While it is now safe to say that we are finally out of our 3 year drought in California, we didn’t expect to get all of water needs at once! This week, for instance, the Sierra Nevada mountains are expected to get upwards of 10 FEET of snow. In Northern and Central California, we expect to get 4-6 inches of rain in the valleys, and possibly 20 inches in the mountains. Flooding, mudslides, and other problems are expected. Go to our Produce West web site(producewest.com) for links for more information.

With all of this weather for our buying purposes, we are mostly concerned with the weather in the growing regions of Coachella Valley, Oxnard, and Yuma. Oxnard, where celery, strawberries, and various other items are located, will get hammered and wipe out strawberries and make celery harvesting next to impossible. The desert areas show rain coming in, but it is more scattered than anything else. It doesn’t take much to knock out harvesting in the desert because the soil is so clay-like, and there is little absorption, so the water just sits there. But, the clouds keep temperatures from freezing, which is a good thing. We would rather deal with some wet product for a few days, rather than peel and blister for a few months.

LETTUCE–with rain forecasted in the desert growing regions this week, we could see a stronger market. To go with that, there are quite a few ads out there for lettuce, since it has been quite a while since prices were this reasonable for stores to advertise, so there is big volume going out this week. There could also be a problem with wet fields and product may show dirt and mud.

BROCCOLI–still plenty of bunch and crowns early this week, but things could tighten up by the weekend. This is mainly due to the rains in Salinas and Santa Maria areas, where a considerable amount of supplies are currently coming from. This will put more pressure on the desert areas for supplies.

CAULIFLOWER–plenty of supplies early week, tightening by Wednesday and into the weekend. Once the shippers get their coolers cleaned out by today and tomorrow, we expect them to start raising prices.

LEAF ITEMS–plenty of red, green, boston, and especially romaine, where there are a LOT of deals out there. We don’t expect to see these markets go up much this week, unless we get more rain that expected, which will slow harvesting and tighten up supplies.

CELERY–well, we are now back up to $30 and $40 fob. This was all BEFORE the rains. Oxnard is expecting 6 to 10 inches of rain this week, which will slow harvesting to a standstill. The only thing that will keep this market from hitting $50 is the expected high retails which “should” slow demand.

ASPARAGUS–most shippers still packing 11/1# boxes this week, although there should be some 28/1# containers beginning later this week, as volume starts to pick up. There is still Peruvian asparagus coming in, but that should start to wind down as the desert picks up their numbers.

STRAWBERRIES–the rain will wipe out any supplies that were coming out of Oxnard and Santa Maria areas. The desert is coming up with a few, along with Mexico, which are transferred across the borders to San Diego and Yuma, but most supplies will stay on the West coast.