Yields are good for the 2022-2023 garlic crop out of California. “We just finished harvesting the garlic crop. While those yields were good, the quality was, in some areas, not as good because in the Southern part of the state we didn’t get quite enough cold weather. We had a variation in the maturity of the garlic and that hurt the quality of it a little bit,” says Joe Lane of The Garlic Company, who adds that the grower-shipper supplies garlic for retail, foodservice and industrial applications.
That said, the overall yield of the crop is better than last year. This year’s crop was also approximately 10 days to two weeks later than a historical start to the crop. “That means that we finished a little later--just last week. Because of that weather, the garlic just didn’t finish when it normally would,” says Lane.
Other shipping regions
Along with California garlic, China is currently shipping garlic into the U.S. and Spain is also shipping smaller volumes. At other times of the year, both Argentina and Mexico ship garlic as well.
Meanwhile, demand looks to be strong. “Even with our increased crop, we will sell everything that we have,” says Lane.
In turn, pricing is going to be higher this year on California garlic. “One of the biggest challenges is the general inflation. Grower costs have gone up close to 50 percent in the last three years with labor costs, water and more,” he says. “So pricing on garlic has to be higher. Our costs are higher and to stay in business, we need to increase what we’re selling garlic for.
For more information:
Tiffany Manning
The Garlic Co.
Tel: +1 (661) 393-4212 ext. 214
tmanning@thegarliccompany.com
https://thegarliccompany.com/