According to the latest official data from the Catalan Council of Agriculture, the acreage devoted to ​​fruit trees in the province of Lleida has been reduced by practically 2,000 hectares in the last five years, reaching 30,301 hectares in 2020. This period coincides with some reconversions of Lleida's fruit plantations and with the impact of the Russian veto on European fruit, which has brought prices to ruinous levels. In the last year alone, the acreage devoted to ​​fruit trees in the province has been reduced by around 1,500 hectares, 1,100 of which corresponded to stone fruit. Lleida had a total of 6,236 hectares of apple trees in 2015; a productive area that has been reduced by 436 hectares, down to 5,800 in 2020. If we only look at the development from 2019 to 2020, the acreage has been reduced by 179 hectares. In the case of pear trees, the province has gone from 9,369 to 8,552 hectares in those five years, which entails a reduction of 817 hectares. Regarding stone fruit, in 2015, the province had 8,849 hectares of peach trees and 7,842 hectares of nectarines. Five years later, these figures have fallen to 8,496 and 7,453 hectares; that is, there has been a reduction of 353 hectares in the case of peach trees and of 389 hectares in the case of nectarines. However, it should be taken into account that when the crisis broke out due to the closure of the Russian market, Lleida was still growing in terms of stone fruit production, and in successive years, many plots became productive or reached their full potential. Between 2019 and 2020, the Council confirms that the area of ​​productive peach trees was reduced by 736 hectares, falling from 9,232 to 8,496 hectares. In the case of nectarines, the acreage fell from 7,875 hectares in 2019 to 7,453 a year later; that is, 422 fewer hectares. Source - https://www.freshplaza.com