Spain: Emergency situation and great losses in Almeria

Around 500 grower families have been directly affected by the damage from the heavy ice storms and floods in Almeria last Wednesday afternoon. Today, the major of El Ejido visited the seized area and spoke out his concerns for the situation. The stricken area mainly is occupied by smaller grower families who in most cases do not owe more then a few hectares of greenhouses, and the greenhouse is usually their only source of income.

Source picture: fhalmeria.es

Growers are now trying to save their last source of income by picking the last fruits from the damaged crops before they start top rot. At the time of the catastrophe, the prices where already very high due to large demand, and in the meantime the prices for the greenhouse vegetables increases even further.

Most of the growers have been knocked sideways, but according to a local source they are already looking forward and plan to reconstruct their greenhouses and the demand to build new greenhouses is very high in Almeria.

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Almeria's greenhouse season just started. The growers plant their crops in July-August and just invested a large amount of money per hectare on new plant material. Around 300 hectares of greenhouses are seriously damaged, 150 hectares have collapsed.