{"id":141674,"date":"2026-02-03T06:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141674\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:07:09","slug":"south-florida-farmers-warn-that-freezing-temperatures-could-lead-to-higher-prices-in-the-market-as-they-brace-for-crop-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/141674\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida farmers warn that freezing temperatures could lead to higher prices in the market as they brace for crop losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Florida farmers are assessing damage after freezing temperatures<\/a> swept across the region early Monday morning, with growers warning that the cold could soon lead to higher prices for fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

At Kern Carpenter Nursery, owner Kern Carpenter said nearly 20% of his tomato crop was damaged by the overnight freeze.<\/p>\n

“The wind died, and it got cold really fast. We did the best we could and still got burned,” Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

Carpenter is not alone. Sam Accursio, a green bean farmer in South Florida, shared a video with CBS News Miami showing frost covering his plants just before sunrise.<\/p>\n

“These plants were just like an ice cube. You could go up to them, and the leaves were crunchy,” Accursio said.<\/p>\n

Accursio and his workers began watering crops before 1 a.m. in an effort to prevent frost damage, but hundreds of plants were still affected.<\/p>\n

With another cold night in the forecast, farmers are preparing for more potential losses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“They’re saying upper 30s, low 40s. We’re hoping we don’t have to crank up anything again,” Carpenter said.<\/p>\n

Carpenter added that excess watering can also harm crops, creating another challenge for farmers trying to protect their fields.<\/p>\n

At Robert Is Here<\/a>, a popular South Florida fruit market established in 1959, shoppers may soon feel the impact.<\/p>\n

Asked whether prices could increase, owner Robert Moehling Jr. said consumers should expect changes.<\/p>\n

“100% you are going to feel it in the market. With the frost, it can cause damage, and having continuous days of frost makes it worse,” he said.<\/p>\n

Accursio says green bean prices are especially vulnerable.<\/p>\n

“In this particular case, the lack of product will probably drive the price up,” he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the losses, some farmers say South Florida could help offset shortages caused by freeze damage in North and Central Florida.<\/p>\n

Carpenter said he has already seen tomato prices rise and believes additional cold could make things worse.<\/p>\n

“I would think in the next few weeks the prices would go up,” he said.<\/p>\n

Farmers say they will need 48 to 72 hours to fully assess the extent of the damage and are still bracing for the impact of another cold night.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Florida farmers are assessing damage after freezing temperatures swept across the region early Monday morning, with growers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3204,28,30,29,807,26929],"class_list":{"0":"post-141674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-south-florida","13":"tag-winter-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}