The Middle East and eastern Mediterranean is currently assessing the impact of the worst snowstorm to hit the region for decades.
Storm Alexa has led to power cuts in some areas, as well as flight cancellations, blocked roads, frosts, and flooding, affecting countries stretching from Turkey to Egypt.
Indeed, Egypt’s capital Cairo saw snow for the first time in a century, and the country’s fresh produce industry has not escaped the wrath of the winter weather.
“The cold, heavy rains and snow have affected Pico’s strawberry production as well as many other growers in the area,” Heike Hagenguth, Business Development Manager at leading exporter Pico Modern Agriculture, tells Eurofruit. “Harvesting was nearly impossible for two days due to rains and snow. While we are doing our best to fulfil all our commitments to clients and deliver as per the programmes, we could not comply 100 per cent with all orders over this period.
“Also, fruit now ready for harvest is still short, so we cannot fulfil any extra orders at the moment,” Hagenguth explains, although she confirms that logistics had not been impacted by the extreme weather conditions, which are expected to return to normal by Friday (20 December).
Pico does have an advantage in these situations, however – the use of a DACOM system allowing the company to keep up-to-date on weather forecasts, enabling it to protect production as much as possible.
“We have been using the DACOM system for weather prediction as well as forecasting any plant diseases in strawberries (such as powdery mildew or botrytis) and grapes (powdery mildew, downy mildew, botrytis) since 2004, in order to take preventative action as early as possible,” Hagenguth adds.
Problematic
Israel was also hit by the freezing weather, described by The Times of Israel as a ‘once in a generation snowstorm’, and again the fresh produce industry was caught in the blizzard.
Omer Kamp of Arava Export Growers tells Eurofruit that the storm has mainly impacted on production, with crops hit by both flooding and frigid temperatures.
“The damage is not as extensive as it may seem but, it sure is, for the short run, problematic,” Kamp says, noting that fresh herbs, strawberries and figs are the products most affected.
“It will probably slow us down on production for the coming two to three weeks, although all will be back in balance in a short while,” he adds.
Logistics have not been impacted by the storm, Kamp continues.
“Most of the snow is in regions where we don’t grow anything and the floods are behind us so, overall, I would summarise that for the coming two weeks we will experience shortages but we will bounce back in no time,” he concludes.
