BUGS: WHITEFLY DAMAGING PRODUCE

It's going to cost more to put together your Christmas fruit basket or graze at a salad bar this winter.

A tiny insect called the poinsettia whitefly is chewing its way through millions of dollars worth of winter produce in California. Its over-indulgence will be felt nationwide by the end of the year, produce officials warn.

Agriculture officials in California are calling the whitefly infestation the "AIDS of California agriculture" because no means of controlling the insect has been found.

California is often called the "Salad Bowl" of the United States because about 90 percent of the nation's fall and winter produce is grown in the state, including the Imperial Valley, where the greatest damage has occurred so far.

Frank Stinnett, who owns and operates Stinnett Wholesale Produce Co. in Cape Girardeau, says the impact of the whitefly infestation will show up here in mid-December as shortages send prices higher.

Stinnett said brokers on St. Louis' "produce row" told him last week the price of lettuce could go to $3 a head by mid-December.

He noted that during late October, a 24-head case of lettuce sold on produce row for between $7-10. By Nov. 6, the price was up to $24 a case. It could go as high as $40 a case.

Agriculture officials said by mid-November, the whitefly had caused about $90 million in damage and crop loss to produce in California. There were estimates the damage could go as high as $200 million unless some way is found to eliminate the pest.

The poinsettia whitefly is actually a strain of a tiny, pesticide-resistant insect called the sweet potato whitefly, which has plagued produce growers for years. Scientists believe the little bug may have originated in either Iraq or Pakistan. It first appeared in the United States in Florida in 1986 on poinsettia plants.

The "superbug," as it is being called in California, feeds on growing plants in the produce farms of California's fertile valleys, and in Arizona and Mexico.

The bug's greatest damage has been in the Imperial Valley, where it has already destroyed or heavily damaged melons, lettuce, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. The insect also has a ravenous appetite for squash, citrus, table grapes, sugar beets, tomatoes and cabbage. The insect does its damage by sucking the juices out of the vegetables.

"It's coming at the worst possible time, around Christmas," said Stinnett. "But it will be worse in January. I don't look for any lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower to come out of southern California by then. We'll probably get some produce from Arizona and Texas, but it won't be enough to meet consumer demand, and the quality may not be as good."

Western produce growers claim that despite the whitefly, there will be winter vegetable crops in stores this winter, but Norm Hitch, produce manager for Del Farms Food Store in Cape Girardeau, says that's not the problem.

"It's the old law of supply and demand," he said. "When supply is low and demand high, the price goes up."

Hitch said he's already seen the impact of the whitefly on his produce shelves. Cantaloupes and melons that once sold for 99 cents each are now selling at $3 each, if he can get them.

Hitch said wholesale prices have also gone up for iceberg lettuce, but Del Farms, like most other food stores, will try to absorb some of the increase to remain competitive.

An employee in the produce department at Schnuck's in Cape Girardeau said the price of iceberg head lettuce was around a dollar a head, but prices for the exotic varieties of leaf lettuce are up sharply, as is the price of other California-grown produce.

In the central Joaquin Valley of southern California, a 24-count case of iceberg lettuce sold wholesale at $20 earlier this month. Produce industry observers now predict that as a result of the whitefly infestation and reduced acreage caused by water shortages in southern California, the wholesale price of lettuce could go to $50-$60 case. That would translate into a retail price of $3 head in the supermarket by early next year.

Stinnett said prices for California melons and cantaloupes are now so high that many of the restaurants he services have quit buying them for their salad bars. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that melons were so scarce in some U.S. cities that the government cannot calculate an established price.

Some supermarket chains are already considering whether to begin posting signs in their produce sections to explain the sharp price increases in produce to their customers.

The skyrocketing prices are also expected to hit hard at the fast-food and restaurant industry, where the price of lettuce can account for one to two percent of expenses.

Some analysts say the rising produce prices could play havoc with those fast-food chains and restaurants that have been discounting their menu prices. Nearly all of them feature well-stocked salad bars with items that will likely become very expensive and in short supply by early next year.

Meanwhile, a frantic search is under way to find a way to combat the whitefly. Scientists say the whitefly is particularly hard to control because it seeks shelter under the leaves of plants where it is out of reach of insecticides that work on contact.

It's believed most insecticides are not effective against the whitefly because it developed a resistance to them in U.S. greenhouses where it lived on the poinsettia plants.

Hitch says the whitefly devastation is a double blow to America.

"First, it's going to hit hard just at Christmas, but also, the decade of the '90s was supposed to be an increased awareness on health foods," said Hitch. "Everyone was becoming a lot more conscious about eating healthy foods such as lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other produce. This whitefly thing is really going to have a major impact on the health food trend."