The online agricultural publication, Fresh Plaza, reports that a “freak” spring hailstorm has negatively impacted various fruit crops grown in Chile.
“Damage to early fruit in Chile is estimated to be about 10%, with the full extent currently being assessed, after a freak hailstorm, which touched some cherry, table grape, and blueberry farms over the past weekend of Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 November,” says Fresh Plaza. “Rain, let alone hail, is most unusual during Chile’s early season experts say.”
Fresh Plaza detailed some of the harm done by the unseasonable hail, as reported by Lorena Pinto, a product manager of Cherry & Pipfruit New Varieties at the company Ana Chile.
In the central area of Chile, … they say that one out of five fruit growers had some level of damage. Fedefruta’s estimation up to now is that the damage won’t be more than 10% of early harvest fruit.
The main economic damages will affect the cherry, table grapes, and blueberry production. Inevitably the growers will increase their production costs, because they need to avoid quality problems that can occur after rain in this period. In Chile it is not common to have rain in this period, and the hail events are almost non-existent!