In recent days, night temperatures have again fallen to sub-zero levels in various fruit and vegetable producing areas of Spain. In the case of stone fruit, frost damage has been reported in Badajoz, where temperatures have reached -5ºC in some areas and, to a lesser extent, in Zaragoza. Although temperatures have also dropped below 0 degrees in Murcia, no damage has been recorded there, for the time being.
"Temperatures have plummeted between -4 and -5 ºC in some early nectarine and peach producing areas in Badajoz, causing damage to flowers," says Miguel Ángel Gómez, managing director of the Fruit Growers Association of Extremadura, AFRUEX. The most affected varieties are those that are usually harvested between May and June.
"While it is still too early to know the exact extent of the frost damage, we do not expect it to be excessive in terms of volume, since the flowering was delayed. If the flowering had happened on the usual dates and with the trees at full capacity, we would be talking about a disaster," he said.
In Zaragoza there is talk of some damage having affected the extra early flowering to some extent, although we are not talking about very representative quantities.
In Murcia, temperatures have not dropped below -2ºC in stone fruit growing areas, and this happened only for a few hours. The flowering there has been considerably delayed.
"The flowering of our earliest peach and nectarine varieties is 15 to 20 days behind," says Thomas Chevaillier, technical director of PSB Producción Vegetal y Frutas de la Sierra Espuña, based in Pliego, Murcia. "Temperatures were too warm until mid-January, after which we've had constant cold, which has slowed the flowering down a lot. In 12 years, I had never seen such late flowering dates in Murcia," he said.