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It's the most wonderful time of the year! We are very thankful for friends in the industry like you and appreciate the relationships we have with our long-time trading partners and our new customer partnerships formed in 2016. We sincerely hope you each have happy holidays shared with family and friends.
For more information, including crop and weather reports, please scroll below.
Overall this is a time of year when volume is tight as we get through short days and cool nights, experiencing the end of the season in some regions and the beginning of the season in others. The transition is never perfect, but we will try to give you the best information we have on availability and forecasting. We do expect volume to pick up in the next couple of weeks on blueberries from Chile and blackberries from Mexico.
California: Berry volume from the various regions is light as the new crop in Oxnard begins this month and the 2016 crop finally comes to an end in northern districts this week. As you can see from the photo in Oxnard, the plants are small but there is visible red fruit already so its just a matter of time before volume really increases.
Mexico: Volume continues to ramp up as weather stabilizes in both growing regions for strawberries and blackberries. Strawberry counts continue to improve ranging between 24 – 28 depending on the growing region. Overall strawberry quality is very good with full color fruit and few white tips occurring, and firm fruit arriving at the coolers. Blackberry sizing currently consistent but slightly small, volume is expected to pick up in the coming weeks.
Florida: Volume size and color are exceptional right now with weather cooperating and counts ranging close to 15 in the I lb pack. Plants looks great and this region is ready to kick in with some nice volume.
Blueberries: The Chilean blueberry season is finally getting started and boats are arriving now. We expect volume to continue to ramp up as we continue to receive boats on a regular basis providing promotional opportunities. Quality is expected to be excellent and all pack sizes will be available.
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 Marketing team is ramping up consumer promotional campaigns for 2017 and is focused on engaging shoppers to purchase California Giant brand berries all year long. The team is also focused on connecting with your social media team so they can support your efforts to reach and influence shoppers coming into your operations ready to buy fresh berries. Please connect with us and share your social media team contact information so we can include them in our communications and share photography, recipes, free consumer offers and more. We want to help you build sales and build loyalty with relevant information and recipe solutions for busy shoppers entering your store. Contact cjewell@calgiant.com.
Stocking Stuffers and all of our favorite things are coming your way! On December 1st, we launched a holiday campaign full of great ideas on how to include our berries in holiday meals and parties, while giving away some fun holiday prizes to our most loyal consumers. Our favorite things of 2016 will be shared and some will be given as prizes throughout the month as we celebrate a good berry year here at California Giant. Here are just a few of our favorite things we are sharing this year with some lucky consumers:
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