Snow, heavy rain, flood. Extreme weather will hit the United States this year, and shoppers will feel the lingering effects at grocery stores heading into the summer.
Good weather, especially during the spring rice planting season, is essential for a bountiful harvest of fruits, nuts and vegetables. But this year’s extreme volatility has caused many crops, especially in California, to produce nearly half of the U.S.’s fruits, nuts, and “salad bowl” vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, and kale, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Producers are behind schedule. .
Farmers are optimistic they will be able to bounce back from the delayed planting schedule, but it could take months. In the meantime, consumers will have fewer options, fewer supplies, and higher prices, experts say.
“This year has been an extreme year,” said Brad Rubin, specialty crop sector manager within Wells Fargo’s Agri-Food Institute. I’m late.”
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What crops were not planted?
Berries, lettuce, other leafy green vegetables, and tomatoes are among the major crops hit by floods in California.
Heavy rains caused levees to burst, flooding the central California communities of Watsonville and Salinas, which produce about one-third of the state’s strawberries. The overflow left about a fifth of the field under water.
Flooding in the Salinas Valley, the country’s ‘salad bowl’ where more than 60% of lettuce is grown, also hampered planting. Not only did farmers have to wait for the water to recede, they also had to make sure the soil wasn’t contaminated with bacteria that could cause food poisoning.
In late February, California’s Monterey County Agricultural Commission estimated the value of lost crops, estimating future losses at $324.1 million. Salinas and the Salinas Valley are in Monterey County, and Watsonville is in Santa Cruz County.
Crops such as romaine lettuce, strawberries, wine grapes, celery, carrots, broccoli and garlic were hit hardest.
“What we’ve seen at our local farmers markets is price increases,” said Wells Fargo’s Rubin. “At retailers, some supplies imported from Mexico have helped keep prices down. But organic and locally grown are more expensive.”
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Not only the soil, but also the bees
Extremely cold, windy and wet weather across the country has prevented bees from pollinating as usual.
Charlotte Anderson, South Carolina’s first female beekeeper, wrote on her blog, “Bees don’t fly in heavy rain or high winds.” It often outweighs the rewards.”
As a result, crops that rely on pollination can be affected by bee disruption.
“No one will know until May or June, but everyone speculates that almonds will be lighter this year based on the lack of bee flight during pollination,” Rubin said. rice field.
Every year in February and March, bees travel across the country to help pollinate crops, especially California almonds.
“Without the bees, there would be no almonds,” says the Almond Board of California. Almonds are his seventh most valuable crop in the United States, all grown in California, which supplies him 80% of global production. It is also the largest market for pollination services for bees.
After servicing almonds, beekeepers take their bees to various locations across the United States to pollinate more than 90 other crops and make honey.
Almond prices already reflect expectations of a lower harvest. Prices in March were up 33% from his February, the biggest monthly increase since November 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On an annual basis, almond prices jumped nearly 58% in March, marking the biggest rise since 1995.
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Have you benefited from extreme weather?
yes.
After years of drought in California, the reservoirs are filling up, Rubin said, helping lift water restrictions imposed by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. This law was passed by him in 2014 to protect groundwater resources in the long term.
Now that the reservoir is full, farmers will no longer need to irrigate or pay extra fees to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Board, he said.
Who is the biggest winner? Winery. Everyone predicts a good wine harvest, Rubin said.
It rained when the vines were dormant or not ready to grow, so the vines were not damaged and the soil was refreshed. was washed away from the sediments of
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But is 2023 an El Niño year? How will El Niño affect food prices?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last month that there was a 62% chance of an El Niño event from May to July, and an 80% or more chance by the fall. The El Niño event, which is an event of rising sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, can affect global weather and increase the risk of natural disasters such as floods and droughts in some regions.
According to NOAA, it remains unclear how strong the El Niño possibility is.
“The main impact could be higher food prices and stress in these shock-sensitive emerging markets,” said Jim Reed, an economist at Deutsche Bank.
Medora Lee is a money, markets and personal finance reporter for USA TODAY. You can contact her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to her free Daily Her Money newsletter where you can get personal her finance tips and news about her business every Monday through Friday morning.