Fruit and berry growing in Latvia

Fruit and berry growing has old traditions in Latvia, and the climatic conditions and soil are favourable for it. Successful development started in fruit growing before the 2nd World War. After the renewal of independence of Latvia in 1991, as a result of the agricultural reform, many farmers have recognized fruit growing as one of the ways of successful investment. Since subsidies are paid for the establishment of orchards, the areas of fruit plantations are growing rapidly. Still a major part of orchards are home gardens, and the significant amount fruits and berries produced there is not sufficiently accounted for in statistics. Apples are by far the most widely grown fruit crop in all types of orchards, about 9 000 ha. Yet only 1 300 ha of these are commercial orchards (larger than 1 ha and planted with the aim to produce fruits for market). The largest part of commercial orchards: 76.8% were planted in the last 9 years. The number of apple varieties grown is too big for the needs of super markets; the 10 most popular cultivars make only 45.7% of plantation area. The most widely grown are 'Antonovka' (in older orchards), 'Auksis', 'Sinap Orlovskii' and 'Antei'. As a large part of the plantations are still young, the average yield per hectare is not high, yet the average yields obtained at research institutions and the best farms – 30-40 t/ha – demonstrate that with improved orchard management such yields can be obtained in most orchards. Fruit storage still uses mostly traditional cool storage; research has only started to promote implementation of modern storage technologies. The areas of black currants, red and white currants, raspberries and strawberries also have rapidly increased during the last 10 years. As technologies reducing risks (irrigation, protection against frosts, various top covers) are not widely used, the average yields are low and unstable. There are still problems in the harvesting, freezing and processing of berries; therefore during the last years the number of berry growers has reduced. At the same time, these problems have been successfully solved in many farms. The proportion of other fruit crops, which present more risks in production and which have few well-adapted cultivars with good fruit quality, is low. Pears, plums and cherries make only 13% of the total orchard area. Relatively stable yields are obtained in the growing of crops which are well-adapted to Latvian climate, but so far less known – sea buckthorn and large-fruited cranberries. Their total areas are still small, but show stable increase. There are also successful solutions in the harvesting and processing of the produce. The current experience shows that, as long as risk-reducing technologies are not introduced into the cultivation of high bush blueberries, the growing of this crop can be economically risky. The farm size is different – small farms with orchard area 1 to 3 hectares dominate, they form about 40% of total orchard area. About 50% of the area make farms with 3 to 15 ha orchards, and only 6% are larger farms over 15 hectares. Insufficient cooperation is an obstacle to faster development of fruit growing, although there are some cooperatives formed. Specialized farms dominate – 38% of farms are growing only one species, and 34% of farms grow 2 or 3 fruit or berry species. Integrated growing system was introduced in most farms since 2006.