Portugal Fires and Drought Gut Martaínha Chestnut Crop, São Martinho Costs Rise

The aroma of roasted castanha may still waft through Portuguese streets this November, yet growers warn that the supply of the prized Martaínha variety is sliding toward historic lows. After a summer dominated by relentless drought, record wildfires and scorching heat, industry data indicate a collapse of roughly 75 % in national output, setting the stage for steeper prices and a difficult winter for rural communities that depend on the nut.

Harvest on Fire: What Happened

The damage started long before pickers entered the soutos. Between June and mid-September, more than 260 000 ha of vegetation burned, including some of the most productive chestnut slopes in Trás-os-Montes, Beira Interior and the highlands of Viseu. Satellite records from EFFIS reveal that flames touched about 2.3 % of Portugal’s mainland, while a single blaze originating near Trancoso charred over 80 000 ha. Many Martaínha orchards were reduced to charred trunks, pushing the national chestnut board to predict an 80 % loss in certain valleys. Even where trees survived, a brutal moisture deficit during the crucial swelling phase in September shrank kernel size and curtailed yields. Rain finally arrived in late October, helping burrs open, but the fruit inside had already stopped developing, locking in a season of scarcity.

Ripple Effects on Price and Tradition

Domestically, a kilo that fetched about €3 last autumn now nudges €5 at the farm gate for top-grade Martaínha, and retail shelves are flirting with €10 per kilo. Export-oriented cooperatives that usually ship 90 % of their stock to France, Italy and East Asia have been forced to tell buyers there is simply no product to sell. The timing could hardly be worse for Portuguese households: São Martinho and the accompanying magusto bonfires traditionally peak in mid-November, when social gatherings revolve around freshly roasted nuts paired with jeropiga. Families eyeing their seasonal treat may discover that holiday baskets feel lighter or that budgets need stretching to keep the ritual alive.

Rural Economy Under Pressure

The crisis reverberates far beyond the dinner table. In Penela da Beira, a cooperative that usually packs 300 t of Martaínha anticipates ending the campaign with barely 50 t, a shortfall worth millions of euros in lost turnover. Without fruit to pick, local contractors cancelled seasonal hiring, leaving day labourers without weeks of income they traditionally rely on before Christmas. Banks have already been approached to renegotiate loans, and producers are dipping into reserves to guarantee prompt payment to farmers—an absolute priority, according to the cooperative board, lest confidence in the sector unravel. Nationally, RefCast calculates potential losses between €20 M and €22 M, making 2025 the hardest year for chestnut growers since the severe fires of 2017.

Searching for Resilience: Science and Policy

Researchers at UTAD and ISA argue that the Martaínha genome still holds promise if growers embrace new practices. Field trials with the ColUTAD rootstock, celebrated for its resistance to the lethal doença da tinta, show higher survival rates under hydric stress. The BreedMartainha initiative is meanwhile cloning elite mother trees to distribute virus-free grafts capable of higher productivity once planted. On the public-policy front, Lisbon has rolled out low-interest credit lines and direct compensation for destroyed orchards, while a thirty-year forest pact aims to replace monocultures with mixed, fire-resilient mosaics. Agronomists insist, however, that adaptation also hinges on something as basic as affordable irrigation: most Martaínha groves remain rain-fed, a vulnerability laid bare by this year’s extended dry spell.

What This Means for Your Autumn Table

Short supply does not necessarily spell the end of the November feast, but it will require adjustments. Consumers might lean on other domestic varieties, yet the sweeter texture and thin pellicle that make Martaínha famous will be harder to find. City vendors in Porto and Lisbon are expected to raise prices per paper cone, and pastry kitchens are testing blends to keep pastéis de castanha on menus without shocking customers at the till. The silver lining, growers say, is that the nuts that survived are of exceptionally high quality, delivering intense flavour in spite of smaller calibre. Whether the market will reward that quality enough to offset the sector’s massive losses remains uncertain, but one lesson is already clear for Portuguese households: the humble, smoky chestnut is no longer immune to the extreme climate swings rewriting the country’s agricultural map.