News and Stories

California’s Salinas Valley growing region received 1.29” of rain from last night through this morning. Another .25” to .50” is forecast through Sunday, October 30, making this the wettest October in several years. While most harvests were canceled today due to poor field conditions (see attached pictures), some growers do plan to resume production tomorrow because there is only a 20% chance of rain during the day in the Salinas Valley and Huron harvesting regions. 

• Most commodity prices are inching up
• Loading delays should be expected over the next few days as a result of rain
• Harvesting will resume tomorrow, but production will be slow due to muddy/poor field conditions
• Quality issues will also reduce yields and increase demand for stocks that are already tightening as the season winds down
• Mechanical damage, mildew, premature pinking, and shortened shelf-life are expected in commodity and value-added packs as a result of the rain
• This poor weather may force growers to end the Salinas and Huron growing seasons earlier than projected and transition to the Arizona/California desert growing region   
• Markon inspectors will be working with harvesting crews to make sure cartons are kept as clean and as dry as possible  
• Markon will continue to update on the state of the market, supply levels, and quality effects from this storm system
• To view a photo of the poor harvesting conditions of row items, click here
• For a photo of the muddy areas around the fields, click here; to see the current flooding around the fields, click here

Please contact your Markon customer service representative for more information.

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