Corine Land Cover 2000 - Permanent Crops

Permanent crops are grown on a little more than one hundredth of the total area of Tyrol. This means that these areas are covered with trees or bushes over a number of years. In Tyrol this type of cultivation refers mainly to fruit and wine growing and the Etschtal valley offers particularly favourable conditions. Natural factors alone do not play a role in the spread of permanent crops as the lack of orchards and vineyards north of the Brenner show, because at least fruit could be grown successfully in the Inntal valley.

Orchards and vineyards look back on a centuries-long tradition in South Tyrol. At first, cultivation was widely limited to the slopes of the Etschtal and Eisacktal valleys. With the clearance of the meads of the River Etsch in the 19th century, the area of cultivation could be greatly extended. Both wine and fruit were, and still are, mainly produced for export purposes.

During the 20th century, the number of permanent crops continually shifted towards fruit production (above all apples). To begin with a large part of the red wine market was lost after South Tyrol was separated from Austria after the first world war. Particularly the cultivation of apples could later be developed increasingly intensively and profitably, so that nowadays the area devoted to the cultivation of apples is three times that of wine.