Supplies of California strawberries look healthy as the season gets rolling.
“Right now, we’ve got good supplies in Watsonville coming into the end of the season,” says Charlie Staka of CBS Farms LLC in Watsonville, Ca. “We’ve also got supplies out of Santa Maria—a new crop. And we are right around the corner from starting in Mexico. We’ll probably start there in the last week of October/the first week of November.” Watsonville is winding down currently while the Santa Maria region will likely run until December.
Volume on track
Volume, adds Staka, matches the same level of volume seen in last year’s season. “And I think we’ll start in Mexico with better volume than in previous years,” says Staka.
Meanwhile, for now, demand is relatively light for strawberries though Staka anticipates that turning around and starting to increase going into the end of the month.
Pricing dips?
That puts pricing on the lower side for this time of year. “I’d say it’s about 10-15 per cent lower,” says Staka. “We haven’t had any weather issues here in northern California. We grow varieties that produce well in the fall and we keep increasing in those varieties. So we have a lot of fruit in the fall in Watsonville and the summer planted variety out of Santa Maria has been on track. They actually planted a little bit later but still, we’ve got plenty of volume and there’s no real weather that has derailed our supply.”
So looking ahead, Staka sees continually steady supplies coming out of California. “It’ll start to decrease a little bit due to the time of the year, probably by about 10 per cent a week,” he says.
For more information:
Charlie Staka
CBS Farms LLC
Tel: +1-831-763-4401