bloom. Because of the unstable weather, this is a problem for fruit growing.
As farmer Tomislav Jelić from the Čačak area previously told "Vreme", fruit growers can't do anything there, except to wait. "Apricot would have already perished at minus one." Apples and pears would last maybe down to minus five."
"Until now, it hasn't happened to me that everything froze, I was losing 20 to 30 percent." But in the Čačan basin, it happened that the whole family went. I am a fruit grower who has no other source of income. It's a terrible feeling. But I trust in luck," said this farmer.
Fruit growers had similar headaches last year, when they somehow "thundered" through an unstable March, only to be greeted by snow in April.
That was one of the reasons for the high price of fruit in the year after us. Nevertheless, today it is still too early to talk about the potential increase in the price of fruit, considering that the frost did not affect all parts of Serbia, as well as because not every variety of fruit is equally sensitive to low temperatures.
Raspberries under the snow
Low temperatures in April especially worry raspberry growers, because "red gold" is also grown at higher altitudes, which were surprised by snow these days. What raspberry growers are worried about is how the snow situation in April will affect the crop and purchase price of raspberries.
"What the crop will be this year is now under a big question mark." If the price is even 1.000 dinars per kilogram, it is not worth anything to us," he told the portal Agroclub raspberry from the village of Alin grm near Ljubovija Siniša Bojić, who has a hectare of land under this fruit. Bojić produced 13 tons of raspberries last year.
The Ministry of Agriculture previously said that raspberry growers will not have a problem this year when it comes to the purchase price.
"I would tell the producers to continue dealing with raspberries and our red gold, to open new markets." What is important is that we will enter the new raspberry buying season with slightly more than 20.000 tons. That's good information," said Minister of Agriculture Jelena Tanasković at the Kopaonik Business Forum in early March.
Insurance companies aren't naive either.
In Western Europe, fruit growers know how to light special torches and heat up their trees, and this is exactly how some Ivanjica farmers try to help their frozen raspberries. In addition, there is also the production of "artificial rain" by sprinkler systems. Constant spraying during frost coats the fruit with thin ice and keeps it at a temperature around zero degrees, but not below that.
But, as Tomislav Jelić from Čačak told "Vreme", such a system costs thousands of euros and consumes a huge amount of water. Approximately eight hundred liters per hectare of orchard - every minute.
The state helps here and there, for example covering part of the insurance. But insurance companies also know about climate change.
"They rarely insure against frost," says Jelić. "Let's say, Dunav Insurance offered me that the insurance against frost starts on April 24 - and what will I do then, there will certainly be no frost then."
Small farmers the most vulnerable
The greatest fear of fruit growers is not frost, but uncertainty. Climate change is causing increasingly unstable weather conditions, and experts warn that large temperature oscillations will occur more and more often in the future.
Meteorologist Vladimir Đorđević says that the problems brought by unstable weather are mostly faced by small farmers.
"The large agricultural producers that are beginning to dominate the market, such as Delta Agrar, Al Dahra and others, are mostly technologically and financially powerful, so it is easy for them to suffer such climate shocks." They do not need the state to help them. For small producers, this is a question of 'to be or not to be'. "One or two bad seasons can make life miserable for them for the next ten years," Đorđević concludes.
