The province of Granada has been knocked sideways by this string of gales, devastating crops, damaging infrastructure, causing evacuations from hard hit towns and even the loss of life.

And it’s not over yet.

The province’s two main crop harvests have been hit: olive and assaparagus. whilst Granada might not have the rolling landscape of tens of thousands of olive trees that Jaén or Cordoba have, there are still 34 towns in our province that depend on the olive harvest.

Down on the Costa Tropical, kilometres of intensive farming under plastic from Motril to the border with Almería are affected.

It was estimated before the wind and rain hit that there were 38,500 tonnes of olives still on the trees yet to be harvested; at least 15% has been lost, according to the Cooperativas Agroalimentarias in Granada. What remains will probably be of the worse quality for olive oil; lampante.

The difference between what remains on the trees going into Virgen Extra or Virgen, and Lampante is some 20m euros in lost profit. We did an article on the different types of olive oil.

Huétor Tájar, hard hit by the water released by damns down Río Genil, where 1,144 hectares went underwater, which represents 30% on the municipality’s planted fields.

On the Costa Tropical, this much rainall will improve greatly the watertable, which in the long term is fantastic news, but the wind that came with it riped avocados from the branches and as for greenhouses, the constant humidity and lack of sunshine is perfect breeding ground for diseases affecting cucumber and cherry tomato plants.

Hotels and restaurants have felt the wrath of this battering with cancellations. Finger’s crossed for Valentine’s day.

We’re a long way from February last year when the Goya Film Awards brought millions into the city of Granada.

Lastly, poor old Sierra Nevada with all that snow, making a perfect skiing landscape, but brought to a close by the high winds.

The fact is that people have opted to stay at home, cancelling rural getaways. But, things will improve by Thursday and already rural eateries like Mesón Los Prados are taking table reservations for next Sunday.

(News: Granada, Andalucia – Source: Mercedes Navarrete/Ideal)

Keywords: Gales Batter the Economy, Huetor-Tajar, Sierra Nevada, Costa Tropical

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