Nut fruit growing in Serbia – State and Perspectives

Abstract

Fruit growing is a very important branch of agriculture in the Republic of Serbia. Fruit production accounts for about 11% of agriculture production value (Development Strategy of Agriculture of the Republic of Serbia 2014-2024). Natural conditions of our country, especially some of the regions, are very favorable for the cultivation of fruit, including nut fruit. In Serbia of nut fruit the most grown are walnuts, whereas a growing interest in hazelnut production has been observed over the last years. However, the share of plantations covered by these species is not larger than 3.93% of fruit plantation structure. According to Census for Agriculture in the Republic of Serbia (2012), Serbia has over 1,3 million walnut trees and over 1,1 million hazelnut trees. However, in the period 2013-2019, a decrease in the number of productive walnut trees, and an increase of the number of hazel trees was recorded. Namely, the analysis of the available data showed that the total production of walnuts in this period varied from 8,836 to 19,058 tonnes, while production of hazelnut ranged from 3,366 to 5,428 tonnes, depending on the year (FAOSTAT, 2021). Generally, in the period from 2013 to 2019 in the Republic of Serbia there was a decrease in total production of walnuts for 10,222 t, while for the same period there was an increase in production of hazelnuts for 1,583 t. Therefore, the objective of this study was to perform analysis state and perspectives of walnut and hazelnut production in different regions of the Republic of Serbia.