Tuesday 25 June 2024 – 5.50pm
New seasons with unprecedented whims of the weather and a new fruit to proudly face climate changes: it is grown only in Tuscany, at the foot of the Pisan Mountains,Maria Pia apricot resilient to new climate scenarios. Very sweet, she has a red cheek that makes you want to bite her and is slightly older than her ‘sisters.
It can also be harvested ripe, but above all it resists climate change and extreme events which in 2023 severely penalized the fruit sector with 23% less product harvested throughout the region. Pears, cherries, nectarines, plums and apricots are the fruits that have been most affected by the climate shocks. This is what Coldiretti Toscana says on the basis of the latest report on the progress of agriculture.
Maria Pia, as the resistant apricot is called, is the result of research. The variety was born from the collaboration between the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Pisaalways at the forefront in research into fruit variety selections, and a historic one Rigoli farm in San Giuliano Terme which also produces kiwis and plums.
This particular apricot it is grown and harvested only and exclusively here. One of its characteristics is precisely that of being resilient, even tolerating hot winters, heavy rains and temperature changes. In short: he really doesn’t fear climate disruption.
His extraordinary ability to adapt it is due to the many ‘parents’ who contributed to selecting it in the laboratory, coming not only from Tuscany, but also from the Vesuvian area characterized by a temperate Mediterranean climate, but also from Canada and France. Maria Pia is a perfect blend that has taken the best of each of the parent varieties.
“The most common apricot varieties need cold and dry winters to complete their vegetative cycle and then arrive at harvest time in June. The Maria Pia, however, is not – explains Giovanni Pacini, fruit grower from Rigoli -, it is the only apricot that arrived at the harvest in abundancethe other varieties we grow either haven’t flowered or have lost their flowers.”
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