Quality issues emerge as Salinas and Santa Maria hit peak lettuce production

Markon Cooperative BB #:123315 released this From the Fields report July 16, 2026:

As we move deeper into the summer growing season, warmer temperatures, extended daylight hours, and elevated humidity, continue to impact crops throughout California’s lettuce production regions of Salinas and Santa Maria.

While overall supplies remain available, the combination of rapid growth and environmental stress is creating quality challenges for green leaf, iceberg and romaine lettuce.

These challenges include, but are not limited to:

• Warm, humid weather and longer daylight hours accelerating crop growth, resulting in increased long core/seeder development, and internal burn/fog burn in green leaf, iceberg and romaine
• Insect pressure remains elevated during the summer months, adding stress to crops and increasing quality variability
• Inconsistent weights and reduced yields resulting from aggressive trimming and culling of defective product by harvesting crews
• As suppliers work to balance both weight and quality requirements, Markon First Crop (MFC) specifications become harder to achieve, leading to an increase in Markon Best Available (MBA) substitutions

Markon inspectors will continue to closely monitor field conditions, supplier performance, and harvest trends to ensure the highest possible quality while balancing seasonal realities. As always, keeping product cold throughout the supply chain is key to protecting quality and maximizing shelf-life.

Please contact your Markon Account Manager for more information.