The worst apple harvest in 50 years

Frost damage early in the budding stage made the flowers in the trees wither instead of form apples, and many of the already growing apples were damaged by the frost. 

• 

  In Kivik, "The City of Apples," in Skåne, Sweden.

• Particularly bad spring weather has had a very negative effect on this year's apple crop. The harvest is expected to be small because of spring's late freezes which damaged the blossoming apple trees across Sweden. At 50-60 percent worse than normal, the harvest is having a huge impact on farmers nationwide.

• 

  Due to bad weather, Sweden's 2017 apple harvest doesn't look so promising.

• "There will always be a little frost each year, but this year it was exponential. We have growers who have grown apples since 1967 and say they've never been worse,” says Henrik Stridh, CEO of Äppelriket.

• 

  Very popular with Swedes, the “aroma” apple was hard hit by damaging frosts this year.

• The weather in 2016 was the opposite, bringing in higher volumes than 2015, which was also a good season. It’s similar to what strawberries need in a good growing season — warm days and cool nights, which make for thinner skin and more intense flavor.

• The harvest has been poor throughout northern Europe this year. In Sweden, the apple trees in northern Skåne were hit the hardest, and it was the Swedes’ favorite apple, the “aroma” variety, that got the brunt of it.

• Stridh doesn’t believe consumers will really notice the bad harvest, perhaps until spring, when the store shelves run out of apples. Normally growers are able to supply stores with apples continuously through the year. "The volume will not be as big as we are used to," says Stridh. "Getting Swedish apples all year round will be tough in 2017 and 2018."