News and Stories

Several California growing regions began receiving rainfall over the past 12 hours, with the heaviest amounts falling since 3:00 AM PST this morning. Growers have been packing ahead in anticipation of the rain, but will be expecting major harvesting delays for any row crop items that will be packed today; many have cancelled today’s harvest altogether due to poor field conditions.

Salinas/Watsonville

• Approximately 0.75" to 1.0" of rainfall has been recorded so far with an additional 0.5" or more possible throughout the day
• Row crop items such as broccoli, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, and tender leaf will be further impacted by this latest rain event
• Harvesting crews will attempt to keep cartons and product as clean and dry as possible; some elevated dirt/mud can be expected

Huron

• Approximately 0.3" of rainfall has been recorded so far with another 0.3" possible throughout the day
• Growers expect some production delays, but most will attempt to harvest today
• Harvesting crews will attempt to keep cartons and product as clean and dry as possible; some elevated dirt/mud can be expected

Santa Maria

• Approximately 1.0" of rainfall has been recorded with another 0.5" possible throughout the day
• Strawberry growers have cancelled today’s harvest and will be heavily culling damaged fruit over the next several days
• Strawberry supplies will remain extremely limited for the next 10 days or longer

Another 0.25"-0.5" of rainfall is forecast for Saturday through Sunday night, October 29-30, which would make this the rainiest October in several years. The rain may convince growers to finish the Salinas and Huron growing seasons earlier than projected, and start transitioning to the Arizona/California desert growing region.  

We will follow up later today with more information on rainfall totals, and how it may affect harvest through early next week.

Please contact your Markon customer service representative for more information.

John Galvez
Quality Assurance
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