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California: delayed field preparations

26/04/2017

François-Xavier Branthôme
California,
Central America
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California: delayed field preparations

Rainfall has been twice the normal level

In December and February, most of the regions in California received quantities of rain that were between one-and-a-half and three times bigger than normal. In terms of water resources, the state has been hit by chronic drought in recent years, but this has now considerably improved, to the point that the problem, which affected 96.5% of the territory on 29 March 2016, only affected 23% this year at the same date.
The downside to this situation is that weather conditions have led to delays in the development of nursery plants, with subsequent delays to transplanting operations. Due to these conditions, transplanting was expected to start, depending on the weather, around mid-March in the north of the state and early March in the south, where the rain has not had the same impact.

So it is not impossible that the start of the harvest will also be delayed and that early-season yields could be lower than planned, according to a report from the Olam company, which is based in Williams.
Olam's report even mentions an "increased supply risk" for certain products, due to "a smaller crop, shorter processing windows and weather driven crop uncertainty".

Appendices/Annexes
See also Olam report

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