Always take the weather with you
01 February 2007 12:15 | Americas
Luisa Cheshire
If 2004/05 were the year of the hurricane, then 2006/07 has to be the time of the freeze.
Tropical storm Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in August 2005, was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the US. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the fifth to hit the US gulf coast in a matter of months that year.
Although nowhere near as devastating, a spate of severe frosts has punctuated the last and first few months of 2006/07, destroying citrus crops and damaging livelihoods in southern Australia and California in the US. Mexico hasn’t escaped the cold snap either, since unseasonably low temperatures have hampered mango production (see p43-46 of the current issue) and delayed its asparagus deal (p48-49).
Chile is the latest country to be affected by unusual climatic conditions so far this year. Heavy rain hit the nation’s lucrative grape crop in mid-February, bringing harvesting to a halt and throwing into question the exportability of much of the Thompson Seedless yield (see p7).
Weird weather patterns, it seems, are taking hold across the globe. Turn on the TV, buy a newspaper or open your front door and, more often than not, you’re confronted by an unsettling meteorological scene. As frightening as these climatic anomalies are, could some good be finally coming of them? Are politicians and consumers at last waking up to their collective responsibility towards the environment and instigating some long-awaited changes to the way we treat the planet?
Some produce shippers think so. They believe US and Canadian governments are now putting the environment at the top of their agendas; and a few attribute rising demand for organic fruit in North America to growing public concern about food production polluting the earth.
Fisher Capespan, for one, says it is boosting its imports of organic Argentine pears this season in response to burgeoning sales at retail level. And organic marketer CF Fresh reveals its Argentine and Chilean apple and pear import deal is pegged at a healthy 750,000 cartons this year (see p41).
Overall, the 2007 Southern Hemisphere pipfruit season looks set to be a strong one (see p4 and p40-42). That is unless Mother Nature chooses to intervene.
If 2004/05 were the year of the hurricane, then 2006/07 has to be the time of the freeze.
Tropical storm Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans in August 2005, was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the US. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the fifth to hit the US gulf coast in a matter of months that year.
Although nowhere near as devastating, a spate of severe frosts has punctuated the last and first few months of 2006/07, destroying citrus crops and damaging livelihoods in southern Australia and California in the US. Mexico hasn’t escaped the cold snap either, since unseasonably low temperatures have hampered mango production (see p43-46 of the current issue) and delayed its asparagus deal (p48-49).
Chile is the latest country to be affected by unusual climatic conditions so far this year. Heavy rain hit the nation’s lucrative grape crop in mid-February, bringing harvesting to a halt and throwing into question the exportability of much of the Thompson Seedless yield (see p7).
Weird weather patterns, it seems, are taking hold across the globe. Turn on the TV, buy a newspaper or open your front door and, more often than not, you’re confronted by an unsettling meteorological scene. As frightening as these climatic anomalies are, could some good be finally coming of them? Are politicians and consumers at last waking up to their collective responsibility towards the environment and instigating some long-awaited changes to the way we treat the planet?
Some produce shippers think so. They believe US and Canadian governments are now putting the environment at the top of their agendas; and a few attribute rising demand for organic fruit in North America to growing public concern about food production polluting the earth.
Fisher Capespan, for one, says it is boosting its imports of organic Argentine pears this season in response to burgeoning sales at retail level. And organic marketer CF Fresh reveals its Argentine and Chilean apple and pear import deal is pegged at a healthy 750,000 cartons this year (see p41).
Overall, the 2007 Southern Hemisphere pipfruit season looks set to be a strong one (see p4 and p40-42). That is unless Mother Nature chooses to intervene.
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