Ontario continues to see good volumes on Florida strawberries. "How the season wraps up is largely weather dependent, but there's still continued strength and high quality strawberries out of Florida," says Hutch Morton of J.E. Russell Produce Ltd., noting that this scenario is quite different from this time last year when around March 10, the flush of fruit from Florida had already begun.
The company, which works with the Foxy label from BlazerWilkinsonGee (BWG), is primarily bringing fruit from Florida right now though it also has started with light supply from Santa Maria, California as well. There is also fruit in Baja. "In a perfect world, Florida will keep sending beautiful and strong fruit well into late March," says Morton. "It's been a really good year in Florida compared to a year ago where they had two late hurricanes, one of which basically wiped out their earliest plantings and set the whole calendar back. This season, December and January were solid months for Florida. A year ago, it was almost impossible to get real volume out of there."
© J.E. Russell Produce Ltd.
L: J.E. Russell's James Meschino, berry category manager; R: a look inside the company's operations.
Sourcing from Mexico
In addition to BWG, J.E. Russell Produce has also started a new line of business with a strawberry grower from Central Mexico this year. "This was an exciting new addition. We had not done a lot with them previously though it was a relationship that we were cultivating for a couple of years. When there was cold weather at the end of January, beginning of February in Florida, they were able to jump in with multiple loads of great fruit because the market worked for them," adds Morton.
As for pricing, it's been good and stronger than last year's average pricing on Florida fruit–even with significantly more fruit this year. Morton says in December it sold four times as many cases over the year before and while January was flat in terms of volume, twice the number of cases moved in February over last year. "We've seen so much more volume and when the quality is good, the prices can support that. The berry market here has been solid," he says.
It is anticipated though that when the flush in Florida does begin, prompting a closer eye on quality, there will be shifts in pricing. It's also expected there will be an overlap in supply with Mexico wrapping up and California really coming online. "That said, overlaps are in many ways easier to manage than gaps," adds Morton.
For more information:
Hutch Morton
J.E. Russell Produce Ltd.
Tel: +1 (416) 252-7838
https://www.jerussell.ca/
