Uruguay: Citrus production suffers due to low temperatures

The unexpected frosts in some places in the North of Uruguay that registered 9 degrees below zero, caused losses in the citrus sector, as there are establishments that can't even place their harvests in the internal market.

This situation was classified as serious by departmental legislators and producers. It is being handled by the Departmental Local Body will inform governmental authorities about the impact of the weather conditions that will not only damage exports, but will also affect producers and many families.

The president of the Horticultural Group in Salto, José Luis Ferreira, said to El País that this weather adversity that arrived unexpectedly and when they were already facing a water crisis will be evaluated in 60 days time, despite the fact that there are areas like the citrus where it's easy to see that everything's lost.

"There are many orange and lemon trees that don't have even leaves on the plants and, regarding the horticultural sector, there's the loss of strawberry and tomato. The most worrying is the fact that there are small and medium producers that couldn't transplant spring onions, because harvest was delayed and also they could face the chance of losing it all because as time passes there's no option than abandoning collection of plants to be transplanted," said Ferreira.

Source: El País Digital