The strong storms of recent weeks have shaken the Valencian fruit trees to the limit, and these days they wake up with hundreds of persimmons on the ground. The unusually high temperatures for the season have also taken a toll on the quality of citrus fruits. Oranges and mandarins that are now picked from the field and that appear more "shy" due to the effect of the heat, thus harming their quality.
Some inconveniences that end up having an impact on the price that the farmer receives, explains Cristóbal Aguado, president of the Valencian Association of Farmers AVA-ASAJA. "The destruction is much greater than what we expected because the storms have punished the tree and the person who ends up paying for it is the same as always, the farmer," says Aguado. The president of AVA-ASAJA assures that renegotiations of orders are taking place due to the commercial depreciation that is occurring.
A month ago, the association chaired by Aguado already warned of the possible damage that crops would suffer, mainly in Camp de Turia, Ribera Alta, l'Horta de València and La Costera, after the strong blizzards that hit the Valencian Community.
Both in the interior of the Valencian province and in Castellón, an orange alert was declared and winds of up to 108 kilometers per hour were recorded. It was then that the field reported the first damage to crops, with the persimmon being the most worrying because it occurred in the middle of the harvesting campaign. There was even a forest fire, that of Montitxelvo, which was complicated by strong gusts of wind.
At that time, the farmers already explained that there had been problems due to branching and breakage in the trees, causing a commercial depreciation that has now been noted, the same sources explain. The branches of the persimmon are weak, and the fruit, whose skin is sensitive to blows, ripe and heavy, is more exposed to breakage caused by hurricane winds.
The Unió Llauradora and Ramadera also announced that they would request direct aid, the forgiveness of the IBI of the cultivated plots and buildings present on them, the bonus of Social Security contributions for one year, the establishment of loans with subsidized interest and also a series of actions and aid for the affected marketing cooperatives. The storm was combined with "very low" harvest capacity in the crops due to previous weather problems.
But in addition to persimmon, there are also farmers with smaller-caliber mandarins, so destruction has also increased once the fruit leaves the field. And even mite attacks have damaged the skin of the fruit. A story of inconveniences that, according to Aguado, are not included in the insurance because they are linked to the effects of climate change.
