Market Update

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was reporting the following prices on California strawberries:

Orange County, San Diego, Coachella: Flats of eight 1-pound containers of medium-large strawberries, $22-24.

Oxnard: Flats of eight 1-pound containers of medium-large strawberries, mostly $24; organic, $32-34; flats of 12 1-pint containers, mostly $26-28; flats of four 2-pound containers, mostly $24.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Jan. 6.

The Shipping Scene

Picking already is under way in Southern California strawberry fields, and although the state's acreage is expected to be less than last year's, production should remain strong this season, according to the California Strawberry Commission.

Watsonville-based California Giant Inc. started "dabbling" in strawberries before Christmas, said Cindy Jewell, director of marketing.

"The weather has been warm and the fields look great," she said. "There haven't really been any real adverse conditions (in Southern California) yet."

Significant volume still is several weeks off, though.

The year will be an interesting one for California Giant, Jewell said, because the company is growing the san andreas variety in Southern California for the first time.

San andreas was developed for the northern part of the state, where the crop comes on later. It's not a "short-day" variety typically grown in the southern districts during the winter. However, it is a hardy berry that usually tolerates rain well, Jewell said.

"Typically, it's a good early and long producer," she said. "We'll see what happens."

About 75% of the company's Southern California volume is san andreas, the rest is the region's more traditional ventana variety.

Oxnard-based Boskovich Farms Inc. started walkthroughs in mid-December and was picking on a regular basis for the first time this week, said sales manager Russ Widerburg.

"We've picked more fruit this year compared to (the same time) last year," he said.

The strawberry market is strong, in part because of cold weather in Florida.

"That's increased some of the East Coast demand for us out here," he said.

Trays of eight 1-pound containers of California strawberries were selling for $24.90 Jan. 6, Widerburg said.

"Quality has been very nice," he added. "There is good-sized fruit."

There was some concern about the potential for rain long-term, but Widerburg said bad weather can help keep the market strong.

Demand for strawberries certainly exceeded supply this week, said David Cook, sales manager at Deardorff Family Farms in Oxnard.

Deardorff started picking unusually early this year - the last week of November - because of favorable fall weather, Cook said.

The company is geared to be early, he said, and with early plantings and early varieties, "everything clicked" this year.

The excellent weather brought on excellent quality and good sizing, he added.

Conditions exist for an El Niño pattern, which would bring heavy rain, but so far the weather is not reacting to those conditions, he said.

Cook expects the market to remain strong at least until Florida shipments get back up to speed.

Deardorff's acreage will be similar to last year's, with the company shipping half palomar and half ventana varieties.

Strawberry acreage in California is expected to hit 36,943 acres this year, a drop of 1,692 acres from last year, according to the California Strawberry Commission in Watsonville.

"Although the acreage is down, we don't expect production to be down the same percentage, as many of the newer varieties have a greater per-acre yield than some of the varieties that have been in production for a number of years," said Carolyn O'Donnell, communications director.

"As always, year to year production is dependent on the weather," she added.

As of Dec. 26, the state's growers had produced 174.4 million trays in 2009 compared to 152.8 million for the same time in 2008.

"Once again, we had a record-breaking year for California strawberry volume," O'Donnell said.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

Resources

January 8, 2010