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o A very dry and hot week, typical of the season, with just 5.60 mm (0.22 inches) of precipitation.
o Air and soil temperatures were reported to be:
o The average minimum temperature reached 23° Celsius degrees (73.4°F)
o The average air temperature remained stable at 28°C (82.4°F)
o The soil temperature remained stable reaching 28.4°C (83.2°F)
o Solar radiation was moderate during the week.
o Moderate risk of sunburnt and corky fruit.
o The relative humidity increased to 88.9%.
o Large fruit (4,5 and 6 count) now at 54.8% and 5 count increased to 23.6% of our harvest.
o This week the fruit with a harvest age of 21 WAF represented 58.7% of the total and the remaining 41.3% was fruit of 20 WAF.
o Crownless fruit volume increased to 16.5% of the total packed.
o The sugar content of our fruit remained at a very acceptable level – averaging level 15. It is very important to mention that the predominance of fruit with a brix between 13.5 and 15.5 reached 83% of the sample.
o The volume of fruits below 13.5 brix was negligible (0.8%).
o The variability between sample fruit was found below 1 in all farms.
o The volume of fruit with psi less than 2.7 was 17.7 % of the sample, the average firmness declined slightly. The minimum was 2.5 psi; the average reached 3.0 psi and the maximum was 3.9 psi.
o The week brought a dramatic change in the weather compared to what we have seen in the past few weeks. Overall weather was hot and very dry, marking the beginning of the second dry period of the year. For week 38, climate experts predict the continuation of a dry atmospheric pattern in the Caribbean region, so they would expect slight to partially cloudy days with some drizzle without large nuclei of rain being observed. This is very convenient for our operations and will allow us to advance with the soil preparation work. For the following weeks, a slight increase in the industry’s fruit volume is expected. In our case, this will be the same and with a significant increase in the percentage of large fruit and decline in small size count. Although the firmness of our fruit continued somewhat low, the rest of the fruit quality characteristics were found according to our standards.
o No Vessel delays are expected this week in all regions. Larger-size fruit volume is still limited although yields continue to increase. We expect to be back to normal volumes in the next couple of weeks.