ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997               TAG: 9701240061
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-8  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: MIAMI
SOURCE: Associated Press

FLORIDA FREEZE CHILLS SHOPPERS HUGE INCREASE IN PRODUCE COSTS HEADED OUR WAY

Green beans, squash, sweet corn and tomatoes could more than double in price in the some areas of the nation by next week because a freeze in South Florida caused nearly $300 million in crop damage.

``Prices for fresh vegetables are going to skyrocket,'' Dade County Farm Bureau spokeswoman Kathleen Glynn said Thursday.

Green beans, which were 89 cents a pound, are up to $1.99 at some Miami supermarkets, and tomatoes, which had sold for 80 cents a pound, are expected to hit $3.

``I'm just cutting down, not buying them until the prices go down,'' shopper Keith Storch grumbled at a supermarket in Miami.

Temperatures that plunged to 24 degrees Sunday destroyed an estimated 85 percent of Dade County's green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, hot peppers and sweet peppers, and 75 percent of the sweet corn. Only 40 percent of the tomatoes were lost, because farmers sprayed them to form an insulating coat of ice.

Dade County's fields are the top supplier of winter vegetables. Normally, crops in Mexico and Arizona can pick up some of the slack, but they were badly damaged by an earlier freeze.

Wholesale prices were rising even before the latest freeze. Agricultural experts said it is only a matter of days before shoppers outside Florida see the difference.

Squash, for example, went from $15 to $30 Thursday for a 30-pound box on the wholesale market.

Sweet corn went from $12 to $16 for a crate of four dozen ears; that price is expected to double in the next few weeks.

Winter vegetable crop damage has reached almost $300 million statewide, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford said - the most severe crop loss this decade.

Farmers complained they didn't get enough warning of Saturday's temperature drop. Crawford called for the return of the national agricultural forecast, which was cut last year in a federal budget squeeze, or the creation of a state-run service.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Robert Moehling stocks corn Thursday at his 
          vegetable and fruit stand in Homestead, Fla.