23/7/2024
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Agro Infomacion (Spain)
Sugar beet farmers in Seville and Cadiz desperate over delays in harvesting their crops
COAG de Andalucía has raised the alarm regarding the calamitous situation experienced by sugar beet farmers in the area of Bajo Guadalquivir, Guadalete and Barbate (mainly Seville and Cadiz) who are seeing how the sugar factory is not harvesting their crops due, fundamentally, to a deficit in the planning of the campaign, which, added to the deterioration of its facilities, is resulting in hundreds of hectares remaining in the fields awaiting harvesting. The consequences of this delay, "unacceptable for farmers, in the harvest are far-reaching because, on the one hand, it means an extra cost in the available irrigation supplies, which is totally unacceptable if we take into account the period of drought we are going through and the fact that the start of other crops (such as vegetables) are in turn in need of these allocations from today." In this sense, the slow pace of harvesting is causing beet farmers to be at risk of rotting in some areas, which in turn affects the costs of production for the campaign, "leading the producer to unsustainable losses, squandering their initial calculations and the agreements signed at the beginning of the season." While in other areas, it is implying an extra cost in the provision of irrigation water.
