The Euskal Sagardoa Designation of Origin estimates that between 6 and 7 million kilos of apples will be picked this autumn in its orchards in Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Álava, although the final figure will not be known until the end of the year. The forecast, presented on Tuesday in the orchard of the Ipintza farmhouse in Altzo, points to a much larger harvest than in 2024, when two million kilos were picked and 1.2 million litres of cider were made.

“It’s been a year for apples,” summed up the DO’s manager, Unai Agirre. Those attending the event included the Designation’s president, the grower Maite Retolaza; Maider Lopetegi, president of the fruit growers’ association Fruitel; the director of Hazi, Raimundo Ruiz de Escudero; the provincial councillor for Green Territorial Balance, Xabier Arruti; and the mayor of Altzo, Xabier Olano. The venue was chosen to mark the thousandth anniversary of the first written text in which the word Ipuscua appears.

Early ripening

Picking has already begun in most of the DO’s 250 orchards and will continue until December. The fruit has ripened somewhat earlier than last year despite late flowering, which the Designation puts down to warm summer nights. Almost all the apples will still be picked by hand, although machines adapted to the country’s orchards are already in use.

The sector now has 250 growers and some 500 hectares in production, whose fruit goes to the Designation’s 48 cider houses; a further 160 hectares are just starting to produce or will do so in the coming years. The goal that has been set is for all certified cider to be made solely from native apples within fifteen years. The DO also warned of the lack of generational renewal and asked fruit growers and cider makers to start signing long-term agreements and contracts.

The price, under negotiation

The price of apples is still open. At the beginning of the month, at the San Sebastián Sagardo Eguna (Cider Day), the growers did not set up their stall in protest at the rate fixed for this year. Agirre explained that the parties had since met and that “an agreement is on track”. Fruitel and the Asociación de Sidreros de Gipuzkoa (Gipuzkoa Cider Makers’ Association), under the direction of the DO, are working on a calculation of the theoretical costs of apples to serve as a reference from now on, and will meet again when the harvest is over. Arruti, for his part, said that the Provincial Council wants to bring more technology into planting and growing in order to bring costs down.

The presentation also covered Malus Bat, an 18-month Euroregion project led by the Asociación de Sidreros de Gipuzkoa together with Intia and the cider producers’ union of the French Basque Country (Iparralde). According to Olatz Mitxelena, coordinator of the cider makers’ association, after four months of meetings on apples there is now an action plan; the next step will be the cider strategy and, in January 2026, the strategy for cider houses.

Sources