Freeze strikes South American growing regions
Freeze strikes South American growing regions
A hard freeze that struck avocado-growing areas in Chile early in the week of July 10 is being compared by some to the California freeze of mid-January that reduced that state's avocado crop by as much as 25-30 percent.
It will be two to three weeks before growers can assess the extent of the damage, but some California shippers who handle imported Chilean avocados estimated the expected crop reduction somewhere in the range of 15-30 percent. The shortfall is expected to be felt most severely during late August and early September.
Jose Luis Obregon of the Hass Avocado Board in Irvine, CA, was in Chile for some avocado growers meetings when the freeze occurred. He told The Produce News that "it will take a couple of weeks" for the growers in Chile "to come out with a report of preliminary damages. At this point, I don't think they even know what is happening."
It is important for assessments of the damage to be made available as soon as possible "because it affects the entire industry," Mr. Obregon said, but the Chileans "have to figure out the magnitude" of the damage before they can "share that information with the rest of the world.
He did say, however, that "there will definitely be lower volumes from Chile" than originally anticipated this season.
Bob Lucy of Del Rey Avocado Co. Inc. in Fallbrook, CA, which handles Chilean fruit, said that the freeze, which occurred July 8-10, was widespread, with temperatures in avocado groves reaching 25 degrees for extended periods. He said that early damage estimates are as high as 25-30 percent of the crop, but he added that there is generally "a tendency to overestimate" freeze damage in avocados on early assessments and that often the actual damage turns out to be closer to half or two-thirds of what it originally appeared to be.
However, that was not the case in the January freeze in California, he said. In that instance, the first preliminary estimates of the extent of the damage proved to be fairly accurate, he said.
Mr. Lucy noted that before the freeze, Chilean exporters had already sent their first shipments of fruit from the new crop to the United States, and that fruit has now arrived in the market. He said that Chilean producers would hold off sending any more shipments for at least another 10 days while they evaluate the damage.
Rob Wedin of Calavo Growers Inc. in Santa Paula, CA, which also handles Chilean Hass, said, "We have hesitated, ourselves, putting [the damage] in terms of percentages, but we looked at the temperatures, and they were pretty similar to the California temperatures [in January], so we think it is quite serious."
He said that the number he is hearing most often from Chileans at this point is 15 percent, with 25 percent being "the current worst-case scenario." It is too soon to know, he said, but it was "definitely very cold, and there is still possibly cold weather ahead."
Mr. Wedin said that Chile had sent two shipments of avocados prior to the freeze. "The first shipment was 750,000 pounds. The next was 1 million." The exporters had planned to ship 2 million pounds of fruit the next week and 3 million the week after, but now those shipments will not occur at all. "They have stopped for at least two weeks."
California avocado growers, who are approaching the end of their season, would like to stretch out the remaining fruit as much as possible to fill the gap, but growers in the southern districts will not be able to do so as fruit there is at a stage that it needs to be harvested and shipped, according to Mr. Wedin. "The far southern districts are getting pretty close to being done, and I don't think we are going to see them slow down that much."
However, he expects harvest in the central and northern districts to "drag out" a little longer, so "we are going to have more [California] fruit into later August [and continuing into September] than we thought we would."
Mexico is expected to ship a lighter volume of fruit to the United States over the next couple of months as it transitions from old crop to new crop.
Mr. Wedin said that he expects the aggregate amount of avocados in the U.S. marketplace will be light during the latter half of August and the first half of September, with supplies building back up to normal "maybe by the end of September or mid-October." The market will be "pretty tight late August and early September, for sure," he said.
Meanwhile, other crops in South America were feeling the effects of the freeze. There was slight damage to what remains of the citrus crop in Chile, and Argentina's citrus crop was also affected.
