Thursday's afternoon hailstorm hit various points of Lower Aragon. It left impressive images of streets and people protecting themselves from its force in the capital and generated losses in the harvest of one of the most emblematic fruits of the region, the Melocotón de Calanda PDO's peach.

“We'll collect information about the damages throughout the day. The territory covered by the designation of origin is very wide, but we already have evidence of damage in Alcañiz, Albalate, and Híjar. So far, the districts of Alcañiz de Valmuel and Puigmoreno were the most affected."

“My own farms are located in that area and I believe we lost 100% of the crop because the strength of the hail threw all the peaches to the ground,” stated Samuel. The damage in the peach crops in the vicinity of Alcañiz will be very important, he added.

“The storm started around four or four-thirty, and in a matter of 15-20 minutes, it destroyed everything. Not only did it throw the fruit on the ground and damaged it, it also broke branches and some trees, so we will have to treat them for the damage they have suffered.”

The PDO starts harvesting its first peach varieties between August 15 and 20, and the campaign lasts until the beginning of November, Samuel stated. Fortunately, he added, despite the confirmed losses in the area of Alcañiz, “there were no damages in other important areas of the PDO, such as Calanda, Caspe, Cyprus, and Maella, so we can affirm that we'll have fruit available this campaign.”

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com