News and Stories

Markon First Crop (MFC) Romaine is now available in the Arizona/California desert growing region.

Freeze-related defects have heavily impacted romaine quality throughout the industry over the past several weeks. Recent warm weather has increased plant development significantly, allowing harvesting crews to trim the more damaged outer leaves and meet specifications for MFC Premium Romaine. Most romaine heads are exhibiting between 2 to 5 leaves with epidermal peel after trimming, as opposed to the 8 to 12 leaves seen over the past month.

Light amounts of epidermal peel will continue to be present in both commodity and value-added romaine items, but the worst of the damage seems to be over. It is not uncommon for the desert region to experience freezing temperatures in February, which could develop another wave of epidermal blistering and peeling, but current extended forecasts do not foresee freezing temperatures.

Markon inspectors will continue to monitor quality and weather patterns and will update further as needed.

Please contact your Markon customer service representative for more information.

John Galvez

Quality Assurance

markon.com

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