Strawberries remain strong, promotable item

Summer’s almost half over, but there still are plenty of tasty California strawberries available for retail and foodservice promotions.

Watsonville, Calif.-based Well-Pict Inc. was coming off its seven-week peak the second week of July, said Jim Grabowski, marketing director.

“We as a company were picking probably over 100,000 [packages] a day for that seven-week period,” he said.

“Volume has been excellent this summer,” Grabowski said.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Ample supplies of strawberries will still be available from Watsonville for the next couple of months, he said. However, production will taper off over the coming weeks, and berry size will drop.

Oxnard, Calif.-based Bobalu Berries will have a fall strawberry crop in Oxnard for the first time this year, said Cindy Jewell, who handles marketing for the company.

“It will kick in during the beginning of September and complement the Santa Maria crop,” she said. “It will give us more late-season fruit at a time strawberry volume tends to drop.”

Strawberry taste, size and quality have been good this summer for Irvine, Calif.-based Gem-Pack Berries LLC, said Craig Casca, chief marketing officer.

But warm weather presented a few challenges earlier in the season.

“It was a warm June,” he said.

By mid-July, the company was shipping mostly medium/large strawberries.

In its July 18 crop report, Watsonville, Calif.-based California Giant Berry Farms said its Santa Maria, Calif., conventