Almond production in Castilla-La Mancha is estimated at 7% more, despite the spring frosts
Agri-food Cooperatives of Castilla-La Mancha has carried out a study and estimation of the almond harvest in the region whose data, despite the decrease in production forecasts due to the important spring frosts that occurred (mainly on March 24th), speak of a total of 5,056 tons of estimated production kernels. A figure that represents 7% more than the production of the 2016/2017 season (4,727 tons), where there were also significant frost damage.
The area of almond in production of Castilla-La Mancha is of 62,410 hectares and the estimate of kilos of pips per hectare is of 81
According to the Cooperativas technician, Jesús Ángel Peñaranda, “the forecast of almonds has been greatly diminished by frost; the damage has been considerable in both early and late varieties and the regions of Sierra del Segura and La Manchuela have been the most affected”, further notes that “the damage of these frosts has been uneven, as there are areas that have been seen damaged to 100% of their production and others where there is hardly any damage or not at all”.
Growing of nuts in Castilla-La Mancha
The considerable rise of nuts in the region has contributed to the fact that many of the farmers have diversified their production to this crop, as is confirmed by the latest data obtained by Cooperatives.
In the case of the almond tree, in 2013 in Castilla-La Mancha had 59.408.15 hectares of cultivated area and in 2016 has reached 94,876.01 hectares, or nearly 35,500 hectares more in three years
Regarding the pistachio, in 2013 were cultivated 4,388 hectares and in 2016 have reached 10,909 hectares, that is, 6,521 hectares more.
In the walnut also there has been an increase of the surface: 791 hectares in 2013 and 1,272.86 in 2016; that is, 480.89 more hectares in three years.
“These figures corroborate the boom of these crops within the Castilla-La Mancha agriculture, mainly due to the significant increase in consumer demand and markets, the availability of late flowering and autofertile almond varieties, the high price of the almond in the last years, and to the low profitability of the herbaceous crops”, emphasizes Jesus Angel Peñaranda.
Source: Agri-food Cooperatives of Castilla La Mancha
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