Spain: Historic losses in Valencian persimmon due to pests and lack of agronomic control

The high level of damage caused by imported pests and the lack of active ingredients and biological control tools to combat them will cause persimmon producers in the Valencian Community to lose around 47 million euros this campaign, says La UNIÓ. The destruction of persimmons this campaign will be very significant, exceeding 30% of the harvest, as a consequence of the direct impact on the fruit of the pests and diseases that already exist and those imported over the last few years that generate greater resistance, making their agronomic control difficult, further aggravated by the lack of effective active ingredients and also biological control methods such as predators, parasitoids or pheromones for sustainable and integrated control. The percentage of damage caused by pests and diseases has increased by more than 247% compared to the previous campaign, reaching almost 31% as a result of the appearance of the new South African quarantine thrips Scirtothrips aurantii, which will ...