The DANA floods swept away thousands of hectares of the Valencian countryside. The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) has come to point out that Losses in fruit and rice production could exceed 1 billion euros. According to the latest Agroseguro scales, the water affected 25,00 hectares of crops belonging to 10,000 farmers. The effect of this is that British retailers and wholesalers, according to the newspaper ‘The Guardian’, have been forced to change and stock up on oranges from South Africa and South America ahead of time, after Spanish farmers were hard-pressed by floods to ship their citrus fruits.
Not in vain when talking about the impact of DANA, AVA-SAJA has pointed out that “the damage is of catastrophic dimensions in production, plantations, agricultural infrastructure, agricultural machinery and vehicles, livestock farms, nurseries, as well as in hauling lands that have come to cause the disappearance of entire fields«.
DANA effect
UK companies say they have taken these measures to avoid supply problems on supermarket shelves and, as ‘The Guardian’ indicates in the midst of “fears about the quality of Spanish products.” A suspicion that has also extended to persimmons, which have been even more affected by DANA because it is a more delicate fruit, as experts in the sector have highlighted to the British media.
In this regard, AVA-ASAJA already warned that the most affected crops are citrus fruits (192 million), persimmons (54 million), vegetables (24.8 million) and avocados (7.2 million). And the damaged hectares of citrus trees are 15,908, and 3,327 hectares, in the case of persimmons. »Many of these crops were in the middle of the harvesting campaign, especially the early varieties of mandarins and persimmons«, they explain in a statement.
For its part, the Spanish Government, faced with the situation of farmers, has announced to allocate a budget of 200 million euros to compensate for production losses and income in farms that have registered damages greater than 40%.
In the midst of this panorama, Valencian farmers have explained that the lack of oxygen in the soil due to floods ends up affecting the roots and killing the plants. Hence they warn that this factor and others will have an impact that will last for years for the sector.
And from ‘The Guardian’ he points out other factors that add up to the situation such as the problem of highways affected by the cold drop, and rural roads. In addition to a recent blockade of export routes by French farmers in protest of the agreements between Mercosur and the EU. Although this last situation has been resolved.
Experts and buyers
British buyers of Spanish products declare that it is very difficult to obtain citrus fruits from Spain due to the storm. While other sources indicate that the main problem is more logistical than damage to the products. Likewise, Jason Glass, general director of the wholesaler ‘All Greens’ in London’s New Covent Garden market, told the British newspaper that the search for new options may also be motivated because The wholesale price of oranges had increased by more than 30% immediately after the floods. But with fluctuations in those prices due to the pressure of competition from the southern hemisphere.
Glass also clarifies that to this are added the extra controls caused by Brexitwhich had already increased costs and extended delivery times.
Cindy van Rijswick, strategist for the fruit, vegetable and floriculture sectors at Rabobank, explained to the English newspaper that prices for easy-to-peel oranges had already been high before the floods in anticipation of a bad season. But “It is not yet clear how much additional pressure the floods will have on supplies.”
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