September 18, 2018

Happy Tuesday!

It's transitioning time as we close the summer season this week and jump into another. Fall is upon us and we are slowly noticing weather begin to chill in the evening and morning hours with a brisk, autumn breeze. Not only are we prepping for the next season, but our local Watsonville-Salinas growers will begin next season's strawberry planting as well in the next few weeks. We look forward to a busy few weeks of prepping, planting, and marching on Capitol Hill with our produce industry friends next week at the Washington Conference. Then, we'll be headed straight for PMA Fresh Summit in Orlando – we hope to see you at both events!

For more information, including crop and weather reports, please scroll below.

Crop Updates

Watsonville - Salinas:

Weather has been consistent for the last month in the low 60s-70s, and looks to remain the same in the weeks ahead. Quality this week has been better than weeks prior. Monday’s we typically see dark fruit in the afternoon, but this past week on Monday the fruit was light, and looking excellent through the entire day. Organic strawberries are 20-22 count, some 24-26, while organic fruit is 28-30. Our crews are working hard fumigating, prepping drip systems and plastic, and working vigorously to finish up this season on a good note, and getting ready for the next. Growers will begin planting for next season starting October 22 and finishing up early November. Organic growers will finish up the middle of November. Labor is still difficult and will continue through the season. Bushberries look great -blackberries are being harvested in the morning and raspberries typically in the afternoon. Due to this, raspberries are seeing slight defects but overall quality looks good.

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Santa Maria:

Weather last week was in the low-mid 70s during the afternoon with nighttime lows in the 50s. This week, weather is anticipated to be the same. Our conventional fall crop is 16 count, with some blocks in the low 20s. We have seen very minimal albino and light bruising among Portola, with the Monterey variety very clear with good numbers. We started picking organic fall crop last week, with organic San Andreas mostly at 24-26 count, and some 30 count. We will be starting to pick up in volume over the next few weeks especially as we head into October. Blackberries are still going strong, with light red cell in the afternoon here and there. Our peak weeks are projected for the first 2 weeks of October.

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Mexico:

Weather is in the low 80s during the day and mid 50s at night, with partly cloudy days and on and off showers. Raspberries and blueberries have nice consistent coloring, good size at 19-22 count in 6oz clamshells. Blueberries are very big up to 21mm, and fighting a little bit of botrytis due to rain. Packs are neat and good quality - we will be packing some blacks this week as well.

Florida:

Weather has been in the high 80s-low 90s, with scattered showers projected for the week. They finished up laying plastic last week - and the industry should have been 95 percent finished last week as well. Harvest could be delayed with hurricane Florence, but we're still looking to start scratching the first week of November.

To industry members, families, friends and beyond that have been affected by the recent weather conditions from Hurricane Florence - our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Blueberries:

Peru is off to a slow start with good quality fruit and size.
Argentina and Uruguay's first pallets started to arrive last week in Miami. Oregon is still lightly picking, and harvesting varieties Aurora, Elliott, and Legacy in its final picks of the PNW season.

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Weather Conditions

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.

Reaching Consumers

Did someone say insights? That's right - we have more of them headed your way. We just received the latest Retail Category Trends deck from the Strawberry Commission with a lot of interesting insights our trade partners won't want to miss. Here's a few statistics you can expect to find in the complete presentation.

The total berry category ranks #1 in produce sales with a 4.5% YOY increase. Strawberries rank 7th in produce sales and 1st among the individual berry category.
In total US fruit sales, berries increased from 3.3% in January 2018 to 4.5% in June 2018.
In total US fruit sales, strawberries increased 0.4% in January 2018 to 1.5% in June 2018.
Within the category, strawberries represent 46% of sales and 64% in volume, showing us that strawberries are still the favorite US berry.
Blueberries sit in second with 28.1% of sales and 21.5% of volume.
The Northeast region consumes the most strawberries, followed closely by the Great Lakes region.
The largest percentage of strawberry purchases (63.9%) are 16oz clamshell purchases. However, we continue to see the 2-lb container purchases increase each year, most recently by 23.5% year over year.

Want even more data from this Retail Category Trend Analysis? Request the full presentation here.

Fall Flavors: Blackberry Edition

Fall officially kicks off this weekend and we couldn't be more excited to celebrate the season with comfort food, sweater weather, and of course, some spiced cocktails and ciders. This week we're highlighting California Giant blackberries - this giant, juicy, in-season berry harvested currently in our Santa Maria, Watsonville and Mexico growing regions is in full-swing, and a force to be reckoned with this fall. Add them to the menu for comforting, savory berries, a sizzling skillet dessert and of course, to your favorite cocktail. Here's a peek at some California Giant inspired blackberry beverages to spice up the holidays, keep you cozy, and always full of fall flavor.

Speaking of fall flavor...

We have a special (surprise) beverage we will be serving this year at our booth #2159 at PMA Fresh Summit. Make sure to get there early!

Hint: Yes, it includes berries, and yes, it includes alcohol.

Spiced Berry Sangria