The rains recorded this past week in Andalusia have caused numerous incidents in this autonomous region of Spain. There has been a waterspout in Cadiz and even a tornado in the Seville municipality of La Algaba, but in general, these rains have been very beneficial for the agricultural sector. After two years of drought and restrictions in which rainfall has fallen below historical averages, today the water reservoirs in western provinces such as Huelva, Seville, and Cadiz have reached between 90 and 100% of their capacity - the Gergal reservoir in Seville is at an impressive 101% - and even the Viñuela reservoir has seen a significant improvement in its situation, standing at 22% of its capacity, when at the same time in 2024 it reached no more than 8%.
"In Malaga, all this water has been very welcome, and ideally, it should continue to rain, because the water has been much needed for months," says Francisco Moscoso, of UPA Malaga. "What we need is to have rains more regularly, so that the water will reach all places evenly.
"Unlike what we saw in late October, we have not recorded any major losses so far, and campaigns such as the lemon one are also going quite well. We are also hoping that there will be no major incidents or any loss of human lives while the squall lasts," he said.
"It should be noted that the Government of Andalusia is already repairing the public roads and infrastructures that were damaged after the October storms, but has yet to pay compensations to the affected growers, who still have to repair their plots."
© Xxlphoto | Dreamstime
In Huelva, the rains of the last week only stopped on Thursday, and there is still a yellow alert in place for storms and winds that could reach up to 60 km/h, as well as for heavy rainfall happening in the peak of the province's strawberry season.
"Strawberry plants prefer spring temperatures and low humidity, so while these constant rains are very good for the fields, they are not entirely beneficial for the campaign. At the moment, because of the weather, we only have 50% of the production we should have; however, like every season, we are harvesting fruit of the highest quality and reaching all European markets," says Manuel Piedra, from UPA Huelva, who is fully involved in the 'I eat Strawberries from Huelva' campaign.
"This year, we have once again launched some activities to promote our healthy, safe, and sustainable strawberries. On March 11, our mascot Fresi will be handing out strawberries in a nursery in Palos de la Frontera to promote the consumption of strawberries and fruit in general among children. On the 12th we will be in Valladolid promoting the consumption of Huelva strawberries. On the 13th, we'll go to León and, before going to Brussels on the 26th, we will be in Bilbao on the 14th promoting our strawberries in a fruit store in the capital. The fact is that, in addition to promoting strawberries, we also want to promote the figure of the fruit grocer," says Manuel.
"Greengrocers play a key role in the distribution of Huelva strawberries, as the pandemic showed us, and the difference in price between local greengrocers and supermarkets isn't great," he says.
"This year, moreover, we are once again seeing supermarkets using strawberries as bait to attract consumers at prices that do not reflect the reality of the season. Right now, in fact, a supermarket chain has announced a strawberry promotion which, in my opinion, they won't be able to fully implement because of the impact of the weather on production," he says.