Flashes From the Flood Front
Would you pay $2 a head for iceberg lettuce?
That’s the question retail produce buyers were trying to answer last week as prices skyrocketed due to reports of severe flooding along the Gila River near the Arizona town of Yuma, an important winter growing area. Within the span of three days, the wholesale price of iceberg lettuce went from 46 cents a head to $1.04. Figure in the middleman’s markup and that could add up to a retail price of more than $2 a head.
Last week’s flooding reportedly wiped out an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 acres of winter crops--primarily lettuce. But that is only about one-third of the total area planted in Arizona. And even in a good year, the state’s total lettuce crop accounts for less than one-third of the nation’s winter lettuce supply.
By early this week the price seemed to be headed back down (though Tuesday morning still saw a scary wholesale price of 83 cents per head). Wholesale prices for other lettuces were lower, ranging from 33 cents a head for Butter lettuce to 54 cents a head for Romaine.
The flooding seems to be just the latest in a winter-long series of weather-generated price gyrations. Remember, after the first California rains in January, lettuce and broccoli prices climbed rapidly and then receeded to below-normal prices as demand decreased.
Still, the prices that seemed sky-high in January are well below today’s. Then, a wholesale price of 35 cents a head for Romaine lettuce prompted one grower to remark “I sure hope people can live without their Caesar salad.”
But that’s the kind of winter it’s been. In San Diego County, business is just getting back to normal after storms wiped out more than $7 million worth of prime, early-season strawberries. Strawberries in Ventura and Orange Counties were similarly affected, though to a lesser extent. Wholesale prices for strawberries are now about $1 a pint. In Riverside County the lettuce crop around Blythe was reduced to an estimated half of normal. The broccoli crop in the Coachella Valley was also severely reduced.
California’s Imperial Valley--which has been devestated by whitefly in the past couple of years-- has not been particularly hard-hit. Ironically, as recently as three years ago many Arizona growers were farming in the Imperial Valley. “We don’t wish them any ill at all, but that flooding has sure helped prices,” says one local grower.
* Get ready for salmon. Fishing for Columbia River chinooks, which was halted under threat of court order last week on the grounds that some endangered Snake River chinooks might accidentally be taken in the same catch, resumed for a brief, 20-hour season Tuesday. Fishery officials expect roughly 2,800 fish to be taken--with some of it making its way to Los Angeles restaurants by Friday. Another one-day season may be added next week.
The ban was lifted after a group of restaurateurs--including representatives of the local University Restaurant Group (owners of Water Grill, Ocean Ave. Seafood and Pine Avenue Fish House)--pressured congressional delegations to speed the signing of a formal biological opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Division.
