For example, five-time winners Brazil, the elegant Portuguese and a talented Ivory Coast side are all in one group.

Worst hit were a string of towns and villages on the coast either side of Concepción, the country’s second city, as well as the remote Juan Fernández islands.

Locals in Corpus Christi, a small city on the southern side of the Gulf coast, say this is one reason why their port should become an officially designated delivery point for cotton futures.