Uncontaminated Melons: Their Profit Rotting Away

Under normal circumstances, watermelon distributor Louis J. Robles could expect to sell up to $25,000 of watermelons a day during the July peak season.

But Robles has not made a penny since last Friday, when state health officials ordered all watermelons pulled from grocery bins across the state. Instead, his storehouse at 1010 S. Hooper Ave. is loaded with 110 tons of watermelons imported from Mexico, and if he cannot get them to market by this weekend, he will be out of luck on his investment.

Robles is one of many Southern California watermelon distributors whose melons, brought in from Arizona, Texas or Mexico, are rotting as state and county health officials decide what can be done about melons not picked on California farms where authorities have found traces of the pesticide aldicarb.

Melons tainted with aldicarb are being blamed for more than 280 illnesses in five states.

Although California has said that it will inspect melons still in the fields in order to clear them for future sales, distributors like Robles apparently have no recourse on their current supplies.

Lannie Clavecilla, a spokesman for the state Department of Health Services, said wholesalers as well as retailers are under orders to destroy their existing stocks.

“We’re trying to wipe the slate clean so we can assure consumers that what they’re eating is not contaminated,” Clavecilla said.

But Robles, who insisted that his watermelons are safe, said he worries about who will absorb the losses if his stock is allowed to rot.

“The farmers expect to get paid; they ask me who is going to pay and I just tell them I don’t know,” he said. “I’d like them (health officials) to permit me to sell them. There’s nothing wrong with them.”

Robles said his watermelons have passed four health checks--at inspection stops on either side of the Mexican border, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the California-Arizona border and by his own employees at his Los Angeles storehouse.

“It (the pesticide crisis) has nothing to do with watermelons from Mexico,” he said. “Not a one of the stores that buys from us has had any complaints (of customers becoming ill).”

Clavecilla was unsure Tuesday who will end up footing the bill for spoiled watermelons. “I haven’t heard of any specifics, but it seems it will have to be the growers, retailers and distributors that are caught in the middle of this thing,” he said. “That’s unfortunate.”

Meanwhile, officials Tuesday were still trying to sort out what they should do about melons that have come to California from out of state.

“I’m trying to get confirmation from the state, how are we to handle melons from Arizona, Texas and Mexico,” said Jits Teruya, deputy Los Angeles County agricultural commissioner in charge of produce quality. “We have melons sitting in semi-trucks, not unloaded, from Arizona, from Texas, from Mexico, and we’re waiting to see what we do with them.”

Glen Thaxton, western regional director for the Arizona Commission of Agriculture, said his office has offered to issue special stickers--indicating that the melons are untainted--to distributors of Arizona watermelons, provided that they can show which fields they got their shipments from. He also said that California distributors are welcome to sell their loads in Arizona as long they can prove that the melons were not harvested in California.

But for now, Robles and his fellow distributors remain anxious about their present stocks.

“They tell us to wait, but in the produce business, you don’t wait,” said Al Priester, a salesman at Shapiro, Gilman, Shandler Co. produce wholesalers at the Los Angeles produce market.

Priester said his company has about 100 tons of Arizona watermelons at its storehouse at 1059 S. San Pedro St. He said the melons will be too rotten to sell by the time the weekend arrives.

A spokesman for United Melon and Christmas Tree, who asked not to be identified by name, said he is frustrated with the runaround he claims he is getting from state and county officials. “The government doesn’t know what’s going on,” he said. “I get no official word. I’m in a fog.

“I’ve called 20 different numbers at the state, federal and county levels, and nobody knows what’s going on,” he said.

Joe Anticevich, vice president of John Livacich Produce Co. in Corona, said he is desperately trying to save as many of the 130 tons of out-of-state melons in his storeroom as he can.

“Every day, especially with the heat we’ve been having lately, you’re going to lose more and more,” he said. “Right now, we’re getting pretty desperate.”

“Everybody’s in the middle,” he added. “Nobody’s at the end of the line. There’s nothing you can do right now.”