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o This week was quite dry with just 12 mm (about half an inch) of rainfall reported by our meteorological stations.
o Air and soil temperatures were reported to be:
o The average minimum air temperature decreased slightly to 23.5°C (74.3°F)
o The average air temperature remained stable at 27°C (80.6°F)
o The average soil temperature decreased to 27.3°C (81.2°F)
o Most of the week solar radiation was mainly moderate.
o Very low risk of causing sunburnt and corky fruit.
o The relative humidity decreased slightly to 89.1%.
o Large fruit (4,5 and 6 counts) declined to 49.8% but 5 counts rose to 23.9% of our harvest.
o The harvest pattern for the week was very similar to the previous one. Fruit from 21 WAF reached 30.2% of our total volume and fruit from 20 WAF was 69.8%
o Crownless fruit volume declined to 9% of the total packed.
o The sugar content of our fruit was identical to last week. During sampling, a very low volume of fruit was detected below 13.5, but the volume with Brox degrees above 15.5 continued to be quite high: 45.2% of the sample. The variability of the brix reading was very acceptable.
o The volume of fruit with psi less than 2.7 rose to 5.6% of the sample. The minimum was 2.5 psi; the average reached 3.3 psi and the maximum was 4.1 psi.
o All fruit quality characteristics were reported according to our standards.
o Expect supply to be limited for the remainder of the year. Most national retailers will be on promotional volume for the holidays.
o Some vessel delays in the NE due to congested ports caused by melon season from Guatemala.
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 shows higher external color and internal translucency, like that of the NDF period. However, we continue to see week-over-week quality improvements.