After a few days of respite from intense wet weather, heavy rains hit the northern Peruvian region of Tumbes again over the weekend in an event that has put the brakes on an already slow recovery for banana growers. 

Association of Small Producers of Organic Bananas of Brujas Alta (APPBOBA) spokesperson Raúl Villa told Fresh Fruit Portal production hadn't been affected for the growers in his organization, but conditions continued to hamper fruit transportation. 

"What has been affected is the roads, but that’s dramatic because the fruit is ripening and we can’t harvest it," he said.

"I think to be able to export regularly again it’ll take at least a couple of months, although hopefully it’s sooner.

"All we can do is sell in the local market and try to make a bit of money."

Villa did emphasize however that, as the word 'Alta' in the group's name signifies, APPBOBA's growers are higher up and therefore have been less affected than those down below.

"There are people who plant by the river, and when the river overflows it can take out the whole plantation," he said.

Diario Correo reported at least 900 hectares of banana and rice crops had been flooded in a nine-hour period, and authorities had maintained a red alert yesterday for the Tumbes River due to further risks of flooding. 

On Friday, the publication cited Tumbes regional Ministry of Agriculture representative Manuel Gonzaga Cobeñas as estimating damages of SOL10 million (US$3 million) to crops including bananas, lemons, rice, corn and papaya. 

Gonzaga Cobeñas was quoted as saying 2,800 hectares of land had been affected by flooding with 6,800 farmers affected. 

Meanwhile, even for growers like Villa who have escaped the flood's path, the weather event happened to follow an already challenging situation with pests. 

"Before the rains we had the pest red spot because of the change in climate which affected us in December. Then these heavy rains happened so we haven’t been able to export regularly since November," Villa said.

Tumbes is very close to the Ecuadorian border, just 58 miles from the country's important banana-growing region El Oro, and is 178 miles north of Peru's leading banana-growing area Piura.

Related story: Bananas the main fruit crop victim from Peruvian torrential rain

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com