While southern California saw a record-breaking heat wave last week, there will likely be a payoff in the spring strawberry crop from Salinas-Watsonville, especially. "All of this heat will cause a little bit of a lull in the supply because there will be some throwing away of soft or sunburned fruit. However, in the long run, it's going to make a very good crop for April," says Steve Johnston of G.W. Palmer & Co. Inc.
That means that while strawberries started coming on early this year in the region–early February saw light volumes already–with the pull for Easter about 10 days away, good volume is expected for the holiday. "April is going to have a lot of production because the ground temperatures are getting warm," he says, noting that in addition to Salinas-Watsonville, Santa Maria, Oxnard, and Baja California are also in production right now.
All of this follows a generally warmer-than-normal winter in California alongside regular rainfalls. "We had a really good rain here probably a month ago, and we haven't had anything since then. We had a good rainy season last year, and this year it's been intermittent, so we should have better volume in Salinas-Watsonville compared to last year," says Johnston.
© G.W. Palmer & Co. Inc.
Rainy season past
With the October-March rainy season in California almost behind the state, and with no rain on the horizon for the near future, that will also help production. "We've also had very few frosty mornings. I've never seen a spell like this before in all my years in Salinas," says Johnston.
With this surprising heat, it's anticipated that cooling facilities will also start to get turned on this week or next week to protect the fruit, particularly given that truck traffic in the region is still low with mixed vegetable loads just starting to ship.
What will also be in order to move an anticipated strong crop is retail support. "We should see beautiful, beautiful strawberries this year, but they have to market them right because there will be plenty of them," says Johnston. "Retailers need to set some good ads. Money is tight, and strawberries are a luxury, so they had better not sell them at $5.99, for example."
For more information:
Steve Johnston
G.W. Palmer & Co., Inc.
Tel: +1 (831) 753-6578
[email protected]
http://www.gwpalmer.net/
