“You saw, the trees have never been so green in October.
And it is not tomorrow that they will change color!
», Remarks Michel Vieillard-Baron.
He is the president of the Union of chestnut producers of Morvan.
And he is annoyed: “The chestnuts are also green.
They are not ripe and, barring a very unlikely miracle, they will not mature by the end of the month.
»So there will be virtually no chestnuts for sale at the traditional Fair of Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray (Saône-et-Loire), at the foot of Bibracte, where Vercingétorix had reunified the Gauls.
Morvan chestnuts are to Burgundy what chestnuts are to Ardèche.
But this year, they have not overcome the consequences of climate change.
“There have already been three years of drought.
And then this year, the terrible frost of spring, followed by a summer with a lot of rain and very little heat, ”explains Michel Vieillard-Baron.
"Result, under the still green thorns, either the chestnuts are green, or they are tiny, or they are rotting", he shows by opening several bugs, so green that it feels like spring or in the middle of summer.
"It would take a good week with hot weather"
Usually, on the last weekend of October, around fifteen producers sell around 2 tonnes of Morvan chestnuts on the market.
People come from Autun, Montceau-les-Mines, Creusot, and even Nevers to do their shopping.
“This year, we can be certain, more than 90%, that we will have to fall back on chestnuts from Ardèche or elsewhere…”, laments the president of the Syndicate of Morvan chestnut producers.
And in the memory of producers, the Morvan chestnuts had never before suffered such a fate.
“To do well, it would take a good week with great heat, believes Michel Vieillard-Baron.
But it got off to a bad start since it freezes every morning… ”
