MARKET REPORT - OCT. 28TH, 2015
"The plants will grow back"
Driving an hour north of Tecoman, the heart of Mexico’s export organic production, you are awe-struck by the mighty Colima Volcano, which is very active with frequent eruptions. Equally amazing is how high the Sierra Madre Mountains are from Colima north for 100 miles – soaring up to 12,000 feet high. With a bizarre twist of fate, Hurricane Patricia took a sharp right turn as it made landfall, missing Manzanillo, and then a nearly immediate left, missing Puerto Vallarta, and right smack dab into this high mountain range. Those mountains shredded Patricia quickly, and the storm shrunk as quickly as it grew – the largest storm ever measured in history, went from a tropical storm to a monster Category 5 in 36 hours, and was back to tropical storm status just as quickly. This is not to say that it was not a significant storm, and had devastating impact, but there have been only a handful of storm-related deaths.
Although reports are still coming in, here is what we know. Urupuan, the capital of Michoacan, - and the avocado capital of the world, saw copious rainfall – 20 inches (1/2 a meter). The Pragor avocado growers are telling us that the crop is OK, although there is a loss of about 2 truckloads of fruit that was blown off trees, or where trees fell over. One of our biggest concerns was for the grapefruit growers on the coast, who could have had a catastrophe, but because the storm changed course, the winds were insignificant and all is well. All across Jalisco, one of the biggest threat was for shadehouses and greenhouses, including the berry production area in Zamora. There was certainly damage, but most structures are intact – just a lot of plastic will have to be replaced and production should be back in full swing within days.In Jalisco and Michoacan, thousands of acres of crops were destroyed or flooded, but a lot of production in that area is destined for the domestic market – sugar, maize etc. Closer to the coast, thousands of acres of pepper and tomato fields were damaged (shredded), but these are also for domestic use, and only represent about 5% of Mexico’s production for it’s own market.The biggest impact for growers producing crops for export was the substantial damage to 500 acres of lime orchards – both from wind, rain and flooding. Another 350 acres of papaya plantations inland from Colima were also destroyed. Papaya plants are only ten feet high on average, with sometimes 50 pounds of fruit on them, so they toppled quite easily.We haven’t heard yet a more definitive answer on banana production in Tecoman – we do know that the Mexican Rural Development ministry has announced damage and/or destruction of 5,000 acres of bananas in Colima and a further 5,000 acres in Michoacan, but areas closer to the storm path were the most affected, while Coliman and Organics Unlimited are located 100km to the south. The picture above is pretty representative of the field damage to banana plants, and is remarkably similar to what we saw several years ago in Peru.THESE ARE SOME OF THE OFFICIAL REPORTS FROM THE REGION JUST SENT OUT THIS MORNING“Thousands of hectares of banana and papaya farms have been affected across three Mexican states by the recent hurricane, according to various media reports.Hurricane Patricia, the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, reached the country over the weekend but quickly lost intensity as it moved inland.A state of emergency had been declared in the Pacific states of Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit.Website Mexiconewsdaily.com reported wind, rain and overflowing rivers had damaged 8,280 hectares of banana, corn and papaya crops in Jalisco, according to the state’s Social Development Secretariat.The damage is said to have put 5,000 people out of work.Publication America.aljazeera.com reported more than 2,000 hectares of banana plantations had been destroyed in the Jalisco area of El Rebalse alone.Website Pressherald.com said banana plants in El Rebalse had been snapped in half, and large bunches of the fruit were moldering in the intense sun.In the neighboring state of Michoacan, 10,000 hectares of crops, mostly banana and papaya, are believed to be damaged, according to Mexiconewsdaily.com.The story said that in the state’s municipality of Coahuayana alone, 5,600 hectares of banana plantations had been affected, and 1,200 hectares of papayas were destroyed.On top of that, there was reportedly damage to mango, tamarind and corn crops.“This means that it’s the biggest agricultural catastrophe in the history of the municipality,” Coahuayana Mayor Porfirio Mendoza Zambrano was quoted as saying, noting that 4,000 families had lost their harvest this year.Meanwhile, in Colima – a small coastal state in between Jalisco and Michoacan – extensive damages have also been reported.The state’s Governor, Mario Anguiano Moreno, told radio Grupo Fórmula 12,500 hectares of agricultural land had been affected, including 3,500 hectares of banana and papaya plantations.”We have still not received information about the state of affairs for COLIMAN or ORGANICS UNLIMITED, the two major organic producers in Colima. The only response we have had was on Monday when we were told that no one had died and the plants will grow back.A full market report for you on Friday.On a side note and in the name of progress and all things hard, we are switching to a new software system. This software system will allow us to provide better service and to do better a labour of love we already do well. That being said, we are commencing as a team, a journey on a steep learning curve and we ask you for your patience with us over the next couple of weeks while we sort out the kinks.A note from Randy:You will notice a few changes to your price lists.First, the descriptions are going to look a little different, and shortened up a bit, so we won’t have room to say “awesome”, “limited”, or other descriptive lines. The biggest change is that although we will still be splitting cases, the split case pricing won’t appear on your price lists, except items most of you order splits of, which will be listed as repacks and will include things like 3# ginger and 5# garlic. We will have the same split quantities (1/2 cases, 10 lb root crops, 1/3 cases of cilantro etc.), but these will be invoiced as a percentage of a case. The price for those splits will be added to the item as normal, with the same split pricing costs added in – which is basically the cost of the bag or box and the time to break them up.So, Dear Ones, Please bear with us while we go through the motions of learning to use a new tool that will help us get better at what we do. Your invoices will look different. Your price lists will look a little different. We might be a little on the slow side when it comes to inputting orders and looking up pricing. But you know what’s not different? Us. We’re the same old hearts of gold over here, just learning something new. Thank you in advance for your patience. It’s worth it. We’re worth it. You know it.Stay gold!Big Love,