Hail nets

At the moment, Almakúti is focusing on protection against hail damage. In 2003, an exceptionally heavy hail storm damaged the whole orchard and the entire harvest could only be sold for industrial purposes. In order to supply our customers with constant high quality, we immediately started to place hail nets over part of the orchard (17 acres) in spring 2004. Hail nets now cover approximately 70% of the total area of 88 acres.

In general, the policy is that by replacement or replanting of blocks, we ensure that the supporting material is suitable for sustaining hail nets. Our goal is to have 100% of our apple production under hail nets in the future. With the present range of old plantations with supporting poles and the new, intensive plantations covering 50% of the total area, about 80% of the apple production is protected from hail damage. Since all the blocks with intensive plantation and thus higher productivity are protected by nets.