LAS CRUCES — Farmers in the Hatch and Mesilla valleys who are making do with a trickle of Rio Grande irrigation water say they expect a smaller supply of green chile this season.
If so, consumers will see a price hike.
Mesilla farmer Chris Alexander, who sells roasted green chile at his Ristramnn Chile Co., said this could be the first year he’s had to price green chile at more than 50 cents per pound, and the price could reach up to 70 cents per pound. A 30-pound bag of roasted green chile that sold for $15 last year could cost $21 this year, Alexander said.
“Availability this year will be a lot more scarce,” Alexander said.
The harvest of green chile will get under way around Aug. 1, when New Mexicans will get a whiff of roasted peppers at retail outlets around the region.
“My advice to the public is get your chile early this year, because you might not get some if you wait too long,” said Jim Lytle, a Hatch-area farmer who sells some of his chile at Hatch Chile Express.
A full share of river water stored at Elephant Butte Lake and the Caballo reservoir normally amounts to 3 acre-feet per acre. An acre-foot is equal to 326,000 gallons, enough to cover an acre of land with water 12 inches deep.
But this dry year, with little runoff from the southern Colorado mountains that feed the Rio Grande, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District set the season’s lone water allotment at a scant 4 acre-inches.
Chile crops typically require about 3½ to 4 acre-feet of water per growing season and must be irrigated 14 to 16 times.
As a result, farmers have had to rely almost exclusively on groundwater pumped from wells, and those farmers lacking wells have had to cut back on chile planting or switch to less thirsty crops, like cotton, which is priced at more than $1 per pound.
Officials with several processors said they did not expect to be affected much by the smaller water allotment from the Rio Grande, because they generally buy chile from farmers with wells who can deliver on prearranged contracts.
“I just notice a lot more cotton around,” said Hatch Mayor Judd Nordyke. “I think there will be enough around, but it will affect the price. … There are just a lot of guys producing less (chile) because of the water.”
Lytle said the small water allotment from EBID this year is “going to have a big effect on the availability of chile.”
“A lot of people didn’t plant because they didn’t have enough water,” Lytle added. “We’re thinking the chile crop is going to be a little short this year. The supply isn’t going to be as good as it has been.”
Farmer Chris Franzoy, a partner in Young Guns Produce, which he said is the largest supplier of Hatch green chile, agreed. “I think the crop’s short overall, but I just don’t know what percentage,” he said.
Last year was not a great one for the state’s chile harvest, either: The 8,700 acres of chile harvested marked the lowest amount since 1973, according to data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The 2010 harvest was down 29 percent from 2009, when 12,300 acres were picked statewide.
The value of the state’s red and green crop was estimated at $41.6 million in 2010.
Federal agriculture officials will not tally the scope of chile planting and production statewide until early next year.
Alexander, who usually plants 7½ acres of chile, is letting his land lie fallow this year, because he does not have wells to supplement the reduced amount of river water.
“We always have relied on EBID water, and we no longer can do that, because one watering is taking our entire allotment for the year,” Alexander said.
Another Mesilla Valley farmer, Guadalupe Garcia, said the lack of well water and scarcity of river water for irrigation led him to cut back his chile production from 21 acres in 2010 to half an acre this year. “I just planted it to have some for the house,” he said, adding that he has replaced chile with cotton. “We need some water down here.”
Hatch Chile Sales owner Pete Atencio sells roasted chile to customers from California to Colorado, Arizona to Texas, typically in 40-pound sacks at $20 a bag. Along with growing his own product, he also buys from other farmers in the region.
Atencio said he typically plants 20 acres of chile, but this year he cut back to 12 acres, some of it rented from a neighbor who has wells for irrigation. He said he’s not alone in cutting back on chile. “This year, there’s a lot less chile in the (Hatch) Valley than normal,” said Atencio.
“So far, this is looking like a pretty good year qualitywise and in terms of volume” for the processors, said Marvin Clary, an agronomist with Border Foods in Deming, the largest processor of green chile in the U.S.
While most of the jalapeños processed by Border Foods comes from Mexico, the “great majority” of green chiles are produced in the U.S., Clary said.
But several processors said that the farmers supplying them with chile will see lowered profits because of the added costs of running wells so much to compensate for reduced Rio Grande water.
“It could offset any price increase that is given,” said Chris Biad, a partner in Biad Chili Products, which operates three chile processing plants in southern New Mexico and Arizona. “It definitely doesn’t help their pocketbook, but it shouldn’t hurt their crop.”
“We’ve used more well water this year than we have in the past 50 years,” said Franzoy of Young Guns Produce, whose Hatch area partners grow about 275 acres of chile.
Even if it appears there might be less green chile for the retail market this year, Atencio said consumers should not worry.
“Every year, there’s always a scare,” Atencio said. “In July, there’s always a fear that there won’t be enough, but, come August, everybody’s got chile coming out of their ears.”
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