Costas Apostolou, a spokesman for the Greek Canned Association, said at the 13th World Fruit Congress that the Greek peach planting area is likely to reach 20,000 hectares in 2017, which will increase 23% over the current planting area and reach the 2010 level. At present, the peach planting area in Greece is about 162,000 hectares, an increase of 25% over 2014, and the peach planting area in that year has dropped to 13,000 hectares. In addition, Costas reviewed Greece's peach production in 2015. Peach production decreased by 29% to 302,000 tons from the previous year, and the number of processed peaches decreased by 19% to 235,000 tons. Production of 24 x A2 500 g canned peaches dropped by 18% to 10.5 million boxes. Greece's canned peach exports are expected to soar 5% to 237,000 tons in 2015/16 compared with the previous year.