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Surprise! California cold snap is good news for local kiwi farmers

California Kiwifruit Commission

The ongoing cold snap hitting California and the Central Coast is expected to hit its peak on New Year's Day in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Monterey Counties.

Low temperatures are forecast to drop into the upper teens and low twenties in some of the Central Coast's inland valleys.

While a cold spell like this spells trouble for vulnerable commercial crops like citrus and avocados, one local crop actually thrives on the cold: kiwifruit.

Bob Criswell runs Mallard Lake Ranch in Nipomo and says people often think of Kiwi as a tropical fruit, and it's not.

"It's the opposite of what everybody's impression of kiwi actually is," said Criswell. "The vines just go dormant, they just need the rest, they need to have that downtime from producing, just like grapes."

Criswell says last year's hot fall and winter was terrible for his Kiwi crop this season, reducing his yield by roughly 80 percent.

He says the local kiwi harvest runs about parallel with grapes, but the fruit has a long shelf life and can last well into the winter months for sale at local farmers markets.

According to the California Kiwifruit Commission, the most common variety grown in the state is the Hayward, known for their large size and high sugar content. The vast majority are grown in the San Joaquin Valley, with about a third grown in the upper Sacramento Valley.

The Central Coast only supplies a fraction of the overall commercial crop for the state.