The mayor of Cieza, Tomás Rubio, and the councilor for Agriculture, Manuel Martínez, met with representatives of the farmers to assess the damage caused by the recent rains. The meeting, requested by the Department of Agriculture, was, in the mayor's words, "due to the need to gauge the sector's situation, and this is the fourth meeting held with farmers since I took office as mayor."
Representatives from professional agricultural organizations such as COAG or UPA and from cooperatives such as FECOAM analyzed the possibilities of requesting support measures from Public Administrations for the stone fruit sector of Cieza, the area with the highest production in the Region of Murcia.
"We have just come from suffering a persistent drought, which has caused many problems for producers, and now with the rain that has fallen, the fruit has been gone in 15 days, because it has been harvested faster than normal," commented Martínez.
In this regard, the Councilor for Agriculture has been receptive to the sector's demands and has assured that "we are already working on this with the Regional Government. This afternoon's meeting will serve to gather information, analyze the damage, and request special measures to alleviate the situation." The heavy rains not only caused direct damage to the fruit, but also, because it could not be harvested, it overripened on the trees, thus losing market value.
For his part, Pascual Hortelano, head of stone fruit at FECOAM, explained to attendees the various options the central government can offer in situations like this: "Farmers with agricultural insurance will be able to obtain cross-cutting aid." Regarding this year's harvest, he said that the product supply, due to late flowering, "means the market is unable to absorb the production."
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