All regions in California have now entered production for the strawberry season, and according to Tom Smith at California Giant Berry Farms, the season is going good so far. Watsonville and Salinas kicked off only a few weeks ago but are looking to start producing their peak volumes in May. “The northern strawberry regions usually peak from the middle of May into June, and then begin to drop off at the end of June. Everything looks to be on schedule for this,” Smith says.
Good summer volumes expected
There’s been some later spring rains in California which has affected the Oxnard, Salinas, Watsonville and Santa Maria growing areas. “There was slightly slower production going into Easter, with regard to volumes. But the rains hit right at a time where it didn’t have too big of an effect. We were delayed only a day or two to clean up the fields but after that we were able to continue as usual. So far, everything is lining up perfectly for the summertime.”
He continues: “We started picking about two week ago in the Watsonville and Salinas areas. Our overall volumes will be comparable to previous years. The industry as a whole did increase its acreage in Watsonville, 1100 additional acreage was planted, so other grower/shippers from the area will likely have additional volumes this year.”
High demand for the strawberries
The strawberry demand has been higher than usual, Smith shares. “With the panic buying, the retail demand went up really high. It’s no longer at that level, but it’s still elevated over previous years. Though there’s plenty of volume so we haven’t seen the market increase. We’re just moving into our normal summertime market and the production volumes will continue to increase which means that the prices will stabilize at we move into the summer. I’d expect there to be plenty of strawberries with steady pricing going forward,” he says.
Foodservice bounces back
For Cal Giant, the amount of their strawberries that are destined for foodservice make up around 25% of their overall volumes. Smith shares that after the initial drop-off, the industry has recovered slightly. “About three weeks ago when they closed down all the restaurants and foodservice, the industry dropped down to about 10-15% of its normal capacity, but after that initial week that percentage started to increase. Right now, it’s around 30-50% of normal.”
The reason for this, according to Smith, is that many companies have adapted and found other outlets for the products. “They are changing how they are servicing the customers or who they are servicing. There are many companies that have switched to doing grocery boxes or direct home deliveries or some other type of business. The foodservice distributors and the wholesalers have even begun selling directly to retail. For us, this means that we have been selling our retail packs to the wholesalers too. It has been a challenge, but we did have the opportunity to realign some retailer packaging to the foodservice industry.”
“The foodservice industry’s ability to adapt and adjust has given them opportunities to survive a detrimental situation. Companies have expanded into new channels that they previously were unfamiliar with, and when everything is over, I believe our whole industry will look different because of this and we’ll continue to utilize these new channels. We’ve also been able to see many philanthropic acts through donations during these times and it’s showing a great side of our industry: our ability to adapt, our capacity to care for one another, and our commitment to feeding the nation,” Smith concludes.
For more information:
Kyla Oberman
California Giant Berry Farms
Tel: +1 (831) 247-4386
Email: [email protected]
https://www.calgiant.com/