Chile: Drought increases cost of vegetables

The persistent deficit of water destined for irrigation in the Coquimbo region in Chile will put pressure on the price of certain produce such as lettuce and celery during March; as well as affecting the quality of the fruit according to the sector`s evaluation, on climatic changes that are affecting the Norte Chico and other southern zones.
For the general coordinator of Lo Valledor market, Germn Fandez, the major problem concentrates in the result that the lettuce and celery crops will have (in that zone) during the first days of March.
Fruit production is looked at in detail and changes are not foreseen in the value of the items destined for local consumption. The president of the Producers' Federation of Fruit (Fedefruta), Antonio Walker, made it clear that February "will determine" more accurately, the effects of the drought in the quality of products such as grapes, avocados, clementines, lemons and oranges.
According Walker, the loss of water affects negatively the quality aspects such as size, weight and resistance of the fruit. "There is always an effect of lower supply of export fruit, but domestic market prices shouldn't show many changes, because more fruit stays inside, but it is a quality problem".
Up until now, the situation is being analyzed with details from the producers in other zones of the III, VI and VIIth regions, especially so as not to give space to eventual speculations of price on the internal market as it happened last winter.