Growers in Murcia report that Saturday’s heavy rainfall will be highly beneficial to the province’s fruit and vegetable production. Alfonso Gálvez of grower union Asaja Murcia said the rain has had a very positive effect on Murcia’s dry farming and irrigated crops.
“If it were to continue for the next few days it would go a long way in mitigating the effects of the drought we have endured all summer,” he noted.
Along with much of south-eastern Spain, Murcia is in the grip of its worst drought in 140 years which is estimated to have caused losses of hundreds of millions of euros. A report in El País last week put the losses in the Community of Valencia – where some areas haven’t seen any rainfall all year –at around €400m.
Meanwhile, citrus and kaki producers in some parts of Valencia are assessing the impact of last week's hail storms which caused localised damaged in La Ribera. Some 330ha were affected, with Alberic, Pobla Llarga, Manuel, Villanueva de Castellón and Sant Joanet amongst the worst hit areas.
