February 15, 2021

Strawberries

Oxnard: 

Quality: Good shape, sheen and taste with 95-100% color.

Volume: Cool weather has slowed fruit ripening this past week. The fields are full of fruit in all stages of ripening, but are not quite ready for harvest.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 16-20 ct.

Santa Maria:

Quality: Good flavor, shape and sheen. Some wind damaged fruit is still visible and being cleaned up from the harsh weather a couple weeks ago. There is very minor bruising primarily due to large sized fruit. There is some green shoulders and lighter color is due to cool temperatures. Organic fruit looks good with salmon to bright red coloring.

Volume: Harvest volumes will increase as more fields start to come on. There is a lot of flower and green fruit in the fields and the plants look very strong.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 14-16-18 ct / Organic: 18-20-22 ct depending on variety.

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality with some green tips and shoulders. 

Volume: Volume will be steady through March.

Pack Counts: Conventional: 18-22-26 ct depending on variety and ranch  

Florida:

Quality: Premium quality with some minor bruising due to large fruit size.

Volume: Crews are picking a good amount of fruit with the better weather last week, but there is rain in this week’s forecast. Crews are working hard to get ahead of the rain the best they can to limit the damage and effects to total production numbers.

Pack Count: Conventional:15-17 ct.

Blueberries

Mexico

Quality: Good quality with good size, bloom, flavor and firmness on both organic and conventional blueberries. 

Volume: Conventional and Organic volume will increase and peak in late February, early March.

South America:

Quality: Unprecedented January thunderstorms seriously affected the harvest, with growers reporting a lot of split damage to the fruit. Crews are still cleaning up the fields and working to mitigate the impact to upcoming fruit that will close out the season for Chile at the end of March.  

Volume: Reduced due to the weather event and its damage to the crop.

Oxnard

Quality: Good quality with firm berries and good bloom. Some redback is being seen in the pack and sizing is variable due to the weather issues in recent weeks. 

Volume: Production is expected to be light until early March when mid-season varieties that were not as affected by the weather begin to be harvested. 

Raspberries

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality and taste, with some overripe and broken fruit that crews are keeping out of packs. 

Volume: Strong, steady production.

Blackberries 

Mexico:

Quality: Good quality.

Volume: Steady production.