There has been quite a bit of rain in California this winter causing strawberry production for the first couple of months of the calendar year to lag behind last year’s production. But the industry is anticipating that the vast majority of the impactful weather will be in the rear view mirror when the calendar turns to April.
“We are telling our customers to set your displays for the Easter pull and then leave them yp for the rest of the year,” quipped Cindy Jewell, vice president of marketing for California Giant Berry Farms in Watsonville, CA.
Speaking to The Produce News in mid-March, she said the weather forecast looked fairly good for the rest of the month, which led to expectations that the strawberry plants would start to produce good numbers shortly after spring begins and continue for many months after than.
Carolyn O’Donnell, communications director for the California Strawberry Commission, said on March 13 the Oxnard district in Southern California’s Ventura County was just starting to hits its stride and would be in peak volume in a matter of a week or two. The Santa Maria district is also seeing increased production with big volume expected on a weekly basis starting in April. The Watsonville district had shipped a few berries by mid-March but the real start was still about a month away.
O’Donnell said the peak weeks are always driven by weather. While the commission has many charts on its website detailing past history and even projecting this year’s flow of supplies, the CSC representative said the weather is going to make the final determination. In 2019, the peak week came in mid-May when more than 9.5 million trays were shipped from California.
Typically the graph of California’s production has a steep incline beginning in mid- to late March and taking about eight weeks to create a peak. Production then slowly declines over the next 24-26 weeks. While, the second quarter, comprising April, May and June, is the top production period, O’Donnell said that peak shipping period typically extends through July.
Jewell said retail promotional opportunities for California strawberry should extend this year from early April through the summer. Typically, weels exceeding four million flats will continue into October
For its part, the Strawberry Commission encourages retail promotions but by board decree it leaves that work to individual shippers. O’Donnell said the organization does generically promote California strawberry usage to consumers mostly through social media. It no longer conducts trade promotional activities. She said the commission’s main task is to provide information and services to the growers and shippers helping to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of growing, packing and shipping California strawberries. For this goal, for example, it provides education to the industry on various topics such as automation. Its website is also filled with volume and pricing information as well as retail category trends.
For example, its updated retail category trends report in late March showed the significant growth in the two-pound container over the previous 52 weeks. Using scan data, the report showed the shift away for the four-pound container and to the two-pounder. Jewell of Cal Giant said the report shows that the four-pounder is “almost obsolete.” The one-pound container represented two-thirds of total pounds, while the two-pounder was getting very close to taking the rest of the pie at 31.5 percent. Jewell said just five years ago the one-pounder was at 77 percent and the two-pound container represented 19 percent. Just in the past year, the four pounder has lost about three-quarters of the volume it had.
