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o Light drizzle some days this week – 7.8mm (about one-third of an inch) of rainfall
o Air and soil temperatures were reported to be:
o The average minimum temperature reached 23.4° Celsius degrees (74°F)
o The average air temperature declined to 28.4°C (83.2°F)
o The soil temperature remained stable reaching 28.5°C (83.3°F)
o Moderate solar radiation.
o Moderate risk of sunburnt and corky fruit.
o The relative humidity dropped to 83.7%.
o Large fruit (4,5 and 6 count) increased to 57% and 5 count also increased to 25% of our harvest.
o This week the fruit with a harvest age of 21 WAF represented 39.5% of the total and the remaining 60.3% was fruit of 20 WAF.
o Crownless fruit volume decreased to 11.1% of the total packed.
o The sugar content of our fruit remained at a very acceptable level despite younger fruits harvested. It is very important to mention that the predominance of fruit with a brix between 13.5 and 15.5 reached 80.7% of the sample.
o The volume of fruit with psi less than 2.7 was only 5.3% of the sample. The minimum was 2.6 psi; the average reached 3.4 psi and the maximum was 4.3 psi.
o The dry, hot, and sunny days continued throughout week 39 and will probably be similar for week 40. Thanks to this good weather, our farms were able to continue to work intensely and continuously in the preparation of the soil with the idea of increasing the inventory of land ready for harvesting.
o Climate outlook for week 41: According to climate experts, this week will not have intense meteorological events that could affect our country now. The Caribbean will have a significant reduction in cloud cover, as well as an increase in daytime temperatures.
o “EL Nino” phenomenon will persist from January to March 2024 with a 95% probability of happening. The chances of at least one STRONG El Nino event for the November- January period have increased to 71% probability.
o We have a vessel delay in the west coast this week due to some mechanical issues at loading times. 3-day delay.
o Due to more severe climate fluctuations than normal, a phenomenon caused by El Nino, the farms are seeing higher temperature fluctuations than normal. Some days as much as 10 degrees Celsius variation. Fruit harvested during these conditions are showing higher external color and internal translucency, like that of the NDF period.