Destructive Rains Could Help Raise Crop Prices : Agriculture: Farmers expect less yield. But the amount of money that their harvests fetch should make up for it.
Despite some ominous forecasts, the last two weeks of rain turned out to be a wash for farmers.
The storms that lingered over Ventura County for most of the month partly destroyed early strawberry, celery, broccoli and lettuce crops.
But for growers, the damage wasn’t entirely bad news. Although the winter yield will be way down, prices should jump high enough to offset the loss in volume, they said.
That means more gloom for consumers, however, regardless of the weather.
Sky-high prices--double or triple the seasonal norms--will show up soon on grocery store shelves, several farmers predicted Tuesday. So will imperfect produce.
During the storms, driving rain scarred broccoli with pockmarks. Chilly temperatures branded celery with frost blisters. Leafy greens rotted in flooded furrows.
And the worst of this blemished lot will probably turn up in local markets since rain-soaked vegetables would rot completely if shipped cross-country.
“They would deteriorate in transit if there’s preliminary mold, fungus or wetness, so we’re restricted to selling them in California, or maybe Washington, Oregon and Arizona,” said Jamie Deardorff, a sales manager at Deardorff-Jackson Co., which grows strawberries, celery and mixed greens.
What’s more, even substandard quality will not keep prices low since it takes twice as long to harvest crops in ankle-deep mud and growers must pass this higher labor cost to consumers.
“When no one has anything that’s good quality, all the prices go up anyway,” lettuce farmer Phil McGrath said as he surveyed his muddy five-acre field, which was studded with green bundles.
Still slightly incredulous, McGrath said demand so far outstrips supply that a head of lettuce, soggy leaves and all, now sells to retailers for 50 cents--three to four times the usual January price.
Judging from their frenzy to get the harvest out, most growers expect the high prices to continue for a while.
“You’ll know there’s a good market if you see guys going right back into the fields again, mudding it out and tearing up their land to get the vegetables,” Rex Laird, executive director of the county’s farm bureau, predicted Tuesday morning.
And many Ventura County growers did indeed charge into the welcome sunshine, casting aside yellow slickers in favor of knee-high rubber boots.
“We can’t just let things sit--we’ve got to harvest; we’ve got to harvest now,” Deardorff said.
The mud did not deter contract workers either. Hundreds had sat idle during last week’s torrential rains, forced to forfeit their $5 to $10 hourly salaries, and they jumped at the chance to earn money again.
Cipriano Aleman saw his customary 60-hour workweek dwindle to almost nothing during the recent storms. Living on his reduced income was tough, he said, kicking his mud-encrusted boots against a tree after gladly returning to a full schedule of work at McGrath’s lettuce farm Tuesday.
Also intensifying their labor were strawberry pickers, instructed to clean plants of moldy or disease-bearing berries.
Virtually all the ripe berries that had been ready for harvest last week were ruined in the downpours, but the plants themselves survive. In the long run, the storms will be a boon: Rain fertilizes plants, replenishes underground wells and washes away some of the deadly salt that accumulates around shallow roots.
Citrus and avocado trees also slurped the rain greedily. Remembering the dusty, cracked earth of the past six years, tree growers rejoiced at their New Year’s present: an unexpected bonanza of rain, which may stimulate a bumper crop.
After suffering minimal damage, avocado and lemon grower Rob Brokaw declared the storms “well worth the price.” And he even went a bit further: “We’re very pleased with how it turned out.”
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