Canary Islands Agriculture Closes One of its Worst Years in The Last Decade

Banana cultivation - for which these islands are best known, after tourism and, which forms an important part of the insular economy - has fared best in 2005, thanks to good prices on the mainland, although European aid has not been sufficient.

Increases in gas prices, plus various weather phenomenon, culminating with Tropical Storm Delta, which hit the Canary Islands in November and affected 14,000 plantations, turned 2005 into one of the worst years for agriculture in the archipelago in the last decade. Banana production was 65 million kilos less than in 2004, owing to the bad weather, with costs of production rising.

Agriculture was the worst hit by the recent storms and the highest costs, although they run into millions of Euros of monetary value, are human. The year 2005 has been classified as a year of crisis and uncertainty - to the point that 300 family firms have disappeared.

La agricultura de las Islas despide uno de los peores años de la última década

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