The final production of tomatoes for processing in Extremadura has reached 1,771,970 tonnes this season, 970,748 of which have been produced by cooperatives and Professional Fruit and Vegetable Organizations (OPFH) associated with Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias, which have thus accounted for 55% of the regional production.
This production in Extremadura is slightly lower (by almost 9 percent) than that of the 2015 campaign, when 1,951,388 tonnes were harvested.
For their part, and in line with the trend observed in the region as a whole, the OPFH associated to Extremadura's federation of cooperatives produced 20 percent less than in 2015, when they harvested 1,216,636 tonnes of tomatoes.
The tomato acreage harvested in Extremadura has totalled 22,645 hectares in the 2016 campaign, so the yields per hectare have amounted to approximately 78,250 kilos.
This acreage is also slightly greater (by about 500 hectares) than the one recorded in the previous campaign, when 22,158 hectares were harvested.
The OPFH associated with the federation of Extremadura's cooperatives accounted for 54 percent of that acreage in the 2016 campaign, with more than 12,300 hectares that yielded 78,870 kilos per hectare.
In the previous season, their acreage amounted to 13,694 hectares, so it has dropped by 10% this year, mostly due to the damage caused by the storms recorded last July.
Meanwhile, Extremadura's fourteen processors handled a total of 1,872,818 tonnes of fresh tomatoes from Extremadura, Andalusia and Portugal.
Source: EFE
