The first estimates of the damage generated by the storm in Castilla-La Mancha, carried out by Asaja, show losses in agricultural production of between 10,000 and 12,000 hectares.
The technical secretary general of the agricultural organization, Arturo Serrano, has indicated that the province most affected is Ciudad Real, especially the south and Campo de Montiel region, where "thousands of hectares" have been affected by the hail storm. The leader has specified that in crops such as vineyard or pepper "the damage is the total production" and therefore is considering the request of the municipalities of the region as a disaster area.
Likewise, in the municipality of Villarrobledo there has been "considerable damage" to the vineyard, affecting between 20% and 60% of production. As for Guadalajara, Serrano has indicated that there has also been occasional damage to horticultural crops.
With regard to the province of Cuenca, the secretary of Asaja has detailed that in the area of Las Pedroñeras, El Provencio and Las Mesas olive groves and vineyards have been "very affected" by hail as well as onion.
In Toledo, according to Asaja's estimates, although there have been very strong gusts of water they were not accompanied by hail, but in Corral de Almaguer and Santa Cruz de la Zarza hail has fallen and the damage is between 20 or 30% of production.
In addition, Serrano has indicated that the heavy rains have caused the plots to become flooded and this makes it difficult to work in the field in the coming days in areas where harvesting was going to start and where grape harvesting has already begun.
At this point, Arturo Serrano has stressed that when this type of storm occurs the rivers, streams, ditches and roads are filled with mud because there is no cleaning and maintenance of these areas, so he has asked the administrations to do a job of prevention and "do not leave these areas abandoned."
Source: Efeagro