Excessive rains in Valencia damage crops of stone fruit, citrus fruit, and seasonal vegetables

April 2021 was the coldest in the last 30 years for the Valencian Community. Excessive rains caused damage to several crops, resulting in crop losses, work delays, and fungal growth.

According to the Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA), stone fruit productions have been the most affected by the rains, and are in a very advanced stage of maturation, and in the harvest phase in the case of early varieties.

Apricots, peaches, flat peaches, and nectarines today suffer damage due to a rapid fattening of the fruit and the subsequent splitting of the skin, which complicates their commercialization.

Sustained humidity encourages the appearance of the Monilia fungi in peach or the dents of the leaves.

In some fields, production losses reach 90 percent. In this way, the promising projections for this campaign are turned upside down.

Among the probable consequences of the rains, the association emphasizes problems with flowering and citrus fruit set. Today, a significant number of flowers have rotted, due to diseases such as botrytis, which may be reflected in the reduction of the next season's harvest.

In order to strengthen future fruits and avoid greater productive losses, Valencian citrus growers provide additional treatments, which will cause additional economic costs.

In the case of seasonal vegetables, they can also be affected with the proliferation of fungi such as mildew, if it will keep continuously raining.

In the coming weeks there may be an overlap of potato productions destined for the markets, due to the fact that the harvesting of the veg is stopped.

As stated by Cristóbal Aguado, the president of AVA-ASAJA, the rains are normally beneficial for the field because they clean the trees of pests, improve the size of the fruits, and recharge the aquifers, but what happened in April is not positive, and it puts many farmers in a very difficult and even “downright ruined” situation.

AVA-ASAJA solicits the various administrations to carry out objective monitoring of the damage and to provide for the establishment of fiscal measures to alleviate the losses suffered by the climatic anomaly.

source: ava-asaja.org

photo: cope.es