Wine wins, crops fall as farmers grapple with record heat in Balkans By Reuters

By Aleksandar Vasovic and Fatos Bytyci

BACKI PETROVAC, Serbia/RAHOVEC, Kosovo (Reuters) – Rastislav Pucovski held a handful of soybeans shriveled to the size of peppercorns on his farmland in northern Serbia, where the dust-dried soil swirled in the wind .

A brief rain, the first in over 40 days, provided no relief. The surrounding fields near the town of Backi Petrovac remained dry, the corn and soybean crops withered.

“Everything is dry,” Pucovski, 48, said as he surveyed his field this week. “I don’t know how we’re going to sell it.”

Serbia, like much of the Balkans, experienced its hottest summer on record, fueled by repeated heat waves that pushed temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The heat, coupled with drought, has strained the region’s fragile power grid, depleted essential water supplies and led to crop losses. It also raised concerns about creeping climate change, including the erratic rains and warmer temperatures that much of southern Europe is already experiencing.

Winegrowers in the Balkans say they could be rare winners as the warm weather has boosted the sugar content of their grapes. But corn, soybeans, sunflowers and some vegetables can be devastated, farmers said.

Agriculture represents about 6% of Serbia’s GDP. Preliminary data from producers suggests that corn yields in Serbia could drop by around 20%.

One problem is access to water. Serbia, which has historically enjoyed a lot of rain, irrigates only 1.4 percent of its agricultural land, Statistics Bureau data show.

It would take hundreds of millions of euros for it to reach the global average of 17 percent of agricultural land under irrigation, said Belgrade-based agricultural analyst Branislav Gulan.

He expects losses in agricultural income this year of about 500 million euros ($554.35 million) due to the drought.

In neighboring Bosnia, drought can halve corn yields to 4.5-5 tons per hectare, said Dragan Mandic, an expert at the Agricultural Institute of the Republika Srpska Bosnia.

Dejan Jovanovic, a farmer in the Bijeljina region, said his crops “were devastated”.

“The corn leaves are papery white and crumbly, the kernels are tiny.”

SUCKS AT NIGHT

Warm weather has drastically altered the grape harvest in the Balkans this year. Growers have been forced to pick grapes earlier than anyone can remember. Some harvests will be smaller, but the quality will be better, producers said.

In the Ilok region of eastern Croatia, the headlights of grape harvesters pierce the dark streets between the vines. Winemakers began picking at night because the grapes begin to ferment too quickly when picked in the heat of the day.

“It’s better to pick at night because it’s not so hot,” said Darko Sili, a car driver.

This year’s harvest will be nearly a month earlier than usual and could be up to 30 percent smaller because of the heat, said Vesna Stajner, spokeswoman for the Ilocki Podrumi winery.

In Kosovo, harvesting started in August, also a month earlier than last year. The owners said they struggled to find pickers this early in the season.

Dozens of workers gathered at dawn in the vineyard of the Castelul de Piatră winery near the southern town of Rahovec.

“Our great-grandfathers don’t remember grapes being picked this early,” said Nebi Duraj, grape production coordinator at Stone Castle.

There is an advantage. “It’s like eating sugar,” said a 60-year-old worker as he stuffed his mouth with white grapes.

Duraj said the quality of the wine will be better than ever this year because of the sweetness, which turns into alcohol.

“When looking for wine in the coming years, ask for the 2024 vintage.”

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