One of worst droughts in decades devastates South Europe crops

ROME/MADRID (Reuters) Italian durum wheat and dairy farmer Attilio canada goose Tocchi saw warning signs during Canada Goose Online the winter of the dramatic drought to come at his holding a mile Canada Goose Coats On Sale away buy canada goose jacket cheap from the canada goose clearance sale Tuscan coast.

it still hadn rained at the beginning of spring we realized it was already irreparable, uk canada goose he said, adding that he had installed fans to try and cool his cows that were suffering in the heat.

Drought in southern Europe Canada Goose Jackets threatens to reduce cereal production in Italy and parts of Spain to its uk canada goose outlet lowest level in at least canada goose uk outlet 20 years, and hit other regional crops including olives and almonds.

Castile and Leon, the largest cereal growing region in Spain, has been particularly badly affected, with crop losses estimated at around https://www.canadagooseoutlet4online.com 60 to 70 percent.

year was Canada Goose sale not bad, it was catastrophic. I can remember a year like this since 1992 when canada goose jacket I was a little child, said Joaquin canada goose black friday sale Antonio Pino, a cereal farmer in Sinlabajos, Avila.

Pino said many of his fields had not even been harvested, because crop revenues would not cover the wages of laborers who gathered them.

While the EU is collectively a major wheat exporter, Spain and Italy both rely on imports from countries including France, Britain and Ukraine.

Spanish soft wheat imports are expected to rise by more than 40 percent to 5.6 million tonnes in the 2017 2018 marketing year, according to Agroinfomarket.

The drought has helped support EU wheat futures, which have risen around 6 percent since the beginning of June, although the prospect of a larger harvest in canada goose coats France this year should ensure adequate overall supplies in the trading bloc.

SCORCHED OLIVES Spain and Italy are also among the world top producers of olive oil.

Production in both countries is expected to fall, but canada goose uk black friday the Canada Goose Parka decline is likely to be particularly steep in Italy, where drought is the latest headache for olive growers already plagued by insects and a bacterialdisease in recent years.

A 60 percent dropin Italian output is forecast by the International Olive Council.

An olive tree is seen silhouetted in an olive plantation in Amelia, central Italy June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

expected good production this year, but it hasn turned out like that, said Francesco Suatoni, who tends about 4,000 olive treeson the fringe of the ancient town of canada goose factory sale Amelia, in Umbria, central Italy.

Holding up a buy canada goose jacket branch with small, shriveled pods on it he added: little ball could have been an olive, but it scorched.

year we expect to produce 50 percent less than last year. Let hope not, but it will be very difficult to have a good crop.

Other crops have been damaged, and Italy agricultural association Coldiretti has estimated the drought could cost the nation farmers more than1 billion euros.

drought is affecting, to a greater or lesser extent, all crops in Spain, even Canada Goose Outlet those that rely on greenhouses, because there canada goose clearance a limit on the amount of water available, said Jose Ugarrio, analyst at the Spanish young farmers association.

The production canada goose coats on sale of nuts such as almonds and pistachios has also canadian goose jacket fallen sharply.

expect a 23 pct drop in almond production this year from last year, Ugarrio said.

Some see rising canada goose uk shop temperatures as a long term trend, which threatens cheap canada goose uk the viability of farming in the region.

this situation. canada goose store you realize it almost impossible to Canada Goose online keep going. You think OK, this year I will try to manage, cheap Canada Goose but if the harvest is like this next year you won be able to cope any more, said farmer Tocchi, who is also the local head of farmers group Confagricoltura.