Tony Gentile ROME/MADRID (Reuters) – Italian durum wheat and dairy farmer Attilio Tocchi saw warning signs during the winter of the dramatic drought to come at his holding a mile away from the Tuscan coast.
"When it still hadn’t rained at the beginning of spring we realized it was already irreparable," he said, adding that he had installed fans to try and cool his cows that were suffering in the heat.
Drought in southern Europe threatens to reduce cereal production in Italy and parts of Spain to its lowest level in at least 20 years, and hit other regional crops including olives and almonds.
I can’t remember a year like this since 1992 when I was a little child," said Joaquin Antonio Pino, a cereal farmer in Sinlabajos, Avila.
While the EU is collectively a major wheat exporter, Spain and Italy both rely on imports from countries including France, Britain and Ukraine.
Scorched Olives Spain and Italy are also among the world’s top producers of olive oil.
"We expected good production this year, but it hasn’t turned out like that," said Francesco Suatoni, who tends about 4,000 olive trees on the fringe of the ancient town of Amelia, in Umbria, central Italy.
"This year we expect to produce 50 percent less than last year.
"The drought is affecting, to a greater or lesser extent, all crops in Spain, even those that rely on greenhouses, because there’s a limit on the amount of water available," said Jose Ugarrio, analyst at the Spanish young farmers’ association.
"We expect a 23 pct drop in almond production this year from last year," Ugarrio said.