Hurricane Hilary led to a massive loss of grapes at California vineyards

More than a third of the estimated crop of California table grapes was lost when Hilary struck the area right around the time of peak harvest season.

Transcript

00:00 Let's talk about when Hurricane Hillary moved over Southern California last month because

00:05 it brought a lot of heavy rainfall with it, plus some flooding.

00:09 It happened just as California's table grape vineyards were at risk for a peak harvest.

00:15 The California Table Grape Commission calls the damage to the grapes devastating and heartbreaking.

00:21 Joining us from California Table Grape Commission is Ian LeMay.

00:26 Ian, can you tell us how Hillary impacted the grapes?

00:30 Yes, well, it's a pleasure to be with you today, this afternoon.

00:37 Thank you for highlighting the impacts associated with Hurricane Hillary.

00:42 The reality is that when California growers get rain during this time, peak harvest, rain

00:51 and ripe fruit don't mix.

00:54 And unfortunately, in the primary areas of California where we grow California table

01:00 grapes and California stone fruit, we received an inch to two inches of rain that led to

01:08 some significant crop loss across the Central Valley.

01:12 We are still doing our best to bring as much of that crop off the vine and off the tree

01:19 and back to the consumer, but this was an unfortunate event.

01:25 You were able to harvest some of those crops, but there was actually a large percentage

01:29 that weren't able to be harvested.

01:32 What exactly were the losses that we're talking about here?

01:40 So the formal assessment coming out of the commission and thus the industry was 25 million

01:46 boxes or equal to about 35% of the estimated crop.

01:53 Make no mistake, there still is a crop out there.

01:56 Historically, over 60% of California table grapes comes off the vine after Labor Day.

02:03 And so we're going to do our best to continue to harvest throughout the remainder of the

02:08 fall, but definitely a significant loss nonetheless.

02:13 Ian LeMay with the California Table Grape Commission, thank you for joining us.

02:19 Thank you.

02:20 Of course.