The strawberry supply is starting to pick back up again in Florida. "We've been down by about 50 percent in production for the past couple weeks due to the freeze but with the weather starting to turn around and get warmer, we're expecting production to start picking up here at the end of the week," says Bova Fresh's Robert Wilhelm. "Right now, we're pretty much covering in full on all our commitments for Valentine's Day."
The grower-shipper did work to pick berries ahead of the freeze and ran water off and on during that time to protect the fruit. "It was definitely tough on the farms, on the plants, but they seemed to have bounced back pretty well," says Wilhelm.
In all, last year did have less fruit at this time. "We've been hitting numbers just about in tune with last year except for those three to four days where we were freezing," says Wilhelm, adding that it did plant slightly earlier this year which helped in harvesting that fruit early ahead of the freeze setting in.
© Bova Fresh
Looking ahead on demand
Meanwhile, demand for strawberries has been very strong for the past three weeks now, even with the Mexican fruit Bova Fresh is bringing in to cover its West Coast business. Florida fruit is covering East Coast and Midwest business. Demand is expected to stay strong this week though likely to soften over the weekend.
That's when supply will start moving into promotable levels and ads are set up starting next week. Precommitment pricing is from $16.90 to as high on the spot market as $22.90. "Come next week, we'll start inching down our spot market and try and put that right around where our ads are," says Wilhelm, adding that it is running the same ad pricing as it did last year pre-Valentine's and post-Valentine's. The spot market seems to be about the same as well.
Looking ahead, while Florida usually wraps up production at the end of March, last year the company picked until mid-April and, weather pending, it hopes to do the same this year.
For more information:
Robert Wilhelm
Bova Fresh
[email protected]
https://bovafresh.com/
