July 11, 2008

California Summer Fruit

Market Snapshot*

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

Yellow-flesh peaches: 25-pound cartons, loose, sizes 54-56, mostly $9.05-11.05; sizes 60-64, mostly $8.05-9.05.

Blackamber plums: 28-pound cartons, loose, sizes 30-35, $16.05-18.05; sizes 60-65, $8.05-10.05.

Yellow-flesh nectarines: 25-pound cartons, loose, sizes 48-50, mostly $10.05-12.05; sizes 54-56, mostly $8.05-10.05.

Strawberries: Flats of eight 1-pound containers, medium-large, mostly $7.90.

Grapes: 18-pound lugs, bagged, $15.10-16.10.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, July 7, 2008.

The Shipping Scene

California's summer fruit program is off to a good start, and grower-shippers say things will only get better as the season progresses.

"So far, the quality has been very, very good," said Bob Maxwell, sales representative at Kingsburg Orchards, Kingsburg.

As the weather gets warmer, sizes will get even larger and sugar levels will continue to rise, he said.

Kingsburg started shipping about three months ago out of the Kettleman City area.

"We're shipping everything," Maxwell said. That includes peaches, nectarines, white-flesh peaches, white-flesh nectarines, pluots, plums, apriums, galaxy peaches, flat white nectarines and red plums.

Maxwell expected heavy volume and good quality throughout July and August.

He also expected to do more business locally, just as grower-shippers in places like Georgia and North Carolina likely will attract nearby customers looking to control freight costs.

Customers on the East Coast should be able to count on extremely high-quality fruit from California because shippers won't want to risk having a load rejected at today's high freight rates, he said.

Unlike many of today's peach and nectarine grower-shippers, Kingsburg does not offer a preconditioning program that preripens fruit to specified levels.

"Our thought process is, the way to have good fruit is to grow better fruit in the first place," Maxwell said.

The company has an aggressive nursery program and grows "proprietary varieties we can control," he said.

Crown Jewels Marketing & Distribution LLC, Fresno, started shipping out of Coachella in mid-April and out of the northern districts the first week of May, said Steve Poindexter, managing partner.

Crown Jewels will have peaches, plums and pluots through October and nectarines to mid-September.

The company has experienced significant growth in its specialty plum category.

"Over the years, consumers have been turned off by plums," Poindexter said, so the company came up with a half-dozen varieties that offer high brix and lean heavy toward red flesh.

The company expects to have a 15% increase in summer fruit volume this season. About 25% of its peaches and nectarines are preconditioned.

This marks the second outstanding tree fruit season in a row in California.

"We've had two vintage years back to back, which is amazing," said Dale Janzen, industry relations director for the California Tree Fruit Agreement, Reedley.

There were plenty of chill hours in winter and a dry spring that was not too hot or too cold, he said.

Volume is expected to be up slightly on peaches to about 23.8 million packages compared to 23.6 million last year. Nectarine also should be up slightly from 21.1 million packages last year to 21.3 million this year.

Plums will see the biggest increase - 11.5 million packages in 2008 compared to 10.7 million in 2007.

On the grape side, Crown Jewels has finished its program in Mexico and has transitioned to Central California, where it will ship perlette, thompson, sugraone, red flame, crimson, red globe, autumn royal, princess and summer royal varieties.

Grapes will be available out of storage until as late as mid-December.

Poindexter said grapes are enjoying "great quality and a great growing season" this year.

Most strawberry growers in California got off to a late start this year. As of last week, the Salinas-Watsonville district had shipped only 25.7 million flats this year compared to 28.7 million a year ago, according to the California Strawberry Commission, Watsonville.

At Driscoll Strawberry Associates, Watsonville, Tim Youmans, national retail sales manager, said the deal now is in a three- to four-week peak that will last through July.

Ample supplies still should be available through August, he said.

"We've had some very, very hot weather," Youmans said, and that was followed by low temperatures that caused plants to temporarily shut down.

The plants already are coming back, and appear to be in good condition.

"In general, quality has been very good despite these odd events," he 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.)