June 2, 2021 McALLEN, TX — Frank Schuster has worked in the produce industry for his entire career, but he has never seen a year quite like 2020.
“I would say the last 18 months have been a series of ‘who’d of thoughts?’,” said the president of Val Verde Vegetable Co., here. Martha Arellano He said the run of bad luck started with the pandemic, which basically shut down the foodservice industry, and with that demand dried up for Val Verde’s large-size onions. Then last July Hurricane Hanna swept in from the Gulf of Mexico and interrupted his early-season plantings. And then came a late freeze in February, which caused extended widespread power outages throughout the valley.