A strong hailstorm struck the southern city of Cordoba last Saturday and caused total damage in 90 percent of the green belt located between the roads to San Antonio and Route 9 South.
"The most affected area includes a vast region encompassing the fields on the way to San Antonio, San Carlos Road, the Road to 60 cuadras, Bouwer, and La Carbonada," stated the delegation of the Agrarian Federation Argentina (FAA).
One of the producers in the area that is associated with the entity, Miguel Campetella, told Agrovoz, "we are making an assessment with agronomists, but the damage in total is roughly 90 percent of the southern green belt. Everything that was sown on nearly 2,500 hectares was affected."
The hail affected potato crops and leafy vegetables crops, such as lettuce, spinach, broccoli and chicory, as well as lots planted with wheat. Guillermo Laguingue said that the hail had affected some 1,000 hectares of potato crops. The remaining 1,500 hectares affected were mainly of wheat and only some minor areas of vegetables.
"We might be able to recover some potato because it is underground, but not much. The damage has been terrible. It was raining stones. I can't remember anything of this magnitude in my history as a producer," lamented Campetella.
"The potato plants that had to date grown over 50 centimetres high were crushed, only a stub is sticking up from the ground. The losses are horrific, we really don't know how we'll overcome this," he added.
According to the FAA, hail accumulated was up to 15 centimetres. "Due to its weight, the accumulated hail even damaged numerous warehouses in the region. There are producers who have lost absolutely everything," said the organization.
Source: infocampo.com.ar