Desert vegetable shipping gaps have been expected for several weeks, and recent freezes appears to be making it even more of a sure thing.
Light freezes started December 26th, but the heaviest frosts started hitting vegetable fields in the Imperial Valley of California and the Yuma, AZ area December 29th.
Frost conditions are tightening lettuce shipments in January. Growers are losing up to 40 percent of their harvests each day as long as they wait for the fields to thaw out.
In the Coachella Valley, temperatures ranged from 30 to 32 degrees at hillside operations, but plunged to 22 to 25 degrees on the valley floor. The Yuma area also had a temperature drop into the 20s.
The cold snap is affecting lettuce and leaf items including romaine and iceberg; green leaf and red leaf lettuce; butter lettuce; and spinach.
It is difficult to predict whether loadings will be available from one day to the next as shipping gaps have started.
Before the freezes, there was a broad consensus that desert vegetables were two to three weeks ahead of normal production due to the warm weather pattern that’s persisted in California throughout 2014.
Produce shipments can be unpredictable anytime of year, but never more so than in winter.
Desert vegetables – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
(Note: Our 12/31 post was about possible damaging freezes hitting the citrus crop in the San Joaquin Valley. The crop dodged the proverbial bullet, so citrus shipments should be normal this season — unless Mother Nature decides to take another shot at it.)