Lettuce growers in the Yuma, Ariz., area have suffered a freeze that turned out to be several degrees cooler than some forecasts predicted.
The Yuma deal had already seen threatening weather, beginning with a New Years Day weekend freeze. Peeling and an airborne sclerotinia fungus dropped some growers’ yields by 10% to 20%. While the extent of the new damage is unclear, the supply shortage is likely to continue if not worsen!
We predict at least another six weeks of problems.
We’re in for a wild ride. It’s going to be difficult to get top grade. A lot will have be going into secondary labels. The industry will have to be careful about quality control as crop moves around the country. You can’t have these temperatures without showing heavy blistering and freeze burns and potentially a decay-and-rot situation in transit.
Freezing temperatures across a wide area of Mexico have a huge effect on supplies of tomatoes, peppers and other winter vegetables.
The freeze reached fields as far south as southern Sinaloa. Crops in the border state of Sonora could be devastated.
It’s still too early to tell, but there’s a lot of damage.
All of the growing regions suffered freezing temperatures. The full line of vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash, was likely affected.
What made this one even worse, is that forecasts were 5 to 10 degrees higher than what temperatures wound up being. Many growers took precautions, but they did not harvest early because they did not expect it to get so cold.
As a result, the damage in some areas will likely be nothing short of devastating.
We’re pretty sure that everything in Sonora is frozen and gone.
Squash and melons are two of the commodities that will be most affected by the Sonora freeze. Tomatoes and peppers won’t ship from the region until March or April.
Howdy partners! That's right! Peddler's Son Produce is excited to start serving Prescott. 
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