Food: The Year the Bees Got Grounded

The price of canned fruit is going up in supermarkets throughout the U.S. Reason: California, which produces 40% of the U.S.’s fruit, had a wet, cold, late spring that has resulted in a disastrous autumn.

Heavy spring rains affected fruit formation, hailstorms bruised fruit that had formed, and cold weather grounded the bees that must pollinate some fruits. Explains University of California Pomologist James A. Beutel: “Spring temperatures remained below 60°, which is too cold for good cross-pollination. Bees won’t fly unless the temperature is above 60°.”

Because of the weather and its complications, harvest yields have slumped in almost every variety of California fruit. Bartlett-pear output is off two-thirds, to an estimated 104,000 tons this year. Apples will be down from last year’s 297,000 tons harvested to about 192,000 tons. Peaches have slipped from 839,000 tons to 690,000 tons. Grapes, of which California produces 90% of the national total, will be off about 18% this year, to 2,800,000 tons. The weather did more than merely slow fruit formation. Peaches ripened as much as three weeks late, then developed a condition called split pits. The fruit in such cases is more costly to process because canneries have to run it through twice.

The effects of the bad growing season have rippled all through California’s multimillion agricultural empire. Late fruits reached canneries at the same time as on-schedule tomatoes, causing so much of a jam that a great deal of fruit spoiled while it was waiting to be canned. Farmers, with their orchards maturing late, had no schoolchildren available to help harvest the crops, and the supply of temporary Mexican labor has been reduced since the law covering the use of braceros was tightened three years ago. Governor Reagan angered unions by permitting convicts to help with the harvest.

So far, canned-pear prices have risen 50%, and other fruits are increasing from 25% to 33%. This winter there may also be a shortage of such delicacies as canned fruit cocktail. If so, housewives can blame it on the grounded bees.