Storm damage hurts Greek cotton production
Reports from Greece suggest that cotton production in the country suffered extensive damage as a result of Storm Daniel at the start of September.
The storm is the deadliest weather event of 2023 so far, with thousands of fatalities, mostly in and around the city of Derna in Libya. In Greece, there were 17 confirmed fatalities.
Greece is the largest producer of cotton in the European Union, with around 80% of European production. In turn, the region worst affected by the storm, Thessaly, has almost one-third of Greece’s cotton growing. Farmers in Thessaly grow cotton on 80,000 hectares of land; Greece as a whole has 250,000 hectares of land devoted to cotton farming.
Following the storm, Greece’s national centre for the classification and standardisation of cotton in Karditsa said current-season production in Thessaly would be reduced by between 50% and 60%.
