In the Region of Murcia, the storms have had a much more limited impact than in Valencia. It has rained quite a lot in high areas bordering Albacete and there are some reports of flooded farms and hail damage, but in general, no significant damage has been reported. Worthy of note is the slight slowdown of the open ground vegetable harvest, as those crops are the most vulnerable to such circumstances.
There has been a small overlap of 7 to 10 days between the arrival of the Spanish crops and the end of the season in some central-northern European countries as well as in the United Kingdom.
"We are having an early brassica season compared to last year, because the weather has been mild, with occasional rains which have accelerated the growth of the production," says Nacho Doménech, Managing Director of the growing and exporting company Agromark.
"Meanwhile, the local broccoli productions in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have taken longer than usual to grow. Usually, our broccoli exports to the United Kingdom are already at 80% at this time, but now we are at 10%. We won't start shipping significant volumes until the end of next week," says Doménech.
"We'll have to see how the crops are affected by the recent rains, because broccoli is really sensitive to excess moisture. For the time being, there isn't much supply and prices are at reasonable levels. Nonetheless, the huge amount of moisture left by these rains could lead to a reduction in the marketable supply due to problems of lternaria and bortritis in the coming weeks," warns Domenéch.
For more information:
Nacho Doménech
O.P. Agromark, S.L
Casa Lugar Nuevo, 65.
30739 Torre de Pacheco, Murcia. Spain
Tel.: +31 968173201
[email protected]
www.agromark.es