Desert Deal Freeze Continues Impacting All Commodities
Yuma, Imperial and Coachella Areas -
By Jordan Okumura
01/15/13
The desert deal has felt the relentless wrath of Mother Nature in recent months and is now facing the continuing freeze conditions in the desert regions of Arizona's Yuma and California's Imperial and Coachella areas. The past five days have brought temperatures ranging from the low 20's to the 'teens in some areas.
A grower noted that the cold down in the growing regions is extremely dry resulting in what is more akin to a burning frost. The effects of the frost will probably last into March and April. The consequences of the drop in production should hit the stores hard this week. It is still too early to really assess the damages, growers note. It may still be another week or two before they can see what damage as been done. It will take a while to recover in supply and quality.
Salinas growers confirmed that their companies' desert operations were feeling the impact of the season's weather complications across all commodities. The abnormally warm weather in November and December followed by freezes in late December and January in California, have complicated production. There is a wide range of items feeling the impact from broccoli, cauliflower, romaine hearts, and celery to ice berg and cooking greens like chard and kale. One grower noted that more than 45 items in the company's portfolio were feeling the effects of the freeze.
As of last week, industry wide, the desert deal was anticipating reductions of 30% over all crops with broccoli seeing a significant reduction of approximately 50%. With the continuation of the cold weather, this may mean further reductions.
