Agricultural organizations have warned of the "considerable damage" that the storm registered on Tuesday afternoon in Jaén capital has caused to the olive groves in the municipal area and its immediate surroundings.
The general secretary of COAG in the province, Francisco Elvira, has highlighted the "considerable effects in the countryside" of the intense downpour that began to fall around 8:00 PM and which, in addition, caused numerous incidents in different areas of the urban area.
In this regard, he has estimated "approximately, between ten and 15 percent of fruit loss due to hail, with fruits hit on the tree that are already stained and that the tree will probably also discard due to wounds."
"These are damages that 'a priori' are not very considerable at this time of year but which will somewhat reduce the production of olive groves near the capital," Elvira pointed out, alluding to the fact that the reduction will be concentrated in the farms closest to the city.
On the other hand, the manager and spokesperson for Asaja, Luis Carlos Valero, has placed the main effects of the storm in the area from Jaén towards the Sierra Sur, where "the hail has indeed damaged the harvest." "It has caused significant damage, but well, we are currently assessing it. Less damage to infrastructure, but also some damage to tracks, but it has been very localized in this area around Jaén," he indicated.
Likewise, the general secretary of UPA-Jaén, Jesús Cózar, has alluded to the damages caused by the storm "very localized in the municipal area of Jaén," with affectation also to the nucleus of Las Infantas and "a little" in the neighboring town of La Guardia.
He recalled that "Jaén capital is the largest olive-growing nucleus we have in the province" and specified that "we are confirming that there is already considerable damage, probably more than 60 percent of the olives that the tree had, are on the ground. And, logically, it is olives, money that has been lost, and we are going to carry out a more exhaustive assessment and see exactly what balance we can make."
After mentioning that a few days ago another hailstorm occurred in several municipalities in the Sierra de Segura, Cózar spoke of "storms that are arriving at times of the year when they are not expected" and that cause "a lot of damage" to olive groves.
He added that it is "one more example that the consequences of climate change are here and that the first ones to suffer them are the primary sector, the olive grove sector in the province of Jaén, which has been harmed in recent years, precisely when it is not due to drought, it is due to torrential rains, when it is not due to hail...", announcing that they will ask "the administrations for aid and measures to try to alleviate the situation".
Agricultural insurance and call for prevention
In parallel, he stressed that the deadline to contract the hail insurance policy remains open until June 30, which "is quite affordable in terms of price and for the coverage it has, it guarantees 100 percent of the kilos" contemplated for olive groves.
Therefore, he encouraged farmers to take out this insurance, as "there is still a lot of time until the harvest" and "they can go through many more storms", especially due to the impact of climate change and "due to that El Niño phenomenon that they have been warning about for a long time that will have a significant presence in Spanish territory".