Mexican Produce Largely Unscathed by Hurricane Patricia, with the Exception of Papayas

- Advertisement -

Mexican produce largely unscathed by Hurricane Patricia, with the exception of papayas

October 26, 2015

ATLANTA — Mexico’s produce industry dodged a bullet Oct. 23-24 when Hurricane Patricia dissipated upon landfall after fear that there would be widespread damage from the powerful Category 5 storm.

Weather reports indicated that Patricia was one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded, with sustained winds of 200 mph. But the winds decreased to 165 mph as the storm made landfall on the Pacific Coast of Mexico Oct. 23 at around 6:15 p.m. Then, as it crashed into the mountains close to Jalisco’s coastline, the hurricane miraculously fell apart, downgrading to a tropical storm. As of two days after landfall, there was not a single death attributed to the storm.

1 / 3

A papaya orchard in Colima, Mexico, shows signs of significant wind damage and flooding following Hurricane Patricia.With hundreds of Mexican produce industry leaders gathered here for the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit, the storm was a major topic of conversation. And while there was concern for a number of crops, it appears that most survived without significant damage. Papayas, however, are the exception.

Andrés Ocampo, director of operations at HLB Specialties in Pompano Beach, FL, a major grower- shipper-importer of papayas, said growers in Colima, Mexico, have not been able to determine the full extent of the damage but it is feared that 53 percent of the crop there was lost initially and another 30 percent is at risk from the widespread flooding, according to Coepapaya, the Colima branch of Propapaya, the national association of Mexican papaya growers.

According to Ocampo, plants that have been knocked over by wind have no chance of recovery, but plants up to five months old can survive and still bear fruit. However, the quality of that fruit depends on how much damage has been incurred by the flooding. Generally, he said, plants will die if their roots remain underwater for 36 hours.

Colima is the largest papaya-growing district in Mexico, and 50 percent of the Mexican papayas that are shipped to the United States come from this region.

Regarding other crops, there were secondhand reports of some blueberry fields in central Mexico being damaged and some avocados being knocked to the ground. The storm crossed a relatively sparsely populated area and a region that is not a major production area.

Industry members and The Weather Channel indicated that Hurricane Patricia’s landfall was in the state of Jalisco on the thinly populated Costa Alegre, between the cities Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and Manzanillo, Colima.

“The storm hit the mountain range and disintegrated,” said Steve Yubeta, vice president sales and marketing, for Farmer's Best International LLC in Rio Rico, AZ, who said none of Farmer’s Best’s growing operations in Sinaloa, Torreon and Tamaulipas, Mexico, suffered any damage. “We are just happy that nothing happened to any of our people.”

2 / 3

Yubeta said Oct. 24 that it was still raining on the farms, and “where it did hit, there was a tremendous amount of water.”

Mexico City produce wholesaler Jose Antonio Ferraez, who also grows mangos in Oaxaca, apples in Chihuahua and guava in Aguascalientes, said, “Our farms are OK. It hit the north part of the Manzanillo area.”

Edgar Duarte, a partner in the Rio Rico, AZ, produce distributor Higueral Produce Inc., said his growers in Sinaloa were “totally out” of the hurricane’s scope. “We are fine.”

Duarte said some growers in Chiapas and to the south that supply mangos for Higueral, suffered some damage in the storm.

Ricardo Crisantes, vice president of sales and marketing for Wholesum Family Farms Inc. in Nogales, AZ, said his farms in Culiacan were hundreds of miles north of Hurricane Patricia’s pass through Mexico. These farms were, of course, undamaged, as were Wholesum’s farms further to the north.

“We at least expect rain,” Crisantes said Oct. 24.

Javier Molina, of Grupo Molina, headquartered in Pesqueira, Sonora, said Oct. 24, “We had zero impact of any damage. It was all rain” received on Grupo Molina’s property.

Martin Ley, president of Fresh Evolution LLC, located in Nogales, AZ, said that “because the storm formed very rapidly,” the priority of the Mexicans was to “assure that people were safe and to prepare them to evacuate.”

Nayarit and Colima were able to establish between 700 and 800 storm shelters for citizens, Ley said.

Ley said the crops produced in this area are cycled and “the infrastructure is flexible. The greenhouses that could have sustained very severe damage are more in central Mexico.”

“The risk is floods, Ley said Oct.24. “That is more of a concern” than wind damage. “There is a lot of water.”