The arrival of the rains this year seemed to bring a thread of hope to a battered agricultural sector for drought months. The news that comes to us could not be more different: grapes, citrus, bananas… For one reason or on the other, the crops are not fulfilling expectations, and the most recent example has been put by the tomato.
76 million. The tomato sector in Extremadura He has taken stock This year’s harvest and has not been precisely optimistic: a “ruin” is like the union of small farmers and ranchers from Extremadura (UPA-UCE) defined it in a Recent statement. The Extremadura Agrarian Organization figure at 76 million euros the annual losses of tomato producers after this year’s harvest.
Double problem. The Sector Association points to A double problem: On the one hand, “ruinous prices (taxes by) the industrial sector”. Prices that, according to the association do not allow to cover the costs associated with production.
The price problem is linked to the second of the problems of this campaign: that of production. According to association data, for this campaign the hiring for this campaign was based on an expected productivity of 93 tons per hectare on average. In Extremadura, real productivity has ended up being lower, about 82 tons per hectare.
Lower productivity, lower production. This has been reflected in a bad harvest, with a production remarkably lower than that originally hired, 20% lower, according to UPA-UCE data. The main reason in this fall in production is for the sector, in meteorology.
A climate not so propitious. Everything seemed to indicate that the meteorology would be favorable this year: months of elevated rainfall or, the less normal, they served not only to conclude the dry episode that affected our environment for several years; The hydrological bonanza also served for reservoirs to recover filling levels that had not been seen in years.
However, the summer of 2025 was not consistent with what was seen in the previous months, but it brought us a Dry and very warm summera summer with two heat waves especially severe both in intensity and in duration.
The result: weaker plants. And with more problems, they explain from UPA-UCE.
Echoes from other fields. The story is repeated in several sectors. The arrival of the rains seemed to bring new hopes to the agricultural sector, however, the expected increase in harvest has also been translating into lower prices In origin, something that already supposed in itself a problem for many farmers.
The problem has been even greater in sectors like grapeswhere expectations are not being met and now producers must face the low prices of a high offer, but with a lower production to the expected.
Image | Czapp ÁPád
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