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Watsonville-Salinas:
Weather has been favorable in the Watsonville-Salinas regions with temperatures mostly in the mid-high 70s and sunny skies. We have been hoping for relatively overcast weather to help improve labor, as this has continued to be a hurdle the last few weeks. Blocks are being left here and there, but despite the labor shortages we have maintained good quality out of Watsonville and Salinas, with our quality control team saying fruit quality the first half of this week has been even better than it's been in weeks prior. Conventional counts have been 20-22 while organics are 26-32, and should remain this size for the duration of the season. Raspberry and blackberry quality looks good overall - the heat has been a factor in our inland growing areas but quality is staying consistent. Volumes are increasing for both bushberries over the next four weeks.
Santa Maria:
Santa Maria weather has been warm and sunny with temperatures in the mid-high 70s, with the potential to warm up even more into the 80s next week. Crop quality is looking great overall, with our Monterey fall crop mostly at 16-18 count, some 22-26 and expected to size up once this initial heat passes. Field crews are doing an excellent job of packing good Monterey fall crop despite some hot weather set backs for this variety. The Portola fall crop has the fields loaded with new crowns, flowers and fruit. We expect to hit our peak for this crop soon, with counts mostly 14-16, and some smaller at 18-24 due to the heat. The organic spring crop is hanging in well at 24-30 count and quality looking good. The organic fall crop is 'almost flawless' with very minimal concerns and looking very impressive at this time.
Blueberries:
Oregon:
Volume in Oregon is winding down with some of our largest farms finishing up harvesting for the season. Quality has been decent out of the field - with most growers only packing light volumes.
British Columbia:
The B.C. season will finish next week with light volume.
Mexico
Mexico began packing light volumes this week and will continue to do so throughout the fall. Quality is looking good.
Mexico:
In general, the weather in our Central Mexico regions continues to be cloudy with overcast mornings, thunder storms during the nights, and very few sunny days during the week. Jalisco has temperatures ranging from 59 - 84 degrees, while Jocotepec is slightly cooler with scattered rains. Both Tala and Sayula have not received the rains they were previously projected. Guanajuato has temperatures similar to Jalisco - mostly cloudy skies with moderate rain during the night. The forecast predicts that we are going to have rain and cloudy skies the next 10 days. Michoacan has temperatures ranging from 59-80 degrees, while Maravatio ranges from 53-77. Scattered rainfall and clouds are generally present in all the zones, while Los Reyes also had some hail recently.Some raspberry crops have been affected by rainfall, but generally speaking, quality looks good. Fruit is firm with nice color and volumes are expected to increase over the next few weeks.
Rainfall and hail have affected our blackberry crops - green fruit has been slightly damaged, which is pushing back production schedules.
Strawberry planting is almost done and production is currently very slow with numbers to increase come October.
![blue 36[1]](https://trade.calgiant.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blue%2036%5B1%5D.jpg?width=550&name=blue%2036%5B1%5D.jpg)
![rasp 36 1[1]](https://trade.calgiant.com/hs-fs/hubfs/rasp%2036%201%5B1%5D.jpg?width=550&name=rasp%2036%201%5B1%5D.jpg)
![rasp 36 2[1]](https://trade.calgiant.com/hs-fs/hubfs/rasp%2036%202%5B1%5D.jpg?width=550&name=rasp%2036%202%5B1%5D.jpg)
Florida:
Ground preparation is underway in our Florida growing region. Hurricane Dorian has cleared the coast, and the weather looks favorable for the next week. Planting will begin the last week of September through the first week of October. Harvest will begin the first week of November, and we are primarily growing the Brilliance variety this season which produces a higher yield than previous varieties.
South America:
Our South America blueberry season has begun and production is off to a good start. Harvest volumes have been increasing due to warm temperatures and sunny days the last few weeks. The Biloxi variety is the main variety being harvested in Peru at this time - quality looks good.
Our first shipment from Metán is expected to start next week, with Snowchaser being the main variety out of this region. Harvest in Concordia, Argentina and Salto, Uruguay both began as well with volumes to increase each week with the Snowchaser variety. The remainder of the varieties are expected to start at the end of September. Fruit has great appearance and weather is generally in the 60s -70s across all regions.
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 Brand Ambassador Fit Mitten Kitchen created a buzz-worthy back to school breakfast: A PB&J Parfait featuring a California Giant strawberry chia jam - YUM!
We're taking every opportunity these August and September months to talk all things back to school - and all the quick and easy recipes to keep students fueled up for their day on campus. This is definitely one of them!
With a few weeks left of our seasonal Fresh Start promotion, we're excited to continue to share fun recipes, lifestyle content and more to keep consumers engaged. Speaking of engagement, the feedback we're receiving from this school-centric promotion is an A+! Just one more reason to keep berries front and center on display, especially while school is in session. We're looking forward to recapping our partners on the promotion results soon.
