Fruit growers face worst scenario in 60 years

Vegetable and fruit growers are facing the worst time since 1957 after three nights of frost in succession have killed off much new growth. Producers of apples, pears, cherries, damsons and grapes have all been particularly badly affected.
 
“The situation is most frustrating and shocking,” said Louis Suter, who is responsible for fruit growing in the canton of Zug. We have not faced times like this in 60 years. While we cannot say for certain, it looks as if we will only be able to produce between 10% and 15% of the usual crops.”
 
Suter went on to explain that the damage was not just as a result of the three successive nights of frost last week, but the cold winds which prevailed, too. This prevented measures undertaken to raise the temperatures near plants, such as the use of paraffin candles, from being effective; the wind blew them out. Furthermore, freezing temperatures continued until 8.30 am, which is very late for this time of the year.
 
One business which has been particularly badly affected is that run by the Hotz family in Deinikon. “It is an absolute catastrophe,” said Hermann Hotz, the emotion evident in his voice. “I have never experienced anything like this. 95% of what we grow has been ruined.” Indeed, he has already had to dismiss three of his full-time staff and more redundancies could be in the pipeline.
 
Another fruit-growing business run by the Boog family is Hünenberg has also been badly affected, though they have managed to save their crops of bilberries and apricots by spraying them with a fine droplets of water which, when it freezes, forms a protective coating over the blossom or developing fruit. “We do not yet know what the full extent of the damage is,” said Jonas Boog. “What is sure is that we have lost our total crop of asparagus, though we will have another in ten days’ time. It looks as if there will be far fewer strawberries and raspberries, this year, too. We will just have to wait and see what the weather is like over the next few weeks.”
 
The situation is equally catastrophic for winegrowers, as Konrad Burch, the president of the Steinhausen Winegrowing Cooperative (on the right in the photograph with Ferdi Lötscher), confirmed. “We have lost 90% of new shoots,” he said, referring to the 1,000 vines which grow near the graveyard. “We were not able to protect them from the cold. And if these low temperatures continue, we will have lost everything,” he said, as he clings to the hope that some new shoots will still sprout.
 
Alas, the weather forecast for fruit growers is not good, with the snow line expected to fall to as low as 500 metres on Wednesday, and temperatures near freezing predicted.