December 14, 2020

Strawberries

Oxnard: 

Harvest: Crews have begun to walk the fields and will pick about once a week until volume picks up.

Quality: The fruit looks very nice; full color, good sheen and shape.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 14-16 ct

Santa Maria:

Spring Crop Harvest: Plants are coming on strong with the first harvest expected in mid-January.

Quality: Excellent quality with nice shape, flavor and color. Crews are doing a great job sorting out the little pin rot and freeze damaged fruit they see.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 18-20-22 / Organic: 20-24 *varies by ranch and variety

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality, size, firmness and taste with some green shoulders.

Volume: Volume is on an upward trend for the next few weeks.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 22-28

Florida:

Quality: Plant health looks good. Fruit is grading out premium with some minor bruising and occasional botrytis, but easily working through it. 
The weekend brought some unexpected light rain which kept growers on their toes. Crews power-picked to salvage all harvestable fruit and maintain dry packs.  

Volume: Growers are very positive about the outlook of this year’s season.

Pack Count: 16-24 / 28-32 *varies by ranch and variety

Blueberries

Mexico

Quality: Good quality and bloom with size between 12-14 mm and some larger fruit up to 18 mm.

Volume: Fall crop is in peak production and will continue until March pending any frost event. Steady volume over the next few weeks. Spring crop started harvesting with light volume and a lot of flowers on the plants.

South America:

Quality: Good quality with good bloom and size.

Volume: Chilean volume increasing, expecting peak Chilean volumes to arrive early January.

Promotional Opportunities: Promotable volumes are expected weeks 52 through week 9 for both conventional and organic Chilean blueberries.

Oxnard

Harvest: First pick of this Organic crop will be in early January.

Raspberries

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality with great shape, size, firmness and flavor. Crews sorting out unevenly ripe and broken fruit.

Volume: Steady volume for the next 4 weeks.

Blackberries 

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality with good color. Wind damage being seen on some of the fruit.

Volume: Steady volume.