On April 22, a heavy hailstorm took a significant toll on stone fruit crops right when the campaign was starting in various areas of the Spanish Region of Murcia. A few days after the event, the Council of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries estimated that over 580 hectares of apricots and around 200 hectares of peaches have been damaged. Taking also into account the more than 3,500 hectares of almond crops that have been affected, the losses exceed 11.1 million euros.

"Here in Cehegín, 40% of the town's acreage is estimated to have been affected. In the area that was hit by hail there are many fruit plantations and large farms, and the area covered with anti-hail nets accounts for only about 10% of the total, so the storm took a significant toll on the fruit," says Pedro Denia, manager of Frudenfer. "In the Bullas area, the impact has been even greater, with 80% of the production damaged. In the best case scenario, that fruit can only be diverted for industrial use," he says.

Frudenfer has been exporting stone fruit and pears, mainly from Jumilla, from the Region of Murcia to Europe since 1978. "We specialize in apricots," says Pedro, "and we had started the campaign with the production from Cieza, where practically all the fruit has already been harvested. In Cehegín, we hadn't started working yet, although we hope to have enough fruit, as apricots have taken most of the damage."

"Right now, we are working with France, shipping very high-quality fruit with a very high Brix. All the fruit brought in today will be shipped to Paris and Lyon, mostly via Perpignan, and some will also go to the south of the country. They produce their own varieties there, so we will only be able to continue exporting until their campaign starts, because by then, they will prioritize the consumption of their local fruit, as we also do here in Spain. In France, they have had several weeks of cold weather, so we expect to continue shipping apricots there before moving on to the domestic market, where we market 90% of our peaches and flat peaches."

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com