FEAST OR FAMINE

Get ready to see huge amounts of especially sweet strawberries on grocery store shelves - and at rock bottom prices.

The sporadic shortages of berries the past month should abruptly turn into bumper crops in weeks ahead, grocers say, illustrating how unusually cold weather a month ago continues to wreak havoc on strawberry farms.

Time will tell, but Florida could have such a sudden oversupply of berries that farmers say they might have to leave berries to rot in the fields.

"We could go from having nothing to plentiful in a short period," said Ted Campbell, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association in Dover.

Here's why.

Each year, farmers plant a range of berry varieties at different times, so they always have berries growing and turning ripe enough to pick each week through spring.

This was an unusually cold winter in Florida. Hard freezes in January damaged crops and delayed harvesting. Publix, Sweetbay and other major chains all saw days when they had no berries to put on shelves.

Carl Grooms of Fancy Farms Inc. says he's 50 percent below his normal volume compared with last year - down 200,000 boxes.

Even when the freeze ended, Florida saw several weeks of cold and cloudy weather through February, which delayed the growth of those early plants that normally would be the first ones in line for picking.

That cold seemed to end with relatively warm and sunny weather last week. The result: Plants of all varieties are suddenly maturing at once. Too many. And sweeter than normal.

The cold slowed growth in plants that normally produce berries in 35 days. Instead, many plants took 45 days to mature, giving the berries more time to produce the sugar inside.

"When you bite into these, you're going to notice a big difference," Grooms said.

But sweetness doesn't automatically translate into profits. Prices could collapse if too many berries come on the market at once. Berry prices have already run up dramatically.

Prices range dramatically, based on long-term contracts and the spot market. But a flat of berries with eight plastic cartons now sells for about $24 in Chicago wholesale markets, and $25 in Philadelphia, said Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

That's nearly double last year's price of $13 per flat.

Compton said shipments of Florida tomatoes are also down, about 30 percent compared with last year. She has seen similar drops in harvests in beans and other crops.

If berry prices fall far enough, Grooms said he can't afford to hire more workers and trucks to harvest the unusually high volume, meaning he may have to leave berries to rot in the field. Hopefully, the big grocery chains do extra marketing to let shoppers know good berries are suddenly available, he said.

"We just have to hope the price is decent enough for us to afford to pick them," Grooms said. "You can't load up a bunch of trucks and give away money with each one."