
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995                   TAG: 9503160071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

VEGETABLES WILL COST A LOT MORE

California's fertile Salinas Valley, where half of the nation's fresh lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables are grown, is wallowing in sludge. Much of the iceberg and leaf lettuce that was ready for harvest now is rotting under stagnant brown water.

The impact at the supermarket? Expect vegetable prices to be very, very high.

Officials don't know high high yet. So far, the price tag on this storm's destruction is at $303 million and rising, said Dave Kranz, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Lost lettuce accounts for $67 million alone. Hardest hit was the artichoke crop.

Coupled with the $100 million hit California growers took from January storm damage, this is one of the worst winters on record, Kranz says.

Two dollars for a head of lettuce that used to cost a buck? Artichoke prices tripled to $3 each? Both are possible.

Future vegetable crops are also at stake. Most of the nation's vegetable seed comes from commercial nurseries in the Salinas Valley.

by CNB