This Thursday has been the fourth consecutive day with rainy weather in most of the Iberian Peninsula, with more than 400 liters per square meter accumulated in the Valencian Community. A heavy storm has been forecast for Friday, so widespread rainfall will continue relentlessly. Many areas are having as much rain these days as in a whole year, so Spain is currently the country with the most rainfall in Europe.
The Valencian Community, Catalonia, and Murcia are on orange alert for persistent rain and very heavy showers, while Andalusia, Aragon, Madrid, Castile-Leon, Castile-La Mancha, the Balearic Islands, and Navarre are on yellow alert for rain.
Although the rains have been torrential in some places, in general, they are expected to have a beneficial effect on stone fruit trees, pome fruit, citrus fruits, and kakis, among other woody crops, and more damaging to open ground vegetable crops, due to the excess humidity.
The most noticeable effect of the constant rainfall in almost all of Spain is a reduction in the available supply of various products, such as berries in Huelva, greenhouse and open ground vegetables in Almeria and Murcia, as they cannot be harvested, and citrus fruits in Andalusia, Murcia, and Valencia.
Since harvests have been severely slowed down by the rain, many citrus storage and packaging plants have only limited stocks. It's the case of lemons and mandarins, for which demand is on the rise.
"It's raining in all citrus growing areas in Spain, so it's almost impossible to harvest anywhere. We should now be loading for the weekend and there is much less fruit available," says a Valencian citrus trader.
"Mandarins were already in good demand because their production was well underway and there was less supply, while orange sales were very calm. Now there is some uneasiness about buying in the field. There is also some concern about how late mandarins will be affected by the excess humidity," says the trader.
For the time being, there has been no significant damage to agricultural infrastructures except in very specific areas or where they had already been hit by the effects of the Dana in October. According to the Valencian agricultural producers' association AVA Asaja, the rains will also help in "cleaning up" pests, saving on irrigation, now that electricity costs are on the rise, and in the refilling of water reserves (reservoirs and aquifers).