Abundant pasture and vigorous corn contrast with fungal disease in vineyards and late potatoes, as an unusually wet and relatively cool July reveals once again the intimate dependence of island agriculture on the temperament of the Atlantic
In the Azores, agriculture has always been a conversation with the weather. The farmer may prepare the soil, choose the seed, prune the vine and tend the field, but somewhere beyond human intention remain the Atlantic, the clouds and the uncertain architecture of rain. July 2026 offered another chapter in that ancient dialogue. It was a relatively cool month across the archipelago, and in several islands an exceptionally wet one—a combination that gave generously to pasture and corn while asking a heavier price from vineyards and potatoes. According to the State of Crops and Harvest Forecasts – July 2026, released by the Azores Regional Statistics Service (SREA) and dated August 26, the same humidity that filled the fields with grass also created fertile conditions for fungal disease. It was, in other words, a month that demonstrated one of agriculture’s oldest truths: nature rarely gives without also imposing conditions.
Average temperatures remained below normal throughout the nine islands, ranging from 20.4°C on Terceira to 21.7°C on Corvo. Pico registered both the lowest minimum, at 15.1°C, and the highest maximum, at 28.1°C. But rain was the more consequential presence. Flores received 196.6 millimeters during the month, followed by Graciosa with 103.1 and Corvo with 101.4. Pico stood at the opposite end of the spectrum, recording only 44 millimeters, slightly below what would normally be expected. On Flores, July 29 alone brought 87.4 millimeters—a remarkable quantity of water falling upon an island already accustomed to understanding rain not merely as weather, but as landscape.
For livestock farming, the consequences were largely favorable. Pastures flourished across the archipelago, producing abundant grass and ensuring good feeding conditions for cattle. The growth was sufficiently strong to permit farmers to ensile significant quantities of surplus forage, effectively storing part of July’s generosity for another season. Corn responded with similar vigor. Both forage corn and grain corn showed very good vegetative development. Compared with a normal year, production is expected to be 20 percent higher on Faial and 10 percent higher on Pico, while remaining broadly normal elsewhere. Compared with 2025, the forecast is equally encouraging: 20 percent higher on Faial, 15 percent on São Jorge and 10 percent on Pico. Particularly noteworthy is Graciosa, where rainfall allowed forage corn to recover after insufficient precipitation had hindered its development in June.
Yet what nourishes one crop can endanger another. In the vineyards, persistent precipitation and humidity encouraged fungal diseases despite producers intensifying treatments. The forecast is consequently negative across every island for which SREA provides an estimate. Compared with a normal year, grape production is expected to decline by 25 percent on Santa Maria, 20 percent on São Jorge, 10 percent on Terceira and Graciosa, and 5 percent on São Miguel and Pico. The comparison with 2025 is also unfavorable, with projected declines of 10 percent on Graciosa and São Jorge and 5 percent on Santa Maria, São Miguel, Terceira and Pico. For an archipelago where the vine has long represented far more than an agricultural commodity—where volcanic stone, human labor, and Atlantic weather have together created some of the islands’ most distinctive cultural landscapes—the numbers carry significance beyond the harvest itself.
The banana presents a more varied geography. Vegetative conditions remained broadly normal on most islands but were weaker on Santa Maria and Pico, while São Jorge recorded the most difficult situation, largely because of pest attacks. Production there is forecast at 20 percent below normal and 15 percent below last year. Pico is expected to produce 5 percent less than both a normal year and 2025, while Santa Maria is projected at 5 percent below normal but approximately equal to last year. Elsewhere, where information is available, production should remain close to established levels.
The potato tells another story of the ambiguity of moisture. The cultivated area devoted to the late potato crop remains essentially unchanged from 2025, except on São Jorge, where it has declined by 5 percent. The plants have developed well, but excessive humidity has again encouraged fungal disease, leaving growers with the familiar paradox of crops that appear vigorous while remaining vulnerable to what cannot immediately be seen. The early potato harvest produced more reassuring results: yields were generally within normal parameters, with Santa Maria and São Jorge 5 percent above normal and Pico 10 percent below. Compared with 2025, Santa Maria registered an impressive 25 percent increase, while Pico declined 10 percent and São Jorge 5 percent.
Even the tea fields of São Miguel participated in July’s complicated abundance. Tea continued to show good vegetative development, with productivity expected to remain close both to the levels of a normal year and to those recorded in 2025.
Taken together, the figures form something more interesting than a simple agricultural balance sheet. They reveal the extraordinary delicacy of farming on islands where climate, geography and economy exist in unusually close proximity. Rain becomes grass; grass becomes milk and livestock. Rain strengthens corn, yet the same moisture settles upon vine leaves and potato plants and becomes disease. A cooler month may ease one pressure while intensifying another. Across nine islands separated by relatively short distances, Flores can receive nearly five times the rainfall of Pico, reminding us that even within one small archipelago there is never truly a single agricultural climate.
Perhaps that is why agriculture in the Azores has always demanded something beyond technique. It requires attentiveness—a patient reading of clouds, soil, wind, leaves and seasons. The statistics published by SREA translate that relationship into percentages and millimeters, but behind every figure lies a field and, behind every field, someone waiting to discover what the Atlantic has decided to give.
For on islands born from fire and surrounded by water, the harvest is never written by human hands alone. The farmer begins the sentence; the weather still holds the final word.
Based on a story in Diário dos Açores-Paulo Vivieiros, director. Pictures from DA, Parques Naturais dos Açores and Chá Gorreana.