Canada: Nova Scotia fruit growers hope for a recovery year for peaches, but face perfect storm of issues affecting returns on 2023 apple crop

Peach growers are hopeful for a better year in 2024 after the polar vortex in February 2023 wiped out much of the crop before it even had a chance to start growing. Emily Lutz, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association, said Wednesday that there is optimism that most of the peach trees will recover from the damage. “It does look like it’s going to be a good recovery,” she said. “But, weather in Nova Scotia is all over the place and a lot could change between now and August when we harvest the peaches.” But the vortex wasn’t the only thing that affected fruit growers last year. While apple yields were good and storm damage was minimal, the constant rain last year caused issues. “We had a rough storage year. Because of all the rain we had, a lot of the apples bruised in storage, and the quality has not been as good as we were hoping and grower returns are way down,” Lutz said. “There are a lot of growers feeling stressed about the returns their apples are ...