Florida to the Rescue

A month ago some produce marketers predicted we’d be in the middle of aa vegetable disaster right about now. After a December freeze in Mexico, they predicted, there would be shortages of everything from green onions to tomatoes. Prices would be sky high.

They were wrong.

In fact, with only a couple of exceptions, the wholesale prices of vegetables are the same as they were at this time last year--or even lower. Some things are downright cheap. Broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce are about as low as they get.

What happened? The short answer is Florida. Though the Sunshine State was hit with its own holiday weather surprise in the form of an extended rain, it shook off the moisture and is pumping out vegetables far in excess of what anyone expected.

A few examples: Florida shipped more than 2 1/2 times as many tomatoes last week as during the same week in 1997 (Mexico was down more than 20%); green bean shipments were more than double 1997’s (Mexico was down 50%). Florida also made a big jump in squash, shipping more than six times its 1997 crop (Mexico was up too).

In fact, there’s only one example of a drastic fall in shipments. That’s cucumbers. Last week’s harvest in Florida was roughly a third of last year’s, and Mexico was down 15% as well. As a result, cucumbers are the odd exception to the blue-sky price scene, roughly double last year’s wholesale price.

Bob Meyer, owner of Meyer Tomatoes, one of the largest grower-shippers of vegetables from Mexico, says he’s still waiting for those high prices to come around.

“We did have some pretty high prices until the middle of January,” he says. “But we figured with the blossom drop from the frost that it would continue. What happened was we’ve just got a flush of product. We don’t know why, but it’s so busy we’re telling growers to cut back; there’s a surplus of product.”

The Florida situation is similarly puzzling.

“It’s just been raining and raining and raining out there, but they’ve had warm temperatures, too,” he says. “Instead of slowing down the harvest, they’ve been pumping it out. It’s been phenomenal.”

We’re not out of the woods yet, though. Meyer says his growers are telling him to expect supplies to tighten up by around 30% by the middle of next week.

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Farmers’ Market Pick of the Week: Patty and Fred Kosmo from the Cuyama Valley, midway between Santa Barbara and Bakersfield, have crisp Fuji apples. They sell them at the Santa Monica market on Wednesdays; Thousand Oaks on Thursdays; Ventura, Camarillo, Northridge, Santa Monica and Torrance on Saturdays; Hollywood, Alhambra and Santa Monica on Sundays; and Culver City and Torrance on Tuesdays.

Source: Carolyn Olney, Southland Farmers’ Market Assn.