Jerry Smirniotis, East Coast vice president and stone fruit category director for The Oppenheimer Group, told The Produce News July 18 that there was snow in the Buenos Aires region for the first time in 89 years. "For the export business, only blueberries and Navel oranges are sourced from this area. The other citrus-growing regions were affected by a severe frost last week, and the main damage was suffered by Navels and Valencia oranges, and Ellendale and Murcott mandarins. The lemon area, which is located in the northwest part of the country, was less affected. Argentinean citrus exports are mainly directed to Europe and Asia, though some lemons, Navels and Valencia oranges, and Ellendale and Murcott mandarins find their way to the Canadian market."
Mr. Smirniotis, who works from the firm's Wilmington, DE, office, added, "This summer, Oppenheimer will have Argentinean-grown lemons available to Canadian consumers. The lemon-growing region was less affected by the recent climatic events than other areas in the country, so our supplies will not be impacted.
"We do not anticipate an impact on Oppenheimer's imports from Argentina this fall or winter," he continued. "Currently, it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere, which means the bulk of Oppenheimer's year-round offerings -- pipfruit, cherries, stone fruit and grapes -- are dormant, and as such, they weren't affected by the late frost." Bill Weyland, director of imports for Seald Sweet International, said that the company's Argentine pear deal is complete, and he otherwise deferred to Oppenheimer to comment on the Argentine freeze. He said that cold weather in Chile "has affected the business slightly."
The harvest of Chile's early and mid-season clementines was complete. Chile's lemon crop was 75 percent harvested as of July 17, and early indications were that there could be 25 percent damage to citrus that is left on the trees.
Mr. Weyland said that the marketing of the Chilean clementine deal "is going fair. We have seen some slowdown in the market over the last couple of weeks. The prices have dropped significantly as the industry struggles to move the five-pound boxes."
The five-pound box is "competing with an abundant domestic fruit crop," he said. "The retail price points on five-pound boxes are a little higher -- or the consumer perception is that the price point is a little too high -- so there is not the pull-through we'd like to see as an industry. It's not uncommon" to have five-pound boxes of clementines prices at $8.99 to $9.99 during summer.
Importers are countering by bagging Chilean clementines to attain a retail ring of $3.99 to $4.99 for three-pound bags. Two-pound bags are in the range of $2.99 to $3.99.
(Tad Thompson contributed to this story.)
It will be two to three weeks before growers can assess the extent of the damage, but some California shippers who handle imported Chilean avocados estimated the expected crop reduction somewhere in the range of 15-30 percent. The shortfall is expected to be felt most severely during late August and early September.
Jose Luis Obregon of the Hass Avocado Board in Irvine, CA, was in Chile for some avocado growers meetings when the freeze occurred. He told The Produce News that "it will take a couple of weeks" for the growers in Chile "to come out with a report of preliminary damages. At this point, I don't think they even know what is happening."
It is important for assessments of the damage to be made available as soon as possible "because it affects the entire industry," Mr. Obregon said, but the Chileans "have to figure out the magnitude" of the damage before they can "share that information with the rest of the world.
He did say, however, that "there will definitely be lower volumes from Chile" than originally anticipated this season.
Bob Lucy of Del Rey Avocado Co. Inc. in Fallbrook, CA, which handles Chilean fruit, said that the freeze, which occurred July 8-10, was widespread, with temperatures in avocado groves reaching 25 degrees for extended periods. He said that early damage estimates are as high as 25-30 percent of the crop, but he added that there is generally "a tendency to overestimate" freeze damage in avocados on early assessments and that often the actual damage turns out to be closer to half or two-thirds of what it originally appeared to be.
However, that was not the case in the January freeze in California, he said. In that instance, the first preliminary estimates of the extent of the damage proved to be fairly accurate, he said.
Mr. Lucy noted that before the freeze, Chilean exporters had already sent their first shipments of fruit from the new crop to the United States, and that fruit has now arrived in the market. He said that Chilean producers would hold off sending any more shipments for at least another 10 days while they evaluate the damage.
Rob Wedin of Calavo Growers Inc. in Santa Paula, CA, which also handles Chilean Hass, said, "We have hesitated, ourselves, putting [the damage] in terms of percentages, but we looked at the temperatures, and they were pretty similar to the California temperatures [in January], so we think it is quite serious."
