The 2019 California strawberry season is shaping up to look like 2018's.
“The majority of the strawberry supplies right now are coming from the Southern district. Oxnard is probably the heaviest producing district with Santa Maria following not far behind,” says Yolanda Ramirez of Valley Girl Sales and Marketing in Santa Maria, Ca. “Watsonville-Salinas is also producing. They’re still a bit early so it’s a little bit less than the other two regions.”
Ramirez notes that Oxnard goes through to the end of May with its production. “It’s going to be a little bit challenging. The fruit there isn’t quite as strong as Santa Maria-Watsonville so I don’t anticipate that they will go that long. It just depends on the demand on berries,” says Ramirez. “It’s their natural cycle for that area.”
Overall though, volume is down significantly. “Right now out of Oxnard, there’s about 10 million lbs. less than last year. Out of Santa Maria/Salinas/Watsonville, it’s about 15 million lbs. less. There’s definitely less production,” says Ramirez. She does add that production is picking up and in the last month, Oxnard had more berries than it did at this time last year.
California runs strawberry production until October when Mexico begins and, later in December, Florida.
Demand steady
Meanwhile demand for strawberries looks to be even. “Mother’s Day is in a couple of days so we’re in the middle of the Mother’s Day pull. After that, it’s the summer holidays where there’s an increase in demand on strawberries. But it’s not the same as the increase in demand on the first three holidays of the year-- Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day. Those are almost all strawberry holidays,” she says. During the summer holidays, she notes, berries compete with other summer fruit available including watermelon and stone fruit. “I’m anticipating demand to be very similar to last year.”
All of this means pricing may drop slightly. “We had a very strong winter on pricing. Up until about last week, pricing was still relatively strong. I think the rest of the season is completely ramping up to be a similar if not duplicate of last year which is challenging because last year we saw some relatively weak markets for most of the summer,” says Ramirez. “Now that there are plenty of supplies coming out of California and pricing has started to drop, I don’t see anything that can lift it back up. It’s going to be a challenging year just like last year.”
For more information:
Yolanda Ramirez
Valley Girl Sales and Marketing
Tel: +1 (805) 720-2622
yolanda@valleygirlproduce.com