Thursday, March 03, 2005

Visions of Noah and the Ark are probably how some of us feel after the Southern California deluge.

Where we might expect 5 inches of rain, we are now over 30 inches. Southern California has set century mark records. Surprisingly, through all of this, California shipping volumes finished February slightly ahead of 2004 numbers. That said, damage has occurred, and it is a matter of time to see how the Southern California crop recovers. Fields have been cleaned, and the weather is currently well behaved. The harvest should resume building momentum toward Easter. We are optimistic that both Oxnard and the Irvine districts will provide seasonable volumes before Santa Maria and Watsonville start serious production.