Spring
is always a tense time for soft fruit farmers and on Tuesday, when black cloud
swirled around Calasparra there were more than a few worried faces studying the
threatening skies.
Parts of Calasparra escaped with a few drops of rain but some five hectares of soft
fruit trees in Calasparra were seriously damaged by hail.
Altogether in the Altiplano, North West and Vega Alta areas of Murcia, all
surrounding or including Calasparra, a
thousand hectares of soft fruit trees were damaged by hailstones.
The fruits affected were nectarine, preach, paraguay, apricot, pear, grape and
also corn.
Cieza suffered the most damage with 700 hectares affected and in Jumilla 565
hectares were damaged.
