Heavy rain causes severe damage to open field fruit and vegetable crops in Western Europe

The enormous amount of rain that has fallen in Western Europe in recent days has caused rivers to burst their banks and wash away buildings in Belgium and Germany, where at least 1,300 remained missing. Homes and streets in the Netherlands also flooded. The weather also had disastrous consequences for the fruit and vegetable sector. The damage to unprotected soft fruit, cherries and open-field vegetables in is enormous, local sources say. For German open field vegetable farms already battered by the Corona situation, it is becoming increasingly serious as arable land and grassland as well as fruit, vegetable and vineyards are flooded. In many cases, the vegetation was destroyed, otherwise affected by yield and quality losses. Outdoor vegetablesGerman regions Rhineland-Palatinate and southern North Rhine-Westphalia dealt with enormous flooding. Farming families are currently providing their labor, tractors and equipment for cleanup and relief efforts. Christian Frey of German ...