The DANA that hit the Spanish Levante on Tuesday last week has devastated thousands of hectares of crops, but the worst part has been persimmon production, which has shown a catastrophic concatenation of factors.
It is still early to make an assessment of the damage because a large part of the roads, especially in the province of Valencia, remain impassable, but the information that ABC has collected on the ground points to a Dantesque panorama in the regions of The Ribera Alta and Baixa, L’Horta, Hoya de Buñol, Utiel-Requena, Camp de Túria and Los Serranoswhere historic accumulations of water were recorded due to intense rainfall and the overflowing of ravines and rivers.
The coincidence of water, hail and even a tornado – in the Ribera Alta – has not only reduced production, it has also destroyed irrigation systems, poles and entire trees. “I won’t even know where my crop was because the water has washed away the edges,” one owner explained to COAG. In the case of farms, and while waiting for the roads to become passable – the Tragsa company is already working with the Ministry of Agriculture of Valencia to open roads – it is already known that the Ministry has removed almost 3,000 dead animals.
As has already been explained, in the case of persimmon producers the impact is total, and some data is useful. In the province of Valencia there are 15,000 of the 16,500 hectares of this fruit that exist throughout our country. Let us add to this that the majority of this production is in the Ribera Alta (64% in 2022, according to the Generalitat Valenciana), which is one of the most affected regions, and the fact that the storm arrived in the middle of the campaign, factors that They point to a spoiled year.
ABC has contacted Pascual Prats, president of the Spanish Kaki Association, who explains that Half of the current harvest and a third of the entire year’s production have been lost; all in just a few hours.
Consequently, “the supply to many customers will be reduced” and it remains to be seen if there will be an increase in prices, because according to what the sector’s employers tell us, all this damaged production could end up being sold as ‘second category’, which is currently in the 0.80 cents, while the ‘first category’ persimmon is sold at 1.70 euros.
According to Prats, a rise in prices would be the only way to cushion the crisis in a sector that had already suffered a serious drought in the previous campaign, with the aggravating factor of a cotonet infestation in summer.
Until the storms arrived, the forecasts were good, since just a few weeks ago the sector’s employers predicted that the campaign would close with 340 million potential kilos in Valencia. It must be remembered, Spain is one of the main exporters of this fruit in the world; in 2023 it was the first.
According to the latest data from the Generalitat, in 2021 the value of persimmon production in the Valencian Community reached almost 108 million euros, such value being understood as that which remunerates the producer. Furthermore, that same year the persimmon represented 7.2% of the economic weight of fruit trees in the Valencian Community.
Damage of 70% in some plantations
This year it will be impossible to repeat those figures. The only good news at this time, perhaps, is that given the geographical location of most of the plantations The damage has been focused mainly on the fruits, but not on the trees. Something different has happened with the vines of the inland regions, many of which were uprooted by the force of the water, even more so after going through one of the driest hydrological years in history. As that water went down, they explain from Asaja, it flooded hundreds of citrus, persimmon, vegetable farms, etc., which are closer to the coast.
In some plantations the Spanish Persimmon Association estimates damage of 70%which is why they have asked public administrations to immediately implement support measures for farmers, such as direct aid, tax credits and a specific recovery plan for producers.
All this beyond what they will receive from Agroseguro, the entity that manages agricultural insurance. In the case of persimmon, compensation is guaranteed in most cases, because as Agroseguros explained to ABC, 90% of the production of this fruit is insured.
#DANA #destroys #national #persimmon #production #clients #left #supplies #year
