The economic losses in papaya crops in the coastal region caused by the intense rains of Hurricane John exceed 250 million pesos.
Jorge Alberto Reyes Cisneros, president of the Papaya Product System of the State of Oaxaca, said that after the natural phenomenon, the reality is harsh because the weather conditions were shocking, with two weeks of torrential rain in a dozen municipalities.
“We papaya growers lost immediately, but it also hit other types of products, such as lemon, the plant does not die, but there were two or three weeks in which there was no harvest, where the picking, the harvest, was stopped by the rains and the lack of access.
He reiterated that in terms of economic loss, it must be between 200 and 250 million pesos.
“This (hurricane) was brutal, it was incredible, in the history of there this did not happen, it was something terrible that happened to us and seeing the loss was even worse,” he said.
The fruit producer in the coastal region added that the losses range from 1,100 to 1,200 hectares, and it will be difficult to replace them. I believe that 30% will be replanted, which is a lot, given the intense damage to the crops.
He emphasized that not having insurance makes it difficult to start again, “we are in dialogue with Sedafer to enable us credit lines, first a support that will serve and parallel to that, enable credit lines at low rates.”
He also explained that in terms of production, due to the damage, the price of papaya is becoming more expensive or will become more expensive, “when one loses, another wins, in this case, those who had fruit left, will undoubtedly do very well.”
He mentioned that, as for lemons, he had to deal with the very hard coincidence that just when they started cutting again, the price of lemons fell to the ground, but incredibly to the ground, at prices that border on ridiculous.
Citrus was between 50 and 70 pesos per box, when just cutting it costs exactly that, 50, 60 pesos, but many people preferred to do that to give work to their employees, to the day laborers.
“People were left without work for four weeks, that is what is happening with other products, mango, for example, does not have as much of a problem, because there is no harvest, there is nothing, bananas do, they also lost two, three weeks, some plantations and that is the most relevant in terms of loss,” he concluded.
Source: imparcialoaxaca
