The winter came to an end in the Canary Islands with severe storms accompanied by hail this past weekend. They were particularly intense in some municipalities like Antigua, in Fuerteventura, which recorded up to 50.8 litres per square metre, and Agüimes, in Gran Canaria, which recorded 53.6 litres. The storms were also accompanied by a significant drop in temperatures.
On Sunday, the storms came to an end and temperatures have since risen again to above 25 degrees Celsius. The damage assessment has revealed that infrastructures have only been slightly damaged and damage to tomato and banana crops is also not significant.
"The crops have been much less affected than we expected," explains Jota Cabrera, of SAT Juliano Bonny, the largest tomato and cucumber exporter in the Canary Islands. "We were not able to harvest on Monday morning, as everything was wet, but we did not have to wait long because the rains have been accompanied by wind."
According to the producer and exporter, "the storms arrived after a heat wave in week 10, when temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius were reached." This accelerated the production rate and we had excess supply, so in a way, the storms have stabilised the tomato production a month and a half before the end of the campaign."
The fact is that after several weeks of poor results, tomato prices are back to good levels. "We are happy to have enough production available, given that it has not been significantly affected. We have to take advantage of the fact that the Netherlands is arriving two weeks late after a dark winter and that production in the Iberian Peninsula has slowed down. Also, Morocco is suffering considerable quality issues."
"We only have to regret the damages caused to the infrastructure of some greenhouses, but it has been nothing catastrophic," he adds.