After the snowfall in April: Frost damage to crops and potential losses

The rapeseed harvest may be entirely lost due to the April snowfall and the cold weather in recent days in Bulgaria, Ilia Prodanov, the chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers, told BNT on April 9.

Farmers are facing a significant challenge after the April snowfall and freezing temperatures.

"The biggest issue with these freezing temperatures from today, yesterday, and presumably the next few days, is not so much the abnormality for this period of the year, but the fact that the plants were tricked into starting their serious spring development over the last few weeks. The weather was quite warm at the end of March and the beginning of April," explained Ilia Prodanov.

It will become clear in the coming days what the extent of the damage is, but first, the weather needs to warm up.

"Our concern is that, especially with rapeseed, the losses will be quite significant. It's hard to say how much lower the rapeseed yield will be. The harvest may be completely lost. Rapeseed has a strong capacity to recover from such events, but we've never seen it frozen to this extent," Ilia Prodanov said.

"The fruit trees have frozen! There will be no harvest this year": Severe frost destroys orchards in many areas in Bulgaria