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Watsonville-Salinas:
Weather has been beautiful in this growing region, with temperatures primarily in the 70s-80s with mostly sunny skies beginning in the morning and carrying on through the afternoon. While weather is favorable along the coast, our bushberry crops are receiving more heat as they are further inland where temperatures are a bit higher. Our blackberry and raspberry grower is putting shade cloths on hoops to help maintain freshness and quality, and avoid red cell damages through this heat. Overall, strawberry quality is good - better in the morning hours, but good overall. Conventional counts are holding at around 18 - mostly 20-22, while organics are 26-32 and should remain this size through the end of the season. The biggest issue we can report at this time is labor - as back-to-school approached this season and schools continue to go back in session, more and more personnel are missing Saturdays and Mondays. We anticipate this worsening industry-wide through the remainder of the season.
Santa Maria:
Weather has been similar to Salinas-Watsonville with temperatures mostly in the 70s-8os and sunny skies. The weekend may drop slightly into the low-mid 70s with nighttime lows in the mid-50s. We started picking our Monterey fall crop this week and counts are 12-15 - we are seeing some crooked tips and defects here and there, but this is common in an early-mud crop and should clear with a few passes in the fields, and volumes should steadily increase week by week. The Portola is 20-22 count and should also increase in size shortly - this crop currently has a lot of flowers and green fruit as well. Our organic fall crop should kick off in the next few weeks and counts should start off in the 20s. Labor is flakey just as it is in our Watsonville-Salinas region as well.
Blueberries:
Oregon:
We are still receiving steady supply of blueberries out of Oregon. Quality has been good across the board - we are expecting steady production through the beginning of September. There are still some later picks on mid-season varieties like Legacy, Liberty, Cargo, and Calypso this week. Some larger growers have started their first pick on late season varieties like Last Call, Elliot, and Aurora. There are a few varieties with some softer fruit here and there, but we are working diligently to inspect all arrivals and pack fruit that is in grade.
British Columbia:
Quality has been a variable out of B.C., with some issues with soft fruit. Volume is declining, and growers are starting the Elliot variety this week.
Mexico:
Soon to kick off within the next few weeks, our Mexico growing region has great quality among bushberries - with blues firm, large, and having excellent bloom at this time. Raspberries are delayed due to rain in our various Central Mexico growing regions, but we are seeing good flowering and green fruit, which is expected to continue to increase into September. Our Mexico strawberry crop should be in production come October - more photos to come as the season progresses.
For up-to-date weather conditions in all of our growing regions, click on the region below. Wunderground.com is our go-to weather resource for fast and reliable weather updates.
Our Fresh Start: Back to School - California Giant College promotion launches tomorrow! You can meet our four berry student persona's below.
We are excited to allow our college-age consumers to identify with there berry persona - The CEO, The Social Butterfly, The Athlete and The Creative Genius - and with that, being able to effectively communicate and nurture this demographic based on their persona and where they are enrolled in college moving forward. This end of 'peak-season' promotion has proven to be successful the last two years during back-to-school, and we look forward to primarily targeting students ages 18-25 this year and encouraging quick, easy and nutritious dorm-ready recipes while giving both our berries and students a fun persona to identify with. Follow along as the promotion kicks off tomorrow and lasts through September 30th.
