The latest California strawberry acreage survey put out by the California Strawberry Commission shows declining acreage planted for strawberry production. The survey cites regulator restraints as well as rising production costs as reasons for the decline. Going forward, the state's growers are investing in research to deal with costs as well as adjusting acreage to find a good balance between supply and demand.“A couple of reasons for the decrease in acreage might be the drought and a lack of labor,” said Derek Sass of Beachside Produce. The acreage survey cited those two topics as areas that the state's growers are addressing in the form of looking into better water efficiency and workforce training and development.
Diminishing strawberry acreage has been a trend for several years now in California. Total acreage planted in the fall for winter, spring and summer production declined from 31,640 acres in 2015 to 27,783 acres in 2015. That's in line with the trend that began after fall-planted acreage peaked at 35,670 in 2013.
“Leading up to 2013, strawberries were a demand-exceeds-supply product, and we didn't know how much we, as an industry, could grow before supply exceeded demand,” noted Backus Nahas of Success Valley Produce. “Now we found out what that is, and we're going back to 2012 numbers. I think we're getting to more of a balance.” The returns over the last several years weren't enough to sustain the amount of acreage planted, and now, noted Nahas, growers are finding a balance between what the market can offer considering the high costs of re-drilling wells during a drought and competition from Mexican growers who have much lower labor costs.
“Our acreage dropped 30 percent from 2013, but it has remained unchanged from the previous season to this season,” noted Nahas. “We feel we're now in a very good place with the team we have and the amount of boxes we can produce.”