Valentine’s Day Strawberry Impact

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV): Valentine’s Day is almost here and strawberries are a staple. Atmospheric rivers and flooding damaged many strawberry crops on the Central Coast back in January.

Humberto Vargas works for the family business, Miranda’s farm in Salinas, growing strawberries. The rain hit the strawberry industry and the losses were heavy.

“About 3-4 acres of crops were completely damaged on our farm.” Vargas said.

Vargas was unable to work for three weeks due to damaged crops caused by the effects of rain, which caused his family’s business to lose a lot of money.

“For every acre we spend 15-20 thousand, so we lost 3 acres,” Vargas said. “We have to start from the beginning and put that money back in so we can start production.”

The California Strawberry Commission has estimated the loss of the strawberry industry at $200 million. For this reason, flower business owner Magdalena Bautista said strawberries were hard to come by, so she is looking for new sales opportunities on Valentine’s Day.

“Strawberries are very expensive and you can hardly find them,” Batista said. “So we make beautiful flower bouquets, and instead of strawberries, we put chocolate.”

Despite the losses suffered by Mother Nature, Vargas said he is grateful for the rain because it will help his crop in the long run.