Berries:

Nick Wishnatzki de Wish Farms says much of last week's strawberry crop was lost due to rain damage. "We anticipate a 75 to 100 percent crop loss this week as conditions are too wet for any field activity over the next few days," he says, adding that the winds are likely to have as much or more impact than the real accumulation of rain, as it tore and destroyed its rings in the fields of Santa Maria and Lompoc.

In California Giant Berry Farms, Nick Chappell It also says many fields are inaccessible and it will take a few more days to fully understand the storm's impact. «The fields are saturated and flooded by the amount of rain. Fortunately, crews anticipated the storm and worked to pick early and mitigate the amount of damaged fruit,” Chappell says.

Left: Wish fields in Lompoc on Monday; right: their fields in Santa Maria, California.

"East huge weather phenomenon current is going to be hard for the production of strawberries en California y Baja Mexico over the next few weeks," he says. Steve Johnston, GW Palmer & Co. "He says the berries on the plants will have to be plucked due to excess moisture, and many of the flowers on the plants will now become unusable and poorly shaped berries." Salinas Watsonville will not arrive early as we were thinking a couple of weeks ago. “I think the market for western-grown strawberries is going to be very strong over the next month,” Johnston says.

En Bobalu Berries, Cindy Jewell says there have been strong winds and rain in Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. "The wind actually kind of helps dry out the plants," Jewell says, noting that there is fruit coming in from Mexico to help. fill the short-term supply deficit.

Citrus:

In anticipation of the rain, many growers harvested early to fill as many containers as possible. “We picked Kern County Navel and local Navel to please customers because we are not planning to harvest Navel this week due to muddy conditions,” he says Chris Diaz, Fillmore-Piru Citrus. In lemons, he had an advantage in Coachella, Borrego, Piru, Santa Paula and Porterville. “Since the lemons are ahead in maturity, it will be even more important that we harvest as soon as these orchards dry out,” he says.

With a strong market for small size lemons and navels, the small size market could remain strong until spring. “With the larger lemons and navels, we will see more of that fruit as we get into March and April. "The fruit will only grow with this rain and the market will be very volatile for the larger fruit."

He says that this year there will be many lemons of size 40/48/56 Navel and 75/95/115.

“We have no intention of harvesting Navel this week because of the mud,” says Chris Diaz of Fillmore-Piru Citrus.

En California Citrus Mutual, Casey Creamer He says that while he thought the impact of the storm would be worse, what will be discussed in the coming days is the level of humidity in the fields and the entry and exit from them, along with the roads that are being cleared. "Things will dry out and depending on the routes and where the flooding occurs, that could be a problem," Creamer says. “In the area, we are receiving major reports of flooding, such as Ventura, which will likely delay harvesting by a week. However, I do not foresee any major market disruption at this time.”

Like many growers and shippers in the region, Sunny Cal Farms picked up ahead of the weekend storm. "Not all carriers were able to get exactly what they wanted, and that was based on labor," he says CJ Buxman de SunnyCal. «We are not seeing a major labor problem this season. "Although when crop demand skyrockets in two days, it's inevitable that people who wanted, for example, to get five loads from a ranch, will only get three."

While rain will continue this week into probably the second half of the week, along with wet soil conditions that will impede harvest, the fruit itself also needs to dry out a bit, as citrus peels are sponge-like and left marked if harvested when wet. .

"On the organic side, it's even more of a challenge because the organic postharvest protocols "They don't allow the use of fungicides," Buxman says, noting that means there is greater concern about quality issues with organic citrus.

Buxman says this means that towards the end of the week, when the rain has stopped but ground conditions don't allow for picking yet, the fruit that was harvested in the middle of last week will be a little older. "Shippers will have to make sure quality control ramps up towards the end of the week because that's when we'll start to see some issues and supply will slow down."

In turn, markets that are sensitive to price fluctuation may see their Prices At the end of the week. “For retailers participating in programs, it will be a matter of trying to fill those programs, especially in the middle of this week. “Plan ahead because supply will likely decrease toward the end of the week.”