Hatch chile harvest falls short after pest damage

New Mexico's Hatch chile harvest is running 20 to 50 percent short this year, growers say, after leaf miners and unusually warm nights damaged plants across the state's main growing valleys.

The New Mexico Chile Association reports a normal first pick in most fields, but many plants never recovered enough strength for the second harvest that typically follows weeks later. The shortfall varies by grower and by product, association figures show, with fresh-market lots hit hardest.

Leaf miners spread faster than usual

A chile pepper can survive drought and still lose the season to an insect the size of a grain of rice.

Leaf miner infestations accelerated and spread across the region in August, with growers reporting yield losses of 40 to 50 percent on most major farms, severe enough that several packers stopped accepting fresh-market chile altogether this season. Grasshoppers earlier in the spring are suspected of spreading curly top virus between fields, since the insects can migrate for miles and carry the disease with them.

Warm nighttime temperatures compounded the damage through the main summer harvest window, stressing plants that were already fighting the pests and cutting the volume even healthy fields could produce.

Cannery contracts left unfilled

Growers in the region say they are covering only 50 to 60 percent of their cannery contracts this year, leaving processors to compete for a smaller pool of chile destined for salsas, sauces and packaged roasted product sold outside the state. Restaurants that build menus around Hatch chile in August and September, from green chile stew to chile rellenos, are likely to see suppliers substitute other pepper varieties or raise prices to cover the gap.

The shortfall lands the same year Ivory Coast reported cocoa stocks at a two-year high, a reminder that a single growing season can move a commodity's supply in either direction depending on weather and pest pressure alone.

New Mexico chile acreage has grown in recent years even as the state's growers contend with drought, labour shortages and rising costs, and this year's losses are unlikely to reverse that expansion on their own.