The low temperatures registered in the province of Granada in recent days have caused the loss of 20% of the green asparagus harvest, some eight million kilos, as reported by the Union of Small Growers (UPA) of Granada.

In a statement, the general secretary of the agricultural organisation, Nicolás Chica, lamented these losses in a key period for the sale of green asparagus (Easter), and estimated them to represent about 30% of the production's total value this year.

"Throughout the whole month of March we've had really low temperatures, which have delayed the asparagus campaign. But there was a very severe frost that made it impossible for us to harvest the product for an entire week. This has resulted in there being virtually no production by the time we started the harvest," explained Nicolás Chica.

The problem, according to UPA-Granada, is that the most immediate consequence of these losses in production is that many countries at European level are consuming green asparagus from America, especially Mexico and Peru. This entails a considerable damage, considering that Granada is the leading national producer of green asparagus and Spain is the world's third, behind Peru and China.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/