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Source: Alamy

Torrential rains struck eastern and southern Spain on Tuesday, leaving huge parts of Valencia, Andalusia and Almeria under water

Thousands of hectares of fruit & vegetable production have been destroyed by flash flooding in the Spanish region of Valencia.

Farmers have been left to count their losses after torrential rains struck eastern and southern Spain on Tuesday, leaving nearly 100 people dead and huge swathes of the region underwater.

AVA-ASAJA, the Valencian Agricultural Producers’ Association and one of the county’s largest agriculture groups, said it expected “significant damage” to crops as a result of the floods that hit Valencia, where a lot of Spain’s fruit & vegetables are grown – including 60% of the country’s oranges.

The union said some farmers across the region, as well as in neighbouring Almeria and Andalusia, would have suffered damages to 100% of their harvests. Citrus, persimmon and vegetables were among the most affected crops, it warned.

The heavy rains and hurricane-force winds have uprooted trees and swept soil, and also caused extensive damage to rural roads and agricultural infrastructure such as greenhouses, packing plants and other machinery.

“The weather has been extremely brutal in many key growing regions Spain, causing widespread damage to crops”, said Richard Walker, merchandising and pricing director for fresh produce importer Sysco Fresh Direct.

“Every grower will be affected differently. There is initial concern over the protected crops – all the salad lines grown in greenhouses – as there has been some damage to structures and loading forecourts.

“My biggest worry is with the crops grown in open fields such as the lettuce and brassica. Some growers are reporting irreversible damage of between 20%-50% of certain crops, with little gem being worst hit so far.”

 

Walker said he anticipated “a degree of shortages of fresh produce leaving Spain for the next month, while crops are salvaged or regrown”.

The UK accounts for 12% of Spain’s fresh produce exports, according to official trade data, with Spain supplying 25% of Britain’s fruit imports and 8% of its vegetable imports. In the first quarter of this year alone, fruit & veg imports from Spain stood at £2.3bn.

AVA-ASAJA has warned it is still early to ascertain the losses suffered because many growers haven’t yet been able to access their plots, given the infrastructure destruction.

The group’s head of communications, Héctor Alepuz, told local media the impact would not only be felt with this year’s harvest, as they also expected the death of many crops to affect future production seasons.

The extreme weather event, also known as a Dana, is common in the eastern region of Spain during the autumn season.

However, this is the hardest the region has been hit by heavy rains and hailstorms in recent years, with insurance analysts in Spain already predicting this to be the most expensive natural disaster to ever hit the country.

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