Click here to read this week’s farm report.
o We received scattered moderate to light rainfall throughout the week that managed to accumulate only 27.6 mm, just over an inch of precipitation.
o Air and soil temperatures were reported to be:
o The minimum fell to 22.8°C (73°F)
o The average dropped to 26.5°C (79.1°F)
o The average soil temperature also decreased to 27.7°C (81.9°F)
o Most of the week had moderate to low solar radiation.
o Low risk of causing sunburnt and corky fruit.
o The relative humidity increased to 90.6%.
o Large fruit (4,5 and 6 count) rose to 58.9% and 5 count also rose to 29.4% of our harvest.
o This week the fruit with a harvest age of 20 WAF represented 72.8% of the total and the remaining 27.2% was harvested at age of 21 WAF.
o Crownless fruit volume decreased to 8.3% of the total packed.
o The sugar content of our fruit remains at a very acceptable level despite younger fruits harvested. Brix greater than 15.5 increased significantly this week.
o The volume of fruit with psi less than 2.7 was only 1.6% of the sample. The minimum was 2.7 psi; the average reached 3.3 psi and the maximum was 4.4 psi.
o All fruit quality characteristics were reported according to our standards despite our efforts to avoid over maturation by harvesting fruit that is relatively young.
o Fruit volume has not increased as we expected but we expect an increase in the upcoming weeks.
o No vessel delays in any region this week.
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. However, we continue to see week-over-week quality improvements.
o We enjoyed seeing most you at the IFPA last week.