France: The chestnut harvest season has started in Limousin

"We have at least a week ahead of the harvest," explains the president of the Limousin chestnut producers' union, but also president of the Tech-Châtaigne trade show, which is held every two years. "It started falling around the 15th, due to the drought," he continues. (26 hectares of chestnut orchards today). “We had great potential. Unlike the last two years which were bad, we had good flowering, very good pollination, it went well, there was wind, it was dry for pollination at the end of June. So we see that there are a lot of bugs in the trees, but a chestnut harvest is not like an apple, it is very difficult to estimate. And what will come into play is that we did not have any water. The chestnut takes on water until the last moment: if we had had good rains, even at the beginning of September - or even now for the Marigoule variety it takes until the end -, but what I see while harvesting, it He's an average caliber and from that point of view, it's a disappointment because ...