Valentine’s Day Strawberry Impact

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV): Valentine's Day is almost here and strawberries are a big staple. The atmospheric rivers and flooding damaged a lot of strawberry crops on the Central Coast back in January.

Humberto Vargas work at his family's business, Miranda farms in Salinas, growing strawberries. The rain struck the strawberry production and the loss was big.

"Close to 3-4 acres of crops was completely damaged in our farm." said Vargas.

Vargas couldn't work for three weeks because of the the damaged crops caused by the aftermath of the rain, which made his family's business lose a lot of money.

"Each acre we spend 15-20k, so we lost 3 acres," said Vargas. "We have to start from the beginning, and put that money again so we can start the production."

The California Strawberry Commission estimated 200-million dollars in losses in the strawberry industry. For that reason, florist business owner, Magdalena Bautista, said it's been hard to find strawberries, so she's looking for new avenues to sell for Valentine's Day.

"Strawberries are very expensive and you can barely find them," said Bautista. "So we are doing beautiful flower bouquets, and instead of putting strawberries, we're putting chocolates instead."

Despite the losses incurred by Mother Nature, Vargas said he was grateful for the rain because that will help his crops in the long term.