Lettuce producers from Murcia, Almeria and Alicante announced significant reductions in volume, caused by frost. They foresee a gap in production, due to a very early production caused by the high temperatures of recent weeks and frost expected in the coming days.
Lettuce production in the Region of Murcia (Lorca, Campo de Cartagena, Aguilas and Mazarron), Alicante and Almeria (Pulpí) has already suffered heavy losses caused by frost this week. In Campo de Cartagena and Pulpí, temperatures reached below four degrees at 10:00 p.m. This climate is causing a decline in the production, that is of great concern to producers, since the weather forecasts do not give any hope for the coming days. "In the last three weeks we have come ahead of our production schedule due to warm temperatures, atypical for these winter months.
After sharp falling temperature and frost which is expected in the coming weeks, a natural gap will be created that will affect product availability," says the president of the sectoral iceberg lettuce from Proexport, Javier Soto. Weather forecasts indicate that temperatures will drop even more during the rest of the week and even reach negative values affecting the Spanish Mediterranean area. "We fear that the cold could cause significant damage to lettuce, which will plantation development, in addition to causing production loss," says Francisco Morales of Agrícola Aguileña.
Source: Europapress