Hailstorm Batters Mexican Apples
June 4, 2013 About 150 hectares of apple orchards were affected by a hailstorm the last week of May in San Antonio de las Alazanas in Mexico. Estimates are millions in losses.
The disaster even affected technologically advanced orchards that are protected by a mesh (against hail) because the unusual event lasted 25 minutes. The hail that hit the area was the size of a golf ball and the ice hadn’t melted 24 hours later.
Raymundo Duran Jasso, president of the Apple Growers Association of San Antonio de las Alazanas, reported that the losses are in the millions and that they would find out the economic extent of the damage in the next few days.
In their preliminary assessment, he said, they believe that 50% of the harvest was affected by the storm, but the worst thing is that it will affect the quality and they won’t be able to place the production in supermarkets.
Therefore, he said, “we will have to find another market, such as supply centres and at a lower price.”
Duran said that another one of the problems left by the storm was the impact on the trees, which will take two years to recover and will have to be fumigated with copper oxide to avoid destruction by pests.
Duran said that the delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mario Gutierrez Talamas, contacted them by telephone, to find out the extent of the damage done by the weather phenomenon. He considered that the support that the authorities should give is to add more meshes, to give a greater protection to the crop, and to make the orchards more modern.
An investment of 270,000 pesos is needed to protect a hectare of apple orchards with mesh. The annual production of apple in the Sierra de Arteaga is 1,800,000 boxes. San Antonio de las Alazanas’ production is 500,000 boxes.
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