Climate change is increasing episodes of extreme temperatures around the world.
According to recent reports, this year there have been more than 260 high-temperature records in 26 countries. In this context, the US apple harvest season began and Salix Fruits, the leading company in import and export of fresh fruits, announced its first shipments.
“We believe that it will be an auspicious season, although production will be affected by the heatwave that impacts on a reduction in the size of fruits and sunburns that affect the harvest”, says Javier Orti, Sales Manager for the Asian market of Salix.
Although he acknowledges that we must wait a little longer to know what the total consequences of this hot season are on the total volume of the US apple business this year, Orti adds that: “The initial projection was to commercialize around 124 million boxes of 40 pounds, but according to the projections of well-known producers, the total will be closer to 109 million packed boxes”.
Unusually hot weather will cause damage that can be determined during and after harvest, especially after storage. “Some growers are taking aggressive measures to reduce the amount of damaged fruit, giving the rest of the fruit on the tree more energy to grow, hoping to compensate for the slowdown in growth”, explains Orti.
“The markets to which we will start shipping are mainly the Middle East and Central America”, says Orti, and also mentions the Caribbean, South and Central America, Asia, India, and the Pacific as target destinations.
The company exports apples all year round and this is one of the most important fruits in its business. They obtain them from both the northern and southern hemispheres and the US is a key country in their supply, especially Washington with the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys.
“The Ambrosia and Cosmic Crisp varieties are increasing in popularity and quality, and they will surely follow that path”, says Ignacio Vidales, Sales Manager for Central & South America and Canada at Salix. In addition, many new varieties are emerging but as trees are so young, it is necessary to wait a little longer to notice the increase in volume.
Regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on production and exports, Salix observed that the market was affected because consumption habits were modified. As a result of the quarantines and isolation forced by the virus, people began to shop online, to receive orders at their doorstep instead of moving to stores.
“Therefore, the increase in orders, mainly from China, overloaded the demand from the ships. The cost of a container traveling from China to Los Ángeles has multiplied by 7 in the past year due to problems covid has caused. Since a ship in which an infected person has been found can not dock, this creates many delays of the unloadings”, explains Vidales.
“We have to hope that the labor for the harvest is not reduced due to Covid, but surely that will be noticed again this year”, he concludes.
