Hurricane Patricia reached the shores of Mexico this weekend. The hurricane entered as a category 5, but diminished in strength as it reached land. For many growers the predominant sentiment was relief.
Nevertheless, the storm did leave its mark. Jalapeños and cucumbers are reported to have some light damage, but other greenhouse vegetables don't. Respectively, the damage for both products amounts to a loss of around 8% and 11%, one grower and exporter says. These products will then be sold as B quality.
The majority of greenhouses are in the middle of the country, and apart from a lot of rain, nothing else has happened to the crops, although the rain and wind did cause some material damage to the greenhouses. The infrastructure was also affected by the storm. This is disadvantageous to the transport of products, but also to getting produce off the land. This in turn affects the products' shelf life.
Limes and avocados
The limes grow more toward the Gulf of Mexico, and the hurricane was on the other side of the country. There was less wind than expected, but there was a lot of rain. Due to this, there is no harvest, so less volume. Prices are expected to rise for a while, but they will normalize within a week, says Juan Pablo Anaya from Paplo Produce Imports.
Maggie Bezart of Hall International reported being pleased with the rain after a period of drought. The actual damage is not yet known, but from what they see, it's not too bad. It will delay the harvest for a while though.
Soft fruit
For soft fruit, the extensive rain did cause some damage. How big the damage is is not clear, but according to Miquel Méndez of BQfruits, it's probably not that bad. "The consequence will be that the damaged fruit will now go to processing, but the expectation was much worse." Mariana Soto of Berrylovers also confirms this. "The only consequence is that we can't harvest for a while."
Mango
The mango season will not start until January. The heavy rainfall didn't cause damage, says Diana Campos of Emex AC.
Texas
In America, the state of Texas had a lot of rain. The damage there is limited to infrastructure for now, nothing else is known at the moment.