Flooding on Tuesday damaged 300 tonnes of watermelons and pineapples at CEAGESP, the São Paulo General Warehousing and Centers Company in Brazil, according to CEAGESP’s press office.
Estimated losses reportedly stand at some US$120,000 (R$220,000), with 40 per cent of stocks in the food market being affected. On Wednesday, all watermelon and pineapples deliveries were being diverted to a different pavilion.
One trader, Fernanda Vieira Delgado, lost 75 per cent of her watermelons, according to Brazilian news outlet Globo.com. “I lost three of the four trucks that were here, each one with 15 tonnes,” she said. “It is a great loss.”
CEAGESP’s press office highlighted that all fruits that had come into contact with the water were being discarded and that no product unfit for consumption was being sold.
The market was expected to reopen by the end of Wednesday.
