Average rainfall numbers as much as 800 percent greater than normal continue to stack up in Florida, wreaking havoc on many different annual crops from peppers to strawberries to sweet corn.

“During November, December and January, we had about three-and-a-half inches of rain last year,” said Tony DiMare of DiMare Homestead Inc. in Homestead, FL, speaking of the winter of 2014-15. “This year we have had 25 inches. In one stretch, Homestead had 15 inches over three days.”Tony DiMare

All this rain has devastated the vegetables crops, delaying planting over and over again, wiping out young plants and damaging production about to be harvested. The result has been months of short supplies and high prices.

“And there is no relief in sight,” said DiMare.

His comments were echoed by Gibson Wilkinson of Wilkinson-Cooper Produce Inc. and Ted Wanless of S.M. Jones & Co., two Belle Glade, FL, firms.

“We got a lot of rain last week and it is still too wet to get into the fields,” Wanless said Feb. 2. “We won’t know until next Wednesday what kind of damage has been done to the sweet corn.”

Wilkinson’s firm also specializes in sweet corn and he said his fields received 7.5 inches of rain in a very short time frame. He said some of the plants will be lost, and although some might survive, he is predicting a disruption of sweet corn supplies well into March.Kenneth Parker

The f.o.b. market price reflected these issues as sweet corn was selling for $20-22 per carton on Feb. 2 — an almost unheard of price.

DiMare agreed the markets were high across the board but he said it isn’t doing a lot of good for growers or shippers “because there is hardly anything left out there.”

He wouldn’t predict when supplies might return to normal, stating, “We are in unchartered territory. We’ve never seen rains like this at this time of year. We are getting August rains now.”

DiMare said the weather models have predicted that this well-above-normal rainfall will last for at least a couple more months. Considering the accuracy of the prediction for the past couple of months, DiMare isn’t doubting that rain will be the order of the day for weeks and maybe months to come.

Kenneth Parker, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association, located in Plant City, in central Florida, was a lot more optimistic. Florida strawberries have had a problematic season with warm fall temperatures leading to January volume that was 50 to 75 percent lower than normal. But Parker said there have been more rains in South Florida than the Plant City area, which is where the state’s strawberry industry is centered. And, he said, the soil composition allows workers to get into the field to pick the berries fairly soon after a rain.

“We are not like California where you might have to wait a few days after a rain,” he said.  “We can get in right away.”

Looking at the current fruit on the strawberry plants, Parker said volume is already starting to increase and by mid- to late February, he was expecting supplies much closer to normal level.

“The plants and fruit look beautiful right now,” Parker said Feb. 2.  

While Florida growers have lost a significant portion of their season volume because of the lack of supplies in January, he noted that some growers could push their crops into May and try to make up for some of that lost volume at the end of the year.

In the meantime, El Niño’s impact on California continues to stay in the northern half of the state, piling up the mountains with snow and putting many communities well ahead of precipitation levels of the past four years and slightly ahead of normal averages.

However, Southern California, which was predicted to receive the full force of El Niño, has not had the torrential downpours yet in 2016. This means coastal and desert vegetable production areas have been able to move forward unfettered. Excellent supplies have ensued and many crops are currently in a supply-exceeds-demand situation.

After almost two years of good markets, this has meant below break-even costs for many different items. And with no rain in the forecast through mid-February, this situation has a very good chance to continue at least through this month.