Great weather, good markets and advantageous holiday timing all point to an excellent situation for the marketing of crops from the Coachella Valley for this spring and early summer season.

Located about 130 miles southeast of Los Angeles and only a few miles from Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley agricultural district is an integral part of the patchwork of California growing regions that help the Golden State provide a steady supply of many different fruits and vegetables throughout the year. For the months of July, August and September, daytime temperatures can easily top 110 degrees and approach 120, making this region inhospitable to field-grown crops during that period. But other times of the year grapes, watermelon, sweet corn, Bell peppers and grapefruit are just a few of the crops that thrive, especially in the spring and fall.

Table grapes have long been a mainstay for the Coachella Valley, with production typically starting in early May and lasting as close to the Fourth of July as weather allows. Changing weather patterns for the last few years have meant an April start for grapes, which some are calling the effects of global warming and others are saying is merely a few-year anomaly from normal patterns.

In any event, this year saw grapes being harvested in April once again, as they were in 2014 and 2015. Steve Root of East West Unlimited LLC, a native of the area who has been growing grapes here for more than two decades, said prior to these three years he had never seen April harvesting before. He’s not quite ready to call it the “new normal” but it might be. Root, like many others interviewed, said the late timing of this year’s Memorial Day (May 30) will help the industry get a great promotional boost from that holiday. Though the grapes are a bit earlier than they are traditionally, it still will be around May 10 before volume is in the promotable realm. That means the May 27 start to the Memorial Day weekend will be perfect for heavy shipments and lots of retail advertising for grape-infused picnics and barbecues.

Nick Bozick, president of Richard Bagdasarian Inc. in Mecca, CA, agreed calling the late Memorial Day date a “bonus” for this year’s grape crop.

The grape crop is typically only marketed in a seven week window with many growers not even in it that long. A holiday right in the middle of the season, populated with promotions, should clearly boost demand.

Tony Bianco of Desert Fresh Inc. in Coachella, CA, concurred, noting that the holiday timing was perfect. If Memorial Day falls too early, sometimes the demand for volume comes too early and the industry has a lot of post-holiday marketing to do.

Mike Aiton, director of marketing for Prime Time International in Coachella, CA, is also looking for a lot of good May ad support for the colored peppers that his firm specializes in. But Aiton said it was the marketing conditions earlier this year that are probably the biggest factor in that equation. He noted that peppers have been in a demand exceeds supply situation for much of the first quarter of 2016. As such, there have not been promotable supplies. Aiton said by mid-May that situation should have rectified itself and there will be plenty of peppers on the market to support promotional pricing.

In discussing the future of the Coachella Valley, Bozick of Bagdasarian is bullish about its grape growing potential. He said there are many new varieties being given a look and the right find could boost demand. Bozick said new plantings have been going in and boosting acreage though not significantly. If a new variety was found to be worthy, he said there is still lots of good grape-growing land that could increase the area’s production.

Unlike in other parts of California, the Coachella Valley — in spite of its desert environment and minimal annual rainfall — does not have a water supply problem. The valley is mostly serviced by the Colorado River, which has its genesis in the Rocky Mountains in its namesake state. This past winter, like most winters, the Rocky Mountains had a lot of snow and the Colorado River, which runs from that state southwest through Utah and Arizona before straddling the California/Arizona border on the way to Mexico, has plenty of water. Even when most of California was in a drought situation over the past four years, Coachella Valley growers had most of their waters needs adequately taken care of.