Growers must concentrate on niche varieties Another huge crop disaster? Faced with the prospect of another glut in the summer stone fruit market, European growers have been told to get their act together or face bankruptcy in three or four years time. Speaking at Europech in Perpignan, conference president Laurent Favel said 1999 had been one of the worst years on record and hinted that the 2000 EU stone fruit estimates promise more of the same with 2,809,000 tonnes predicted over last year's 2,797,000 tonnes. Another repeat would begin to drive many growers towards bankruptcy, said Favel. He urged the French, Italian, Spanish and Greek industries to work more closely together and suggested reducing the number of less popular varieties to concentrate on the highly coloured, sweeter fruits currently bred in the US ­ although it would take at least four years for new orchards to mature. The European stone fruit industry has heard similar calls before, but Favel goaded delegates by adding: "Let's stop standing on the sidelines and start acting together through an increased awareness of the overall market and how we can perform better in it." While peach production has shown a slight increase this year, nectarines remain static and apricots register a 14% fall. Some varieties, known as pavies, go for processing and do not affect the fresh market. There are some regional variations. French peach production, for example, is fractionally down,while nectarines show a 4% rise. {{FRESH PRODUCE }}

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