The recent cold snap here has damaged flower crops on 70 local farms, which could see prices rise this season, especially at the Taif flower festival later this month, farmers say.

The freezing weather resulted in the formation of frost which reduced harvests this year, said Ayesh Al-Talhi, public relations director at the Taif branch of the Ministry of Agriculture.

He said the ministry does not determine what compensation farmers should get. A committee comprising officials from the governorate, Civil Defense and municipality would make this assessment, he said.

Abdulrazzaq Al-Talhi, a farmer, said temperatures dropped to below zero in Al-Hada and Al-Shafa, which led to the formation of frost.

He said there was more damage to the flower farms in Al-Hada than those in Al-Shafa. The frost affected over 70 percent of the farms in Al-Hada, he said.

He said many farmers would have to withdraw from the festival, causing prices to double.

Awad Al-Talhi, a farmer, said most farmers would not seek compensation. He said farmers only received 15 percent of their losses when their farms were damaged two years ago.

“I lost around SR70,000 and only received SR8,000. We tried to collect the damaged flowers, and took them to factories to extract water and oil, but came up with nothing,” he said.

Abdullah Al-Talhi, who has a farm in Al-Shafa of around 13,000 sqm, said there was damage to 10,000 sqm of his property.

He said farmers can avoid frost-related losses by pruning their trees, but this year they could not do so because the cold weather hit unexpectedly.

Khalid Kamal, who owns a small workshop to extract rose water, said there would be a scarcity of Taif flowers this year. With manufacturers competing for flowers, prices would be high, he said.