Frost causes very serious damage to our peaches

The minimum temperatures recorded between 2º and 7º degrees below zero cause significant losses in production, especially in stone fruit trees.

The worst predictions came true. The Ciezano countryside suffered a historic frost this morning, the likes of which had not been known for a long time. The advance of flowering in the extra-early and part of the early varieties of peach and nectarine due to the warm temperatures so far this winter has abruptly come up against permanent records below zero on Tuesday night, practically since midnight .

Most of the extra-early varieties and some early ones have been seriously affected, which represents approximately 20% of the entire production of the current campaign. This also means a very significant loss of jobs for Cieza and its region, which will be a very hard blow to the job expectations of many Cieza residents.

Although we still have to wait to offer a comprehensive evaluation, everything suggests that this will be a catastrophe, especially taking into account the increasingly demanding conditions of agricultural insurance.

All the anti-frost systems were working at full capacity during the early hours of the morning: burning paraffin and vegetable bales – the urban center of Cieza dawned immersed in a thick tongue of smoke –, the water sprinklers popularly known as 'little birds' and the wind turbines. But none of these methods could do much when peaks of between 6 and 7 degrees below zero occurred in a large part of the Ciezana farms.

The Minister of Agriculture, Adela Martínez-Cachá, announced her visit to Cieza this afternoon where she plans to inspect some of the affected farms.