The storm registered last week has spoiled 20% of the fruit in Spain's main kiwi production area. "The wind caused lots of damage. In some farms, only 10% of the plants were affected, but in others between 25 and 30% have been damaged," stated Martín Fernández, technician at Kiwi Atlántico. The weather has not been favourable for the crops or the vineyards of O Baixo Miño.

Growers are always weary about the weather conditions during the flowering. This stage is crucial, since this is when pollination takes place; that is, when the flower transforms into settled fruit. To overcome this critical stage, which lasts for two weeks, "we need dry weather and temperatures above 15 degrees Celsius." If the weather is benign until the end of the month, the campaign would still be good despite the losses.

For now, they have been saved by the fact that the low winter temperatures caused a very intense flowering, so even with 20% damaged, the results of the campaign will still be positive "as long as the weather remains favourable. So far, it has been a year of many more risks due to the weather conditions in both winter and spring, with plenty of rain and humidity," points out Martín Fernández. "We are taking extreme caution to prevent bacteria from causing the flowers to rot, so we have applied copper treatments to this end," he stressed.

The area's average production in recent years stands at 3.5 million kilos. For now, nobody dares to speculate on this season's production because there are still six months ahead before the harvest and they have already had too many surprises.

The region of O Baixo Miño continues to be Spain's largest kiwi producer, and Galicia represents 50% of the domestic total, which amounts to about 12 million kilos.

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