According to estimates, more than half of Mallorca's early potato crops were lost because of the passage of storm Juliette. "We hoped to harvest more than 400 tons of early potatoes, but I'll be surprised if we get to harvest 150 tons," stated Llorenç Pasqual, a farmer who works on one of the farms of the Mateu Export company in Sa Pobla, which exports 80% of this vegetable.
"The snow, wind, and rain burned the leaves of many plants and killed many others. Few plants survived, but they stopped growing because their leaves were damaged," Pasqual stated. "The potato will be smaller, it will weigh less, and as a consequence, we'll have fewer kilos," he stated.
The harvest at Mateu Export's farm should have started two weeks ago, but the storm prevented it: the plant has been dead for a week or more.
The regional government has approved a decree with urgent measures to help the sector bear the losses.
Source: arabalears.cat