Growers Begin Transition from Hight Temps in Yuma to California Growing Regions

<p>As Yuma and the desert regions wind down for the season, growers are transitioning to their operations in Salinas, Santa Maria and the Central California Coast. Growers are currently expecting what could be record volumes across nearly all categories from lettuce to cauliflower. Broccoli may see a bit of a gap as freezing conditions during December but a damper on the growing cycle and are causing the crop to come on a bit later than usual. But growers don’t expect to see a significant gap as the they will be harvesting in Santa Maria, California, Central Mexico and other regions as well.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>“We have begun harvesting broccoli and cauliflower in Salinas and we’ll transition the rest of our crops as well as our facility in the coming weeks,” Ernst Van Eeghen, Vice President of Marketing &amp; Product Development, Church Brothers, tells AndNowUKnow. “Overall we are seeing record volumes through every single category.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Crop alignment may prove to be a bit of a challenge, Van Eeghen tells us, with a couple crops a little ahead of schedule. Heat in the desert will also affect the tale end of the tender leaf lettuce deal with quality issues that include sun scalding and internal burn.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>“As for the current challenges in California, Church Brothers has been repositioning itself to deal with the drought and water allocation and has adjusted its crops and acreage over the past three or four years. This will allow our company to address the water challenges as best we can and are looking to our other programs like Central Mexico and Baja to mitigate the challenges,” Van Eeghen notes.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Mark McBride, Sales for Coastline, tells us that overall, transition is a few days ahead of schedule for the company. “Broccoli has transitioned North, cauliflower is doing the same, and we will be mostly back in central CA by mid week. Broccoli market strengthened this week as desert volume dropped off and Northern supplies were hurt by December’s consecutive days of icy temperatures,” he tells us.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The Earliest iceberg fields will start in Huron this coming weekend &amp; will produce thru April, 15th with desert production to continue thru about April 15th. “We do not see a drop in acreage, but the warm temps have created some quality problems in some lettuce varieties. Demand is gradually improving as winter’s effects lessen in the Midwest &amp; the east. If processors have to look outside of their own plantings for clean lettuce for their processing plants, the lettuce deal could see another boost in prices.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Romaine, green &amp; red leaf will continue out of the desert through April 1st for Coastline, at which point the Salinas operations will take over. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we follow the transition from the desert growing regions to those in California.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">