Spanish growers are likely to have lost “millions of kilos” of stone fruit this year due to the ongoing drought. While growers in major producer region Murcia might rely on desalinated sea water, inland growers of peaches and nectarines have faced bans on irrigation. In the tropical fruit growing region of southern Spain, growers have only produced about half the expected mango crop, with similar issues in avocados.
In Spain, Malaga has half the water supply compared to last year with reservoirs as low as eight per cent capacity. Most reservoirs are between 20 and 40 per cent full, with the highest only close to half of its total storage capacity, according to a report by expat newspaper The Olive Press.
In the north, the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) has declared a water emergency at an aquifer that has reached its lowest levels since 2009, and a reservoir that is now only six per cent full.
Source: wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk