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ARCHIVED - Farmers in La Palma devastated by volcanic eruption
Banana growers on the Canary Island claim they have lost their entire harvest due to the volcano
Farmers on the Canary Island of La Palma, which was devastated when the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted more than two weeks ago, have appealed to the regional government to allow them to up their prices to compensate for the widespread damage to crops they have endured. Banana producers have been the hardest hit by far: 50% of the island’s GDP comes from this fruit and more than 10,000 families depend completely on its cultivation, but a staggering amount of the crops were wiped out, first by the lava flow, and now from being choked by volcanic ash.
As much as 38% of the bananas in the Canary Islands come from La Palma, and right now more than 1,200 hectares of cultivated land has been affected by the eruption. In addition to this, one local farmer who lives in the exclusion zone of Fuencaliente, claims that even when crops aren’t destroyed by the lava, practically 100% of the yield is being turned away at market because of the effects of the ash cloud on the appearance of the produce.
Last year, the average price of the Canarian banana was around 90 cents per kilo and the consumer cost was 2.50. The produce made it from farm to supermarket in around 15 days, but now, according to Miguel Martín, president of the local Association of Farmers, there are approximately one million kilos of bananas per week not making it to market since the eruption.
Mr Martín added that he knows several farmers who have virtually lost everything in the past two weeks and fears abound that even after the volcano stops erupting, the cost of repairing the land for farming once more will prove to be far too high.
Meanwhile, the problems associated with the volcano seems to be reaching far further than La Palma, A couple of weeks ago, there were fears that the ash cloud could cause problems in mainland Spain as volcanic particles blew in through the Region of Murcia, and now the experts have warned that the sulfur dioxide (SO2) will spread as far as the Caribbean in the coming days.
According to the Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service, long-distance, high-altitude winds will carry the plume across the Atlantic before October 12. The gas column’s altitude is estimated to be around 5,000 meters, and joins the Sahara and volcanic ash that has already reached Puerto Rico earlier this week.
Long-range transport of total column SO2 from #CumbreViejaVolcano #LaPalma across the Atlantic to the Caribbean in @CopernicusECMWF Atmosphere Monitoring Service @ECMWF forecast from 3 Oct 12 UTC visualized by @Windycom. Plume altitude initialized at ~5km https://t.co/YbK7KaG8a5 pic.twitter.com/xSQTqyyjMS
— Mark Parrington (@m_parrington) October 4, 2021
Image: Archive
