The fruit harvest season is in full swing. Our harvesters are working on many plantations in Poland and abroad. This year, due to the weather, it hasn’t been favorable for the growers. However, in many places, the crops have been successful. In some countries, high fruit purchase prices have allowed for a quick return on the costs incurred to maintain plantations and orchards in good condition, as well as a return on investment in new machines.
This year, weather conditions in Poland have significantly accelerated the ripening of fruits. This means that in many plantations in Poland, the harvest has long been completed or is just finishing up. Nevertheless, we managed to visit a few places where our harvesters are working. Take a look at the 2024 season.
The beginning of the fruit season first involves the harvesting of gooseberries and haskap berries. This year, we once again visited the BioHaskap plantation, where KAREN harvester was used for picking berries for the third consecutive year. The plantation is in very good condition after the machine harvest, and the collected fruits are of high quality.
The plantation owners grow the haskap berries appropriately for harvesting with the machine. They then process the fruits and use them in products offered in the BioHaskap online store.
This year, the summer raspberry harvest season was quite brief and fast. However, in June, we managed to visit a plantation where the KAREN harvester was working on the Vilamette variety.
The raspberry plantation was growing with T-support and fruits were picked into small boxes. During the harvest, the harvester prsonel sorted the raspberries on the selection conveyor.
In many places in Poland, the black currant harvest was damaged by late spring frosts this year. Consequently, the reduced market supply led to high purchase prices. Where plantations survived or the frost did not reach, the yields were fruitful. Similar to raspberries, the season started early and was short and intense.
We managed to visit plantations where JOANNA-5 PREMIUM harvesters were in operation.
In cherry orchards, spring frosts also caused considerable damage. Nonetheless, many regions in Poland managed to achieve really good crops. The high market price for cherries was also surprising. It’s no wonder that harvesting machines for these fruits were in high demand, even before the season began.
The MAJA AUTOMATIC harvester was particularly popular. One reason for this is the increasing difficulty in finding workers, including those needed to operate equipment with manually folded and unfolded tarps.
We started the cherry season in early June in Serbia. There, once again, we delivered FELIX Z tractor-mounted harvesters. Our service team was present during the machine setup and the first days of harvesting.
At the beginning of July, we used a harvester on a blueberry plantation for the first time in this season. Our service team was present for the setup of the machine. On this farm, the harvester complements manual picking, meaning that smaller fruits are destined for the industrial market. Similar to other sectors, there is also a deficiency of people picking fruits by hand. Owning a harvester helps ensure a continuous harvest and protects against a deficiency of workers or low market prices, making manual picking economically unfeasible.
We don’t like to stand in the same place and we continuously develop our offer by carefully listening to our customers’ feedback. This fruit season, we introduced a new model of the MAJA AUTOMATIC LT harvester, featuring a head mounted on a hydraulic crane. This innovation has shortened the harvesting time and improved both the comfort and safety of operating the machine.
Harvests of other fruits are ahead of us. In the plum orchards have already begun harvesting the first varieties. Mechanical harvesting should start in early August. We plan to visit a plum orchard where the FELIX Z harvester will be used for picking plums.
Aronia is starting to ripen, and there are positive forecasts for producers of these berries. There’s also a lot of talk about the high demand for industrial apples. As always, fruitful harvests are with us, so be sure to follow our social media channels, where we regularly update you on our visits to plantations and orchards.