Mexico: Cold temperatures may impact papayas, limes Fresh Fruit Portal “We haven't experienced any weather so far that has been too cold or would create any adverse effects on the mango crop in any of the regions like Oaxaca, Chiapas, Nayarit and Sinaloa,” she said. “My last update I received on the crop was yesterday and weather has been cooperative and the crop is ...

Mexico: Cold temperatures may impact papayas, limes Fresh Fruit Portal “We haven't experienced any weather so far that has been too cold or would create any adverse effects on the mango crop in any of the regions like Oaxaca, Chiapas, Nayarit and Sinaloa,” she said. “My last update I received on the crop was yesterday and weather has been cooperative and the crop is ...

Mexico’s cold snap is having varying degrees of impact on the country’s fruit growers in what is a large and geographically diverse country, but at this early stage some traders have been able to form an idea of the phenomenon’s implications for supply.

Melissa Hartmann de Barros of Florida-based importer HLB Specialties told Fresh Fruit Portal the cold weather in Michoacán was not causing damage to the blooms or trees in papaya orchards, but was “indeed slowing down production”.

“Since our papaya production area is closer to the Pacific, the cold is not affecting us as much as in regions in the north and Mexican Gulf area,” she said yesterday.

“But we are still seeing unseasonably lower temperatures (14°C/57°F) when usually they are closer to 18-20°C at the lowest (64-68°F).

“When temperatures get below 16°C for a prolonged period of time, the plant goes dormant. This means that the roots don’t transfer enough nutrients to the plant and the fruit doesn’t ripen.”

She said this meant the metabolism of the plant only worked for a limited number of hours, thus not allowing the fruit enough time to mature.

The executive added limes were usually slow at this time of year, but production was now even slower than normal.

“These crops are closer to the coast (Veracruz), so the cold is affecting limes more than papayas,” she said. 

Jim Donovan, senior vice president of global sourcing at avocado company Mission Produce, yesterday said there had so far been been no issues or impacts in the avocado-growing states of Michoacán or Jalisco.

“Of course the severity and size of the cold front is concerning. Logistically we have not encountered too many issues on the Mexico side,” Donovan said.

“Certainly on the USA/Canada side it has created a little slow down but not major yet.”

Nissa Pierson of Crespo Organic yesterday said the weather so far hadn’t been so bad for mango crops in the western and southern parts of the country.

“We haven’t experienced any weather so far that has been too cold or would create any adverse effects on the mango crop in any of the regions like Oaxaca, Chiapas, Nayarit and Sinaloa,” she said.

“My last update I received on the crop was yesterday and weather has been cooperative and the crop is actually looking very nice and fruitful.”

Other states such as Sonora, known for its table grapes, have actually seen a warmer winter than usual. Click here to read more. 

Photo: SMN

www.freshfruitportal.com

The cochineal: an insect that colored the world Mexican red TO THE DAY NEWS In colonial days it was one of New Spain's great contributions after silver, since it was exported from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala to Spain, from where it was traded around the world. When Europe discovered the quality of the cochineal's color, the "carmine of the Indies" became ...

Photo provided on Jan. 5, 2018 showing a view of the exhibition "Mexican Red: the Cochineal in Art," the first ever dedicated to the artistic use of an insect, in Mexico City, Mexico on Jan. 2, 2018.

The cochineal: an insect that colored the world Mexican red

With works by artists from Tintoretto to Vincent Van Gogh, Mexico City"s Palace of Fine Arts is presenting the exhibition "Mexican Red: the Cochineal in Art," the first ever dedicated to the artistic use of an insect.

With works by artists from Tintoretto to Vincent Van Gogh, Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts is presenting the exhibition "Mexican Red: the Cochineal in Art," the first ever dedicated to the artistic use of an insect.

"Here the exhibit, more than a painter or a period, focuses on the color itself: the raw material," Miguel Angel Gonzalez, historian at the Palace of Fine Arts, told EFE.

Gonzalez said the cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), an insect originally domesticated by Indians in pre-Columbian Mexico, had been "a plague that destroyed prickly pear cacti."

In colonial days it was one of New Spain's great contributions after silver, since it was exported from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala to Spain, from where it was traded around the world.

When Europe discovered the quality of the cochineal's color, the "carmine of the Indies" became the color that dyed symbols of political, religious and civil power like clothing and other fine textiles.

"In the royal palaces of France, Spain and elsewhere, there were complete rooms decorated with cochineal - those were the red rooms, the most luxurious," Gonzalez said.

The "Mexican Red" exhibition shows such paintings as "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" (1889) by Van Gogh from the Musee d'Orsay in Pais, and "Christ Carried to the Tomb" (c. 1550) by Tintoretto, from the Scottish National Gallery, previously analyzed to confirm the use of cochineal in the red tones of the works.

Also included are prints from Japan from past centuries, equally analyzed to make sure of their cochineal content.

Taking part in the analyses were specialists from museums around the world, notably from the Prado in Madrid, the National Gallery in London and the curator general of the study, Georges Roque, a French philosopher and art historian.

The 75 original works that make up the exhibition are on loan from 16 domestic and 11 international collections.

Cochineal red is currently produced in 15 Mexican states, but its largest production is in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and the Canary Islands.

It is also used in the cosmetic, chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries, since it is a non-toxic, noncarcinogenic pigment, according to Miguel Angel Gonzalez.

"When we come to the Van Gogh, people always laugh when I tell them he ate the pigment, but we've all eaten cochineals," he said.

The Mexico City Palace of Fine Arts will keep the "Mexican Red: the Cochineal in Art" exhibition on view until Feb. 4. 

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