He said that the number he is hearing most often from Chileans at this point is 15 percent, with 25 percent being "the current worst-case scenario." It is too soon to know, he said, but it was "definitely very cold, and there is still possibly cold weather ahead."
Mr. Wedin said that Chile had sent two shipments of avocados prior to the freeze. "The first shipment was 750,000 pounds. The next was 1 million." The exporters had planned to ship 2 million pounds of fruit the next week and 3 million the week after, but now those shipments will not occur at all. "They have stopped for at least two weeks."
California avocado growers, who are approaching the end of their season, would like to stretch out the remaining fruit as much as possible to fill the gap, but growers in the southern districts will not be able to do so as fruit there is at a stage that it needs to be harvested and shipped, according to Mr. Wedin. "The far southern districts are getting pretty close to being done, and I don't think we are going to see them slow down that much."
However, he expects harvest in the central and northern districts to "drag out" a little longer, so "we are going to have more [California] fruit into later August [and continuing into September] than we thought we would."
Mexico is expected to ship a lighter volume of fruit to the United States over the next couple of months as it transitions from old crop to new crop.
Mr. Wedin said that he expects the aggregate amount of avocados in the U.S. marketplace will be light during the latter half of August and the first half of September, with supplies building back up to normal "maybe by the end of September or mid-October." The market will be "pretty tight late August and early September, for sure," he said.
Meanwhile, other crops in South America were feeling the effects of the freeze. There was slight damage to what remains of the citrus crop in Chile, and Argentina's citrus crop was also affected.
Jerry Smirniotis, East Coast vice president and stone fruit category director for The Oppenheimer Group, told The Produce News July 18 that there was snow in the Buenos Aires region for the first time in 89 years. "For the export business, only blueberries and Navel oranges are sourced from this area. The other citrus-growing regions were affected by a severe frost last week, and the main damage was suffered by Navels and Valencia oranges, and Ellendale and Murcott mandarins. The lemon area, which is located in the northwest part of the country, was less affected. Argentinean citrus exports are mainly directed to Europe and Asia, though some lemons, Navels and Valencia oranges, and Ellendale and Murcott mandarins find their way to the Canadian market."
Mr. Smirniotis, who works from the firm's Wilmington, DE, office, added, "This summer, Oppenheimer will have Argentinean-grown lemons available to Canadian consumers. The lemon-growing region was less affected by the recent climatic events than other areas in the country, so our supplies will not be impacted.
"We do not anticipate an impact on Oppenheimer's imports from Argentina this fall or winter," he continued. "Currently, it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere, which means the bulk of Oppenheimer's year-round offerings -- pipfruit, cherries, stone fruit and grapes -- are dormant, and as such, they weren't affected by the late frost." Bill Weyland, director of imports for Seald Sweet International, said that the company's Argentine pear deal is complete, and he otherwise deferred to Oppenheimer to comment on the Argentine freeze. He said that cold weather in Chile "has affected the business slightly."
The harvest of Chile's early and mid-season clementines was complete. Chile's lemon crop was 75 percent harvested as of July 17, and early indications were that there could be 25 percent damage to citrus that is left on the trees.
Mr. Weyland said that the marketing of the Chilean clementine deal "is going fair. We have seen some slowdown in the market over the last couple of weeks. The prices have dropped significantly as the industry struggles to move the five-pound boxes."
The five-pound box is "competing with an abundant domestic fruit crop," he said. "The retail price points on five-pound boxes are a little higher -- or the consumer perception is that the price point is a little too high -- so there is not the pull-through we'd like to see as an industry. It's not uncommon" to have five-pound boxes of clementines prices at $8.99 to $9.99 during summer.
Importers are countering by bagging Chilean clementines to attain a retail ring of $3.99 to $4.99 for three-pound bags. Two-pound bags are in the range of $2.99 to $3.99.
(Tad Thompson contributed to this story.)
