Spain: High temperatures reduce the Alava potato harvest

The intense heat waves that have been taking place over the last few months are causing the number of tubers per plant in Alava's potato crops to be lower than expected, which is why Udapa expects to obtain a smaller harvest this campaign. Although today —early August— it is still difficult to know what the decrease in the kilos obtained will be, the truth is that “high temperatures are also affecting the size of the tuber, preventing it from developing properly, reaching larger sizes”, explains Jon Legorburu, an agricultural technician from Udapa. Even so, "the good news is that, to date, the quality of the potato is very good, so we hope it will remain that way until harvest time." Another of the consequences that this hot summer is leaving us is that the starts are going to be brought forward a week. "It is very likely that by the last days of August we will already be pulling the first potatoes from Álava, so we won't have to wait until September to start tasting them," says ...