While event set-up begins Friday, June 2, we anticipate the most impact from Monday, June 19 to Monday, July 3, due to major road closures. “ switched to berries about three weeks ago,” he said.NASCAR Chicago Street Race: Road Closures and Potential Service ImpactĪs Chicago prepares to host the NASCAR Chicago Street Race on Saturday, July 1 and Sunday, July 2, FedEx is implementing contingency plans to adjust for street closures and additional security measures. “We expected to get rid of winter fruits like oranges and citruses” earlier in the season, but instead Bolar kept them on the menu.įinally, though, despite the June gloom, strawberries have begun to shrink in size and sweeten in flavor. Prices are going down, though, as the strawberry supply is slowly increasing: His trip last week yielded boxes for $5.49 each.Īlex Bolar, the owner of a Los Angeles-based baked goods pop-up, Eclair, said that in recipe development, he delayed the switch to strawberry-based dishes. He said he saw a unit price change from $6.49 per box in March to $7.99 in April around the time of the floods. Now, strawberry pickers like him are following the strawberry harvests as they shift north in the state to Santa Maria and Salinas as well as to Oregon.įor their part, food businesses and restaurants have adapted to the fluctuations this season.įor dessert shop Perfectly Sweet in Alhambra, manager Michael Aqleh continued to purchase about 72 boxes of strawberries from Costco per week for his shop’s signature strawberry shortcakes. He had to rely upon financial support from extended family members. It was really hard to get a paycheck during that time,” Cervantes said through an interpreter. Sometimes they would only have three or four hours of work two days a week. “There was just a lot less work to go around. This comes after the state received criticism for a delay in Rapid Response Funds. Gavin Newsom announced recently that starting in June, there will be $95 million in aid to undocumented residents who have suffered from the floods. According to federal law, undocumented workers are ineligible for unemployment assistance and FEMA disaster aid. This year, he’s earned only $5,000, which has made it harder to meet the $2,200 monthly rent for his family of six. With devastated fields and less produce to pick, many found themselves out of work this season.Ĭalifornia Storm flooding compounds misery for California farms and workersĪfter a series of violent storms, California farmworkers must cope with flooded homes, dangerous job conditions and lost wages.Ĭhepe Cervantes, an undocumented migrant worker in Oxnard who has been picking strawberries for 20 years, said that in a usual strawberry picking season he would earn $8,000. Normally, Harry’s Berries may increase its prices in a given year by about 50 cents to a dollar.īolda added that 70% of the cost of production for strawberries is labor. “This year we had to go up by $2, just due to the amount of damage that we took from the rain and just the cost of production,” Gean said. Now all the other stone fruits are coming in and the growers are competing with all that other stuff,” he said.įor Harry’s Berries, the financial hit meant increasing prices - the wholesale price for a box went up to $14 - and adding more jams and juices to the lineup to make up for the lost revenue. “Strawberries used to have that advantage of being earlier in spring. These factors make the shorter strawberry season a challenge for growers as they make adjustments. Most farms have fixed costs such as labor and planting, as well as forward contracts that set berry prices for wholesalers in advance, Bolda said. Though recent storms have cut California’s drought by half, record snowpack will increase the threat of spring flooding, forecasters say. Climate & Environment California risk shifts from drought to floods after record rain, snow
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