Freeze in Florida could chill shoppers purchasing fresh produce - The Scranton Times

Freeze in Florida could chill shoppers purchasing fresh produce - The Scranton Times

Florida's lingering freeze could chill grocery shoppers in the fresh produce aisle.

Prices are jumping quickly for an array of vegetables as Florida copes with a record stretch of subfreezing weather.

"The short-term and long-term effects are going to be severe," predicted Paul Holmes, general manager of DiMare Fresh Inc., a Florida-based produce wholesaler that has a distribution site in South Scranton. "In the very near future, you are going to see much higher (produce) prices in the retail and restaurants sectors."

The future has arrived at some supermarkets.

"We've already seen a 40 percent increase in green beans," said Joe Fasula, co-owner of Gerrity's Supermarket, which operates nine grocery stores in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. "Tomatoes are going to go out of sight. There will be significant (price) increases."

The run-up occurs after consumers paid lower prices for fresh produce in 2009, but the scope of the frost's destruction and its consumer impact remain unsettled.

"The true test will be the severity of the damage two or three weeks down the road," said Jay Rosenstein, a co-owner of William Rosenstein & Sons, a produce wholesaler on Keyser Avenue in Scranton. "Right now, the tomato market (price) is almost double from what it was two weeks ago."

The extended cold in Florida, which is the chief source of fresh vegetables on the East Coast during the winter, also will impact prices for eggplant, summer squash, bell peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, citrus fruits and other produce.

"Eggplant and zucchini prices are 30 to 40 percent higher," Mr. Rosenstein said.

"For us, it's going to mean short supplies on some commodities: green beans, Florida juice oranges, honey tangerines and strawberries," said Jo Natale, a spokeswoman for Wegmans, a Rochester, N.Y.-based grocery chain that operates supermarkets in Dickson City and Wilkes-Barre Twp.

Consumers got a break on produce at the supermarket throughout most of 2009. Fresh fruit and vegetable prices in November were down 5 percent from November 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Consumer Price Index.

"All (produce) pricing was down 5 percent or more," Mr. Holmes said. "We were paying less than we had been a year ago, but that's going to change."

Distributors and grocers have supply options, but they add costs.

"Strawberries are our biggest problem," Mr. Fasula said. "We had to go to California and Mexico for strawberries and that drives the price up significantly."

Increased orders for vegetables from Mexico will show up soon in grocery bills.

"The growers want to psyche you up to pay higher prices," he Mr. Rosenstein said.

It could be weeks before the full impact surfaces, depending on the amount of the damage to Florida's crops.

"Volumes could be off anywhere from 40 to 60 percent," Mr. Holmes said. "You are going to see (supply) disruptions in certain items."