Drought conditions and impacts
6 articles
El Salvador, Panama and Honduras declare emergencies; Guatemala supplies 39% of US banana imports and 58% of US melon and papaya imports, and the shortfall has yet to reach the trade data
Growers' body UNPT projects the national crop down 23% and seeks state aid, days before the agriculture minister sizes a wider drought plan.
USDA and the European Commission both cut their 2026/27 outlooks on low prices, not weather. EU beet area is already down 14.8 per cent in two years, and July was the driest since 1940 at every one of Cropli's UK monitoring points.
Seven of eight monitored points in the French belt took a third or less of normal July rainfall, weeks before drilling begins for the 2027 crop
Hands-off-flow limits on abstraction licences went from 729 to 1,506 in three weeks, while the government's drought reporting still does not name sugar beet or potatoes
