Spanish soft fruit association Freshuelva has revealed that there could be a major shortage of strawberries from the southern province of Huelva as a result of heavy rains and subsequent damp damage to fruit.
According to Spanish news agency Efe, the persistent rains that are falling on the Andalusian province are affecting berry production in the area, with this season’s strawberry crop said to be far below the forecast level.
Freshuelva’s managing director, Rafael Dominguez, told the agency that instead of recording normal production levels for late February of around 20-25 per cent of the seasonal forecast, production had “barely reached 10 per cent”.
“We’re going back to having a new delay to the campaign and irreversible losses of fruit,” he said.
The damage to the fruit, which has primarily been caused by the fungus ‘Botrytis’ as a result of the damp weather, follows earlier damage to the crop during the heavy rains that struck southern Spain in December 2009 and January this year.
According to Freshuelva, losses to the strawberry crop at the beginning of this year totalled an estimated 50 per cent of early fruit, equivalent to 10,500 tonnes of strawberries, with economic losses believed to be over €31.7m.
