Production Levels Weakened Last Year [2019 State of the Vegetable Industry]
January 16, 2019 This past year, two rounds of record-breaking wildfires occurred in the West, and two late-season hurricanes came ashore in the Southeast. In between these extreme conditions, many Eastern growers grappled with excessive rain, with the Southeast and
most of the Western U.S. in dry conditions.
Naturally, all this had an impact on harvests, as you reported to us in the 2019 State of the Vegetable Industry survey.
The number of growers reporting strong production increases took a sharp dive this year, by almost 17 percentage points. During the past two years, many growers’ production increased by more than 5% — 40.8% in 2016 and 43.8% in 2017.
This year? Only 27%.
Most of those growers shifted to reporting flat sales. A good number of growers also moved into the worst category — production down by more than 10%. It’s a reversal of promising improvements in 2017, returning to 2016 levels.
Take a look:
Thanks to these sponsors of American Vegetable Grower‘s 2019 State of the Vegetable Industry report. See more results from the 2019 State of the Vegetable Industry survey.
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