Longtime resident and shopper Vida Bowling has been coming to the Wednesday market since it started.
“I have seen a big increase in the prices,” she said. “But we’ve got to support our farmers. They are trying so hard traveling long distances and working with expensive machinery and they never give up.”
Even with the commitment of shoppers, some farmers are eventually forced to go against their will and raise prices.
“We are seeing a lower profit margin,” Brantley said.“If it gets to cost more to get the stuff down here, than you are going to see a slacking in profits.”
Pritchett Farms is currently near the end of their fall season and they are trying to keep the same prices they have had for the past six months.
“But when we start our summer fruits and vegetable, then we will have to go up in prices,” Brantley said.
While gas prices may be a current obstacle for farmers, the 2007 winter freeze has cost many people the chance to even show up.
“Today is not as busy as it usually is,” Bowling said. “There are a lot of empty spaces where there used to be farmers that had all their crop freeze.”
According to reports done by the California Citrus Mutual, the below freezing temperature of last winter destroyed more than $480 million worth of California citrus and damaged at least 50 percent of the total citrus crop throughout the state.
Looking toward the future, farmers like Brantley have no idea what it will take to raise prices and keep a constant profit.
“We will look at what the price for gas is, and we will look at what the trend is, because at some point it is going to top out,” he said. “If it’s going to become so expensive that people will stop buying produce and a surplus will be created, then prices will have to come down a bit or at least level off, and only then we can set our prices accordingly.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 6, 2008. Read the original PDF.