Climate affects banana production in South Brazil again, now with hail and cold

In the last weekend (14 to 15/08), strong winds and hail hit some locations in the North of the state of Santa Catarina (South Brazil), which had already been affected by the extratropical cyclone in July. Although the impacts are not as extensive as the previous weather, it caused a lot of damage to the affected municipalities.

According to agents, most of the banana trees that were in bud suffered intense defoliation, and the bunches close to the harvest point have dark-colored punctuations, due to the impact of winds and hail, which drastically reduced the quality and commercial value of the fruits. Damage to structures has also been reported - such as post-harvest warehouses and farm administrative headquarters.

After these phenomena, a strong mass of polar air settled in the region, bringing down temperatures in recent days. Faced with this scenario, producers believe that the supply of 'nanica' bananas, which was already reduced, should remain restricted for a long period, due to the recent storms, preventing the full recovery of the productive areas.