Santa Maria Update
This fall berry season has been a bit of a wild ride so far. We have had some weather as you know that kicked off this new season causing some early disruptions in volume and now volume continues to remain a bit tight. Throughout, fruit color and flavor remains very good.
We continue to experience foggy mornings with highs staying close to 70 degrees with night time lows down in the 50’s. We will see a nice long season continue here but don’t anticipate a real peak to the weekly numbers. As you can see from the photos, there is still a lot of fruit coming on these plants.
Our QC team is diligent with inspections to ensure best quality in the box throughout the fall program.
Oxnard Update
Our fields here are progressing nicely and the fruit is coming on schedule. While volume is still tight as we wait for peak numbers to hit later this month, the fruit looks great! Quality and flavor is excellent and we look forward to weekly numbers continuing to increase here.
Weather is cooperating with mild day time highs in the 70’s and night time lows in the upper 50’s. Like Santa Maria, our QC team is focused on ensuring best quality in every box and we are looking forward to a nice long fall program here.
Strawberry Industry Snapshot
When looking at the total California strawberry volume year-to-date compared to 2021, we are ahead by over 12 million trays, with each region coming in ahead of last year. However, the week ending 9/24 the total state weekly volume only reached 2.1 million trays which was less than half of normal volume for this time of year. Last week we rebounded a bit but were still well behind weekly volume for the same time last year as a state. As weather continues to be a factor, we will keep you informed on how this season progresses for all industry members.
