Chilean fruit grower association Fedefruta says it is still too early to make predictions based on the effects of the weekend's heavy rainfall and flooding, but there are some early indications about certain crops like grapes, pome fruit, kiwifruit and walnuts.

In a release, Fedefruta president Juan Carolus Brown Bauzá said the first diagnosis was that "the rainfall definitively brought the table grape season to a close".

"In a normal year the end of April will be the average ending time for harvests of this fruit in the later varieties, with some even reaching the end of May," he said.

"These rains however obliged us to finish the 2016 table grape season earlier than expected, as the little bit of fruit that was left on the vines could have had problems with condition on arrival because of fungal or rotting problems due to the water."

In terms of apple and pear harvests, which began in February in the O'Higgins region, the organization said picking would continue although there had been some difficulties with growers not being able to enter the fields because of the large amount of rainfall.

With respect to kiwifruit, which has been harvested since March, Brown said "the fruit will have to undergo chemical treatments to avoid possible water spots."

For walnuts the situation is not very positive.

"Those that are in the ground I think will be lost, and those that are on the trees will have to undergo a good drying process so that their commercial value isn't reduced," said Brown, who is a grower from Los Andes where 100mm of water fell over the period.

Fedefruta has also received reports from growers in the areas of Buin and Paine in the Metropolitana region who received 242mm of rainfall over the weekend.

Like Fedefruta's export counterparts at ASOEX, the group says O'Higgins is most likely the most affected and where the most work needs to be done.

Related stories: Chile: ASOEX evaluates rain damages

Chile gripped by floods

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