An extremely rainy May in Valencia, which followed on from a particularly dry April in the region, has had a significant downward impact on crop expectations for local citrus producers.
Early predictions had been for a particularly high crop in 2008, but Cristóbal Aguado, president of Valencia’s growers’ association Ava-Asaja, said this week that the imbalanced weather patterns “will cause the harvest to be far lower than initial production forecasts”.
No precise figure has been released, as producers assess the damage and wait to see how stressed trees respond in the coming weeks.
Orange groves had suffered from high temperatures, strong winds and a severe lack of water until the first rains of May, which battered groves and took a high proportion of leaves off trees, damaging the colouration of fruit beyond repair in many cases.
Aguado said: “The citrus campaign arrived with the world in reverse; when we needed rain in April, it wasn’t forthcoming, and in May it rained too much, at times accompanied by hail, which created a dangerous period for the fruit, and therefore turned the campaign on its head.
“What looked like being an excellent season when we looked at flowering on the trees, will not be anywhere near as good.”
Aguado insisted that all parts of the supply chain must now plan the season in fine detail, and voiced the need to receive decent returns for fruit from customers, during “a campaign that may well now be marked by a good balance between demand and supply, as production levels will end up at around average”.
No comments yet