Weather is to blame for the strawberry shortage that’s affecting consumers nationwide.
The problem has been especially severe along the central California coastline and Mexico where historic rains followed by cold weather have hampered the strawberry harvest, said Tony Melton, area horticulture agent with the Clemson Extension Service.
Though production out west has slowed, Florida is preparing to enter its strawberry growing season, which should boost supplies.
As for the long term, the future of strawberries remains fuzzy.
The South Carolina harvest doesn’t arrive until spring and with the historic October floods here in the Palmetto State, it remains to be seen what impact saturated farms will have on the strawberry yield, said Blake Lanford, regional lead agent with Clemson Extension.
Lanford said the flood itself didn’t necessarily impede strawberry planting as it did with soybean and peanut fields. But persistent rains in the weeks following the flood delayed the strawberry planting process, which could shorten the growing season.
At the very least, that could translate into lower yields. It could also convince some growers to abandon strawberries altogether in favor of more profitable crops, Lanford said.
