NOS/Jeroen SchutijserFruit grower Frans Rijk with his beetle-infested apples
NOS News•today, 09:02•Edited today, 09:56
More and more apple growers in our country are dealing with a poorer harvest. This is due to an insect of about 6 millimeters: the apple blossom beetle.
The beetle was first only active in the south, but the animal has now also been frequently traced elsewhere in the country.
Grower Frans Rijk in Dronten is also suffering from this. He grows different types of apples, such as Jonagold and Elstar, on 10 hectares of land, 100,000 square meters. “We had a very nice harvest last year and then you think: next year again. Only this spring the apple blossom beetle came to visit.”
deformed
In the spring, adult beetles flock to the apple trees. The beetle reproduces by piercing the blossom. In some flowers it lays an egg, from which a larva hatches; those flowers don’t turn into apples.
Grower Rijk has noticed this: “Some trees are completely empty. And what is hanging there is deformed. We can write off half of the harvest.”
Means against the beetle, such as Exirel and Raptol, can be ordered online, but that does not mean that fruit growers are also allowed to use those insecticides. Growers must indicate to a supplier what they grow. Delivery is only made once it has been demonstrated that they are allowed to use the product. That is not for fruit growers, says Siep Koning, director of the Dutch Fruit Growers Organization. “It may be for sale, we work according to the law.”
NOS/Jeroen SchutijserA diseased apple
Pesticides are checked by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) and the Board for the Authorization of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb). They determine whether a product may be used and Raptol and Exirel are not allowed in the Netherlands for fruit growers.
King finds that bitter. “Other countries are allowed to use the drug. As a sector, we want a level playing field.” Growers can apply for emergency authorization for a product. “We will apply for this for next year for these resources”, Koning announces.
We see it as a kind of paracetamol, you don’t just take it because you can. You only use it when necessary.
Frans Rijk, fruit grower
The problem according to the industry is that there is no more environmentally friendly alternative to combat the beetle. Wageningen University has been looking for an alternative way to protect crops against the beetles for years, says Herman Helsen, an insect control researcher at the university. “There are methods that contribute to controlling the insect. But we don’t have an effective method that makes chemical control superfluous at the moment.”
“There are a number of parasitic wasps that attack the apple blossom beetle, but the big problem is that we can’t get them into the orchards in large numbers,” says researcher Helsen. It works well in greenhouse horticulture, with other types of wasps.
Although there is no complete solution yet, according to Helsen there are already toxin-free options. For example, beetles are preventively removed from an orchard by means of bait tubes.
According to grower Frans Rijk, such alternatives do not offer a solution for the time being and growers are still dependent on pesticides. “We see it as a kind of paracetamol, you don’t just take it because you can. You only use it when necessary. Now we don’t have any remedy against the beetle. If there are more years like this, it will be very difficult in fruit cultivation.”
Pear harvest also affected
Protective equipment is necessary for the time being, says director Koning of the trade association. “If you can’t control it, the pest will continue to build up every year. If you suppress it properly, you don’t need anything to control it for two to three years.”
Most of the 200 million kilos of apple harvest is for the domestic market. It is not yet certain whether the prices for apples in the supermarket will rise. According to Koning, that depends on the cultivation throughout Europe.
Not only the apple trees are having a hard time, the Dutch harvest of pears has also been affected. But then by a different kind of beetle: the pear bud beetle. The plague is also building up there, says Koning. That insect can possibly be controlled with means in the autumn. The trade association has applied for an emergency permit for this.
2023-07-24 07:02:15
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