California garlic is seeing tight supplies and high demand

Supplies of garlic out of California are currently looking tight. “In 2015, the California garlic crop yielded far poorer than anticipated,” says Ken Christopher of Gilroy, Ca.-based Christopher Ranch, who notes that that was likely a result of having a much warmer winter than average before the harvest--unfortunate since California garlic needs a cold winter and a warm spring and summer. “So due to poor quality and low volumes, we sold out of the 2015 crop ahead of projections and had to balance that with record levels of imports for many customers, driving up the price of imports,” Christopher adds.

That left demand for the 2016 crop of California garlic high. “That higher demand has remained consistent,” says Christopher. “The poor garlic yields across California in 2015, combined with the corresponding expensive imports, have led to a situation where demand for California garlic continues to outstrip supplies.”

Other areas affected
In addition, notes Christopher Ranch’s Patsy Ross, also affected is the company’s seed production. “Since you plant a clove of garlic to get a bulb of garlic, these weather conditions also affected our “seed” production as we are always growing our “seed” garlic the year before we need to plant it,” she says.

Meanwhile, prices on garlic have also inched up slightly compared to last year. “We’ve seen the average price of garlic go up by about five percent relative to last year,” says Christopher. “That’s largely related to having to pass on some of the high costs of harvest and production due to our geography in the Central Coast of California. It’s an expensive area to be in business.”

Domestic garlic preferred?
Yet, Christopher notes that the company has seen pricing increases faster on imported garlic than California garlic. “Imports are treated more like a true commodity, with unpredictable pricing. And this year Chinese garlic has often been higher than California’s,” he says. “The import market has been a little erratic, and we prefer to focus on providing steady shipments and predictable pricing with California garlic.” (In total, garlic imports are less than five percent of Christopher Ranch’s overall business which is helpful since Christopher has seen an increased demand for California garlic—particularly in organics.) “Both US and Canadian customers are ordering more and more US-grown garlic than ever before,” he says.

That said, for 2017, Christopher predicts a normal crop with solid quality and yields. “We have a nice distribution of sizes from our fields, which is great for us because different customers have different preferences regarding sizing of bulbs,” Christopher says. “We’ve been very happy with our 2016 crop, and look forward to a strong 2017 crop this summer.”

For more information:
Ken Christopher
Christopher Ranch
Tel: +1-408-847-1100
info@christopherranch.com
www.christopherranch.com