California growers don't anticipate vegetable supply gap
California growers don't anticipate vegetable supply gap
If prognostications from growers on California?s Central Coast are correct, there won?t be a vegetable supply gap a few months from now despite concerns that heavy rains delayed some plantings.
In speaking with The Produce News on Feb. 8, Tom Nunes Jr., vice president of sales for Salinas, CA-based The Nunes Co. Inc., said that, for example, crops planted three weeks apart could harvest two days apart.
?It's hard to tell," Mr. Nunes said, but his gut feeling is that there won?t be supply gaps. "There?s a lot of growing left to do." If there?s a lot of rain in February, lettuce "could bunch up."
The rain the Central Coast has experienced thus far is fairly typical for this time of year, he said. "Planting disruption from rain " that?s expected," Mr. Nunes said. "If there?s rain in March or early April, then we could have supply gaps."
But offsetting weather concerns on the Central Coast is the fact that there are "plenty of acres of crop in the ground? between the various growing regions, Mr. Nunes said. "Broccoli, lettuce, Romaine and cauliflower " there?s a lot of acres in a lot of districts."
John Casazza, vice president of agricultural operations for Salinas-based Growers Express LLC, said that his company has not experienced any delays in plantings that might suggest an upcoming supply gap. "We?ve had a good batting average," he said.
Michael Boggiatto, president and general manager of Salinas-based Boggiatto Produce Inc., doesn?t foresee a shortage. "The rain disrupted some plantings, but our transplants will come out well," he said. "It?s early, so [the crops] grow fast and well. There?s going to be a few holes in plantings, but production will fill in the missed plantings and nobody knows."
Mr. Boggiatto added that he doesn?t see a lot of fields in the Salinas Valley that missed plantings.
Steve Davis of Salinas-based Mills Family Farms Inc. said that he?s not aware of disruptions to Mills? plantings in the Salinas area. Mills will wrap up the harvest in Yuma around the third week of March followed by a four-week Iceberg lettuce harvest in Huron, CA, before returning to Salinas around mid-April.
Jon Vessey of Vessey & Co. Inc. in El Centro told The Produce News in January that heavy rainfall in California?s Imperial Valley since the start of the planting season has interrupted planting and harvesting, and that yields are going to be less than normal in February and March.
In speaking with The Produce News on Feb. 8, Tom Nunes Jr., vice president of sales for Salinas, CA-based The Nunes Co. Inc., said that, for example, crops planted three weeks apart could harvest two days apart.
?It's hard to tell," Mr. Nunes said, but his gut feeling is that there won?t be supply gaps. "There?s a lot of growing left to do." If there?s a lot of rain in February, lettuce "could bunch up."
The rain the Central Coast has experienced thus far is fairly typical for this time of year, he said. "Planting disruption from rain " that?s expected," Mr. Nunes said. "If there?s rain in March or early April, then we could have supply gaps."
But offsetting weather concerns on the Central Coast is the fact that there are "plenty of acres of crop in the ground? between the various growing regions, Mr. Nunes said. "Broccoli, lettuce, Romaine and cauliflower " there?s a lot of acres in a lot of districts."
John Casazza, vice president of agricultural operations for Salinas-based Growers Express LLC, said that his company has not experienced any delays in plantings that might suggest an upcoming supply gap. "We?ve had a good batting average," he said.
Michael Boggiatto, president and general manager of Salinas-based Boggiatto Produce Inc., doesn?t foresee a shortage. "The rain disrupted some plantings, but our transplants will come out well," he said. "It?s early, so [the crops] grow fast and well. There?s going to be a few holes in plantings, but production will fill in the missed plantings and nobody knows."
Mr. Boggiatto added that he doesn?t see a lot of fields in the Salinas Valley that missed plantings.
Steve Davis of Salinas-based Mills Family Farms Inc. said that he?s not aware of disruptions to Mills? plantings in the Salinas area. Mills will wrap up the harvest in Yuma around the third week of March followed by a four-week Iceberg lettuce harvest in Huron, CA, before returning to Salinas around mid-April.
Jon Vessey of Vessey & Co. Inc. in El Centro told The Produce News in January that heavy rainfall in California?s Imperial Valley since the start of the planting season has interrupted planting and harvesting, and that yields are going to be less than normal in February and March.
