“Sensitive crops such as cherry tomatoes, leafy salads and green asparagus are all affected,” said Kike Oliver of Agriveg in Almería. “The conditions make harvesting extremely difficult and some growers can’t get to their crops because of flooding, while other crops, such as cherry tomatoes are affected by viruses.”
Growth rates of crops have slowed too as temperatures have fallen. This has particularly affected green asparagus and leafy salads are suffering from condition issues. “Iceberg has problems with fungus and viruses because of too much moisture and humidity,” said Oliver. “Harvesting is difficult too as there is too much water in the fields.”
Daytime temperatures in Almería are well below seasonal averages at 17-18°C and have been steady at that level for the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Murcia, the rainfall has been welcomed for stonefruit trees. “We have had three weeks of rainfall in Murcia and another week is forecast,” said a spokesman for grower group Coag-Murcia. “We thought because we had unseasonably warm weather early in March that apricot, nectarine and peach crops would start early, but the temperatures have come down since so we will be starting more in line with a normal year.”
Murcia usually enjoys more than 300 days of sunshine a year, but the last 20 days have been cool and cloudy. “The rain has been very welcome, but what we don’t want is to get any hail,” warned the spokesman.
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