Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Price
$/carton
Shipments
Tons
180
10
9
160
FDA announcement
8
140
7
120
Price
6
100
5
Shipments
80
4
60
3
40
2
20
1
0
0
4
11
18
25
2
October
September
Figure 22.5.
Fresh bunched spinach shipments: September-October, 2006.
Source:
USDA—Agricultural Marketing Service.
packinghouse compliance with good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to reduce the
chance that their businesses will be associated with an outbreak.
Economic Impacts of the Spinach Outbreak
After the FDA's announcement on September 14 not to eat bagged spinach (followed
the next day by the announcement not to eat any fresh spinach) there was no U.S.
spinach on the market for 5 days until after the FDA announced on September 19 that
all spinach from outside California was safe to eat. Figure 22.5 shows a timeline of
bulk spinach shipments in September-October 2006 (USDA has shipment data only
for bulk spinach, which is estimated at 10-25% of total fresh-market spinach). Data
do not show shipments from outside of California that might have resumed after
September 19. On September 22, the FDA announced that spinach from California,
except Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito, was safe, and small sales resumed. On
September 29, the FDA announced that “spinach on the shelves is as safe as it was
before this event.” At that stage there were no restrictions on any spinach, except for
the four fi elds that the FDA was still investigating, and bulk spinach sales began to
grow slowly.
Retail sales data show a more complete picture of the impact on the sector's sales
and loss in economic value (Table 22.3). Retail data are available from Information
Resources, Inc. and FreshLook Marketing. The data cover sales by major retailers but
not “big box” stores. The food-service market is very important for leafy greens but
no data were available. Members of the leafy greens industry reported that the food-
service market recovered faster than the retail market. In 2005, the year before the
