Costa Rican banana and pineapple growers have been hit by heavy rains and flooding over recent weeks, shrinking exports at a time when volumes were already limited. 

The adverse weather was felt particularly strongly in the Caribbean province of Limón, and last week cut off some exporters from key ports and forced hundreds of residents into temporary accommodation.

The flooding over the weekend is the latest setback for fruit producers who already have seen double-digit drops in exports during the last year because of inclement weather, according to website Theticotimes.com.

Annual exports of the two tropical fruits from Costa Rica are valued at around US$1.76 billion.

Government minister Sergio Alfaro estimated pineapple losses due to excess humidity could reach 20 million boxes, with more than 18,000 hectares of pineapple fields having been damaged.

The country's National Banana Corporation (CORBANA) estimates the flooding in June could push exports down 15-20%.

Before last month's flooding, both fruit crops were already seeing lower than normal exports, with the pineapple industry association reporting shipments were down 14% from last year as of April, according to Theticotimes.com. Bananas were down 23%, according to a report from the Foreign Trade Ministry.

CORBANA recently sent out a press release advising banana growers on what emergency measures could be taken to help recover their plants.

The group said that following the cleaning and removal of water, plants should be provided with nutrients like nitrogen, calcium and magnesium, and inspections should be carried out to ensure mold does not grow.

A representative of U.S.-headquartered produce importer Kingston Fresh told www.freshfruitportal.com that aside from the adverse weather, production volumes were also lower due to 'natural flowering' caused by the product coming on earlier than expected which is followed by a gap in production.

The company's director of international procurement, Mike Anderson, said he expected this gap in production to last for around six to eight weeks.

"We are seeing very limited volumes coming out of Costa Rica. This has also been exacerbated by excessive flooding over the last couple of weeks," Anderson said.

"This flooding that we're seeing is probably the worst in 45 years on the Caribbean side."

He added the lower volumes would undoubtedly pose challenges, but said Kingston Fresh was sufficiently prepared to handle the situation and would be supplementing supply from other Latin American countries.

"We’ve been at this for over 15 years now and we’re used to the gap in production. We plan for it. Typically as a company this is where we shine," Anderson said.

"We have a staff of native Ticos in Costa Rica who are employed by Kingston Fresh and inspect all of our product and help to go out and secure additional volumes.

"This week in spite of the decline in production we’re getting additional volumes and we’ve also secured fruit in both Panama and Ecuador which we will use to supplement and look to be able to take advantage of good marketing conditions for pineapples."

Potential U.S. restrictions on pineapple imports

Aside from the issue of flooding, another worry facing the Costa Rican pineapple industry is the potential restrictions that could be imposed by the U.S. due to numerous detections of pests in imports.

In mid-June a representative of the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Alan K. Dowdy, sent a letter to head of the Costa Rican Phytosanitary Service (SFE), Francisco Dall’Anese, highlighting the concerns.

In 2014, 447 pest interceptions were reportedly made in pineapples from the Central American country.

Anderson said the company was discussing this topic 'very closely' with its growers.

He plans to travel soon to the country to assist with the production declines and increase awareness of the pests 'sneaking across the border'. In addition, he said he would rally his grower group to find proactive ways to decrease the number of incidents of the unwanted stowaways.

Photo: Wikimedia Creative Commons

www.freshfruitportal.com