Storms with heavy rainfall, strong gusts of wind and hail recorded in various parts of eastern Spain are causing significant damage to agriculture in the Valencian Community. According to AVA-ASAJA, the Valencian Agicultural Producers' Association, the heavy rains are flooding fields, uprooting trees and sweeping soil away, especially in lower areas and near ravines. There are also reports of damage to rural roads, breakage of agricultural infrastructure and damage to packing plants, greenhouses, machinery, etc.
Kakis are one of the most affected crops, and if the rainfall continues over the next few days, it is feared that the excess humidity will cause their situation to worsen, and there will also be issues with the early citrus varieties and with the vegetables that are ready to be harvested.
"Up to 200 liters per square meter have fallen in some areas in just a few hours and there are flooded fields where it won't be possible to harvest for up to a week," says Pascual Prats, President of the Spanish Kaki Association.
"Many kaki orders cannot be delivered, as harvesting isn't possible at the moment. We don't know yet what the extent of the damage is, but in the case of kakis it will surely be severe, as we will probably also have to deal with the appearance of fungal diseases due to the excess humidity," says Pascual Prats.
AVA-ASAJA warns that it is still too early to quantify the losses suffered, as growers haven't yet been able to access many of their affected fields, either because the roads are blocked or because their priority was to bail out the water flooding their homes or warehouses, or to sort things out with the vehicles and other damaged goods.
The rainfall has been particularly heavy in areas of La Ribera Alta, La Hoya de Buñol and Utiel-Requena, where many plots have been flooded, with water levels more than half a meter above the height of the trees. Municipalities such as Alfarp, Catadau and Llombai, as well as Carlet, Tous and La Pobla Llarga, among others, have also recorded hail storms. In El Marquesat, the hail storm lasted twenty minutes and only seven of those were dry. Entire kaki, citrus fruit and vegetable harvests are expected to have suffered damages.
As for the wind, several agricultural facilities and infrastructures have suffered considerable damage. Of particular note was the fall of roof panels from some fruit packing warehouses in La Ribera Alta, where workers had to finish their shifts before eight o'clock in the morning.
In the province of Castellon, rainfall has also caused significant water accumulation in some places, especially in the inland districts, which in recent months had been receiving water supplies from the Regional Council of Agriculture due to the drought.
This Monday, a particularly intense hailstorm hit the town of El Ejido, causing significant damage. Between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, emergency services managed over fifty incidents in the area due to heavy rain and hail. The storm also caused substantial damage to local greenhouses, with estimated losses reaching millions.
The weather event predicted by Spain's State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), known as a DANA, along with a rapidly intensifying storm, was expected to bring showers and storms to the Mediterranean side of Andalusia starting Monday evening. This led to orange weather warnings being issued for the eastern coastal regions, which were still active yesterday, the 29th.
Damage to vehicles caused by hail.
The first estimates made by Asaja Almeria, whose technicians have been in the field since first thing yesterday morning assessing the damage reports, coincide with the data handled by the municipality: 4,500 hectares affected out of the approximately 13,000 hectares of greenhouses in El Ejido. "We believe that there could be more, but at this early stage it is very difficult to make calculations and we prefer to be cautious when it comes to giving figures," points out Miguel Angel Serrano, technical secretary of Asaja Almeria. "However, we can say that the area most affected has been a catastrophe, with greenhouses that have collapsed and a lot of production damaged".
"Just taking into account the cost of replacing the affected roofs, without taking into account the damage to fruit or other structures, the losses are already in the millions of euros. The hail has been so large and the storm so strong that it has managed to penetrate plastic sheeting up to 800 gauges, reaching the plants and breaking the vegetables".
"The desolation of the affected growers is unimaginable; many of them in the night, when the storm stopped, went in the middle of the night to look at their greenhouses along the roads where many of the wadis had overflowed and found their greenhouses completely destroyed. It has been a blow for them in a very delicate month of the season, when it is just beginning; especially for pepper growers, which is the most affected crop".
Different cooperatives confirm that damage has been reported in the different fruit and vegetable products, but "given the fact that in El Ejido there is a greater proportion of pepper crops, the greatest losses have occurred there", commented a company in the area, "at a time when there were farms that had already been harvesting for a month, but many others were about to start".
"Damage assessment is also difficult because in those areas where there has been no direct damage but which have been flooded, it will still be days before we know if there will be any losses due to fruit rot", Miguel Ángel continues.
"However, we have to be cautious when it comes to reporting and accept the reality, because the whole of Europe is looking towards Almeria at the moment and we have a responsibility not to alarm the market unnecessarily".
Source: À Punt Notícies