Just as avocado supplies were beginning to dry up in North America, Peruvian avocado grower-shippers found themselves dealing with flooding that was threatening their ability to get their fruit to ports.
A deluge of rainfall — rare for Peru’s desert growing region — washed out roads and bridges and, in some cases, flushed away workers’ homes in late March, just as the earliest avocados were entering their final growth stages.
“There were a number of storms that came in, and some were extremely heavy,” said Bruce Dowhan, vice president of the Los Angeles-based Giumarra Cos. and Escondido, Calif.-based Giumarra Agricom International LLC. “That’s a region that’s not accustomed to seeing much rain, so when you do have that kind of rain, they don’t have the topography that’s really conducive to large amounts of water. There was a significant number of homes lost or damaged.”
The excess water affected some growers more than others, although no damage estimates had been calculated by the end of May, said Xavier Equihua, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Peruvian Avocado Commission.
“Some (ranches) were impacted more than others,” he said. “For instance, south of Lima, it was not an issue. North of Lima, it could be a real issue.”
The extent of any crop damage wasn’t yet clear, said Doug Meyer, senior vice president of sales and marketing with Murrieta, Calif.-based West Pak Avocado Inc.
“There has been some fruit loss as a result of that,” he said.
There was a time when growers were wondering how they’d get their product to market, said Robb Bertels, vice president of marketing for Oxnard, Calif.-based Mission Produce Inc., which has three avocado ranches in Peru.
“It’s an equatorial area, so it’s ideal for growing,” he said. “It’s normally dry, so it was really unusual to get as much rain as we got — I heard as much as 50 inches of rain. Normally, it’s like a couple of inches a year.”
Of major concern was flood damage along the Pan American Highway, a north-south major coastal artery, Bertels said.
“Several sections were washed out, and it also hit a couple of bridges north of where our packing plant is,” he said.
Bertels visited Mission’s Peruvian operations in early May and said he was impressed with the quick response to repair the infrastructure damage.
“Fruit is moving from the packinghouses to the ports,” he said. “Originally, we expected to have early arrivals here by the middle of May, but it’s been pushed to the first week of June.”
Flooding hindered access to the farms, especially in the new Olmos District, said Giovanni Cavaletto, vice president of sourcing with Riverside, Calif.-based Index Fresh Inc.
“Bridges being out forced trucks to take more circuitous routes, so it made the trip form the packinghouses to the ports as much as three times longer than normal,” he said.
Most of that had been repaired by mid-May, he said.
