The Closure of restaurants destroyed lettuce fields in the US

In lots of states of the US, many activities have been restricted due to the measures taken to fight the spread of the Coronavirus. Because of a cut in the distribution chain, many lettuce producers decided to destroy hundreds of hectares of lettuce.

Vessey and Company, Inc. in California is going through the same experience. Vessey, the president of the company, said that he had lost all of his efforts, and it is excruciating.

According to the producer, the decision to destroy the crop was not an easy one. Still, he could not maintain paying for the labor, packaging, and storage of a harvest that distributors were not buying. The producer had to fire between 150 and 200 temporary workers two weeks ago.

Vessey owns 350 acres of lettuce (about 140 hectares), with a production value of around US $ 1.46 million. Before his distributor ceased taking shipments, he still had 150 hectares of lettuce to harvest. Vessey said that there were more than a million dollars left on the field.

A decrease in the food supply will soon follow crop destruction 

As farmers make the difficult decision to run machines over crops to destroy them, David Magana, a senior analyst at Rabobank, said consumers would soon feel the drop in the food supply.

The decrease in supplies will be notable in the coming months. Prices are also going to increase, Magana said.

Vessey’s case is not the only one. Other producers in California face the same difficulty, and some have already decided to destroy part of the crops of the season. California is the leading producing state of fruits and vegetables in the United States. In 2013, the state accounted for 71 % of the US head lettuce production, followed by Arizona state, providing approximately 29 %.

Cory Lunde, senior director of communications for the Western Producers Association, said that the impact has been significant. Nearly $ 285 million in plant products were allocated to restaurants, schools, and hotels before the drop in activity.

The harvest period of most of the production is between November and April. In the summer months, vegetable production moves north to the Salinas Valley in central California.

Crop destruction occurs when food banks in the United States register a higher demand for food precisely in the face of increasing unemployment due to the effect of the coronavirus.