Instead of a bumper harvest, Lithuanian fruit growers are cutting down trees and counting catastrophic losses. Some in the industry say the country has not seen orchards damaged on this scale since the late 1960s, with the vast majority of trees bearing traditional Lithuanian varieties killed outright by the cold.
Arvydas Paškevičius, director of Aukštikalniai Orchards in the Pasvalys district, is facing ruin. Across more than 200 hectares, he is having to fell apple trees that did not survive the winter. Many will have to be removed entirely; others are being given a chance to recover, though it is already clear there will be no harvest from them this year.
"Blossoms get caught by frost – that happens. But trees freezing to death? That's a first. We have trees in the old orchard planted back in 1974, and this year they look tragic," he said.
The orchards resemble a disaster zone, and the financial damage is enormous. Paškevičius estimates that more than 30 hectares of trees have been lost, though the full count is still under way.
"If roughly 30 hectares have been lost on average, that already comes to 1.2 million euros. And that's just replanting a new orchard, before you factor in clearing the old trees or restoration work. It's also clear there won't be enough saplings available, so the whole replanting process could take several years," he said.
