The president of the State Board of lime producers, Oscar Avalos Verdugo, said that low temperatures recorded in the areas growing lime in the state could reduce their flowering by up to 20%.
"The low temperatures registered late last year somehow affected the tree's productivity phenology, i.e. the flowering of the citrus."
Avalos Verdugo said they could have offset this problem a little, but that they had been faced with temperature changes and atypical rains in a very short period of time.
"We can defend our crops a little against these climatic effects, but when the plants are faced with hot and cold weather in one day (...) its just natural that this will affect the normal development of the fruit," he said.
Citrus production amounted to 300 tons per day. Last year we would have 400 to 500 tons per day at this stage, he said, so there's 40 or 50% less production.
Additionally, fruit prices are low. "Producers are currently being paid between 5 and 5.50 pesos per kilo of limes, while consumers are being charged 13 or 14 pesos per kilo," he stated.
The head of the Coeplim stressed, however, that there was a good forecast for the next 6 months, because "we are seeing an atypical behavior in limes. The orchards are currently flowering a lot, but we'll only have this production in 90 days."
However, he said, "we don't know how we'll survive until those 90 days are over and we can start reaping. We can only hope there won't be another atypical rain accompanied by wind."
Source: colimanoticias.com