The strong winds around the middle of December played havoc with the avocado crop along the Costa Tropical, causing important losses.

One farmer says that he lost five tonnes of avocados, which was about half his projected crop. Worse still, it wasn’t insured, something that he usually does.

Not every avocado that was blown off the tree was lost because many could still be sold at a much lower price for secondary use in other products, but they still needed to be collected up and that means hiring hands; yet more outlay coming from a diminishing income.

Municipal agricultural specialist, Carlos Ferrón, at the Almuñécar Town Hall explained that the majority of the fruit lost was of the Haas variety, probably because they were in the last stage of ripening. The trouble is that most fruit farmers keep them on the tree as long as possible in order to fetch a better price, but always running the risk of windfall loss in December and spring.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)