The French apricot season is already over, but the nectarine peach season is just now drawing to a close. Volumes, quality, demand, and partnerships with retailers: What conclusions can be drawn from the stone fruit season?
© AOP Pêches et Abricots de France
A mirror effect for the nectarine peach campaign
French nectarines and peaches will be on the shelves for a few more days, and some late varieties will be available until the end of the month. While in 2024, the start of the season was marked by low demand and high volumes, the situation was reversed in 2025. "There was a sort of mirror effect this year, with very little volume available in the face of very strong demand until mid-July, and from the end of July onwards the volumes became significant, but consumption stalled until the end of August." This drop in consumption, which affected all fruit and vegetables, was possibly linked to general concern about political instability." But according to Raphaël Martinez, the situation was not catastrophic, and this was a good season overall for producers."
How do you explain this reversal of the situation? "The month of June 2024 was very wet, whereas this year, the heatwave boosted consumption in the first part of the season, encouraged by the high quality of the product and a lack of Spanish imports." While all the conditions were in place on the consumption side, the low yields for the late varieties penalized volumes, according to the director of the producers' association. "It is a situation that is still difficult to explain. We will have to find out more, as there are so many possible explanations: weather, varieties, the young age of the orchard, periods of rain during the ripening phase, physiological decline, or even the intensity of thinning..."
The year 2025 was also marked by the implementation of the "Progress Contract", a partnership developed with distributors to formalize the preparation of the campaign and the management of marketing. "Switching between origins, promotions, in-store communication, boosting sales outlets: All this put together contributed to the success of the campaign."
The success of the Apricot Fortnight
"Generally speaking, there are a lot of similarities with the peach season. Spanish imports are low, so it was easy to switch between origins. The quality of the fruit was good, and consumption was high. The first part of the season went very well until the end of June. Then, like every year, we had a peak in production at the end of June." It was a usual peak, but this year, we were able to anticipate it thanks to the Apricot Fortnight (in the future, this will become a 3-week operation). "The campaign was very popular with growers, and certainly with distributors too. We were afraid of setting the bar too high or even too low, but in the end, we managed to aim just right." After a period of decline (week 28), the 3rd part of the campaign was favorable, as it is every year, with a certain fluidity. With lower volumes in August, apricots did not suffer from the drop in consumption.
For more information:
AOP Pêches et Abricots de France
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