July 2020 - 14

VEGETABLE CROP UPDATE
OUTLOOK
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of those home-run years, " he said.
" The growers in south Florida, where
I am, they took the brunt of that hit,
because they were at the peak of their
season. "
Millions of pounds of vegetables were
destroyed or plowed under by growers
managing their inventory, he said.
Growers also " walked away " from some
fields or picked some fields two times
instead of three.
But he added that the growers have
been creative, moving products from
foodservice into retail sales, trading
crops with other growers to create
mixed produce boxes and other
products that food banks can buy.
Sumner agreed that growers did well
at re-directing their sales.
" I think we moved fairly quickly
through the disruption early on,
because you had products that were
packaged to go to restaurants, or
some packing places set up to deal
with restaurants, and then produce
was either just the wrong sort or the
packaging was not the sort to go to
supermarkets, " he said. " And that
passed, as people in the industry
considered it would - that's not to say
it's easy. I never want to minimize the
hassle that people have to go through. "
As of early June, restaurants in many
states were in the process of resuming
normal operations, but it was unclear
what other challenges growers faced
in the markets due to COVID-19. The
USDA Economic Research Service
(ERS) estimated that farm costs such
as fertilizer and fuel are down, while
labor costs continue to increase,
and labor procedures become more
difficult. ERS wrote in an April report
that U.S. international trade will likely
" slow further in the next few months
due to the pandemic-inspired global
economic pause. "
As Sumner said, the " uncertainty
of knowing " - knowing the disease,
knowing the economy during the
disease, and knowing how government
regulations will shape the market - that
uncertainty remains high.
" And then we don't know about
consumer reactions, " he added.
" How many consumers are going to
feel desperate to get out to go to a
restaurant? "
Asparagus
Washington state asparagus came into
season about April 20, according to the
Facebook account of the Washington
Asparagus Commission. The harvest
continued strong into mid-May.
In Michigan, cooler-than-average
temperatures in late April and early
May - and even a late-season
snowfall - delayed the harvest by about
a week, until mid-May, according to
a press release from the Michigan
Asparagus Advisory Board. Growers
14 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
Index of prices received by growers for vegetables, avg. 2016-18, 2019-20
100
120
140
160
180
200
60
80
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Source: USDA Economic Research Service using data from USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
used the extra time to prepare fields and
to complete beginning of season tasks
like mowing and fertilizer application.
Michigan and California asparagus
harvests continued into late May,
according to weather reports from the
USDA National Agriculture Statistics
Service.
Carrots
USDA ERS wrote in an April report
that before COVID-19, the amount of
fresh carrots being grown and imported
had both increased, leading their
availability to increase for the third year
in a row.
" New products such as various
organic carrots as well as carrot packs
containing yellow, purple and orange
carrots, may be expanding the market, "
according to the report. " Signaling
favorable demand in the face of rising
production, fresh-carrot shipping-point
prices rose 8 percent to 19.8 cents per
pound, helping to push total crop value
up 19 percent to $800 million. "
" We've been doing Google surveys
on carrot preferences - thousands and
thousands of responses, " Sumner said.
For responders who say they do regularly
buy carrots, the surveys ask " how much
extra would you pay for certain kinds of
packages, whether it's baby carrots, or
organic carrots or this kind of thing. "
Responses were statically the same
from Jan. 1 to late April - the same
percentages of people were buying
carrots after the COVID-19 pandemic
had begun. " I found that interesting, "
Sumner said. He was repeating the
survey in June.
Leafy greens
Leafy greens marketing groups have
continued their organizational efforts
to make romaine and other crops
safer from foodborne pathogens, and
as of early June hadn't encountered
any issues with COVID-19.
" I've been very happy we haven't
had a problem, say, in the bagged
salad area, where you could imagine
something going wrong and then
everybody being panicked for a
while, " Sumner said.
But Sumner wondered how
foodservice sales had been affected by
the new coronavirus.
" If you go into any major city, you
know every block or two that has offices
will have two or three of these salad lunch
places - lots and lots of vegetables - but I
just don't see them coming back rapidly
until all of the offices are open, " he said.
" And it's the office workers that have
been able to work at home. "
Onions
Onions are positioned well. USDA
ERS wrote that fresh-market onions last
year hit a record price of $17.50 per cwt
at the farm gate or first point of sale.
" Normally, higher prices the year
before would spur onion growers to
consider planting a few extra acres the
next year, " according to the report.
" However, in 2020 growers may be a
bit more cautious given the economic
uncertainty caused by the temporary
loss of the foodservice market to the
social distancing practices forced by the
viral pandemic.
" Normally, higher prices
the year before would
spur onion growers to
consider planting a few
extra acres the next year. "
- USDA ERS
" Because bulb onions are one of
the top fresh vegetable commodities,
because they are less perishable than
many other fresh items (especially the
storage varieties), and because they
are nearly ubiquitous in households
nationwide, this commodity subsector
likely has more options in weathering
the storm. "
Strawberries
The California Strawberry
Commission reported in its 2020
Acreage Survey that it expected North
American production to increase due
to high-yielding varieties and " modest "
increases in acres planted in California
and Mexico. California's total fallplanted
acreage for winter, spring and
summer production was reported up
4.5%, while acreage to be planted in the
summer of 2020 for fall production was
projected to be up 1.4%.
The California Strawberry
Commission's Survey was published in
December 2019 and didn't reference
COVID-19. However, the commission
in early April wrote an open letter to
its distributors saying it would " harvest
every box " during at least through the
May harvests.
Sumner thought berries were selling
well in an economy where people are
eating at home almost exclusively.
" We've had an increased demand
in home use, so some of the products,
like berries, I thought were a higher
proportion of supermarket purchases
than restaurants in general, " he said.
" The more people stay home, the better
they've done, I think. "
Tomatoes/peppers
Florida tomatoes were harvested in
May, and growers are now planting
cover crops and following up for the
next season.
Meanwhile in California, " the
processing tomato crop here is planted, "
Sumner said. " I think it's as big a crop as
ever, and it's going right along. "
USDA ERS said early reports were
that California tomato processors
intended to contract for 4% more
processing tomatoes.
" Since most of the end products are
storable, current indications are that the
industry intends to move forward with
these plans, " according to the USDA's
report.
The news wasn't as good for fieldgrown,
fresh-market tomatoes.
" Since peaking at the start of 2020,
fresh tomato shipping-point prices
have trended lower and bottomed out
in early April as unsold product from
reduced foodservice demand backed
up in the supply chain and at farms
in central Florida where a majority of
spring tomatoes are grown, " according
to the USDA's report.
McAvoy estimated 75-80% of
Florida tomatoes, and 50-60% of
green peppers were grown for the
foodservice market. VGN
2020
2019
AVG. 2016-18

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July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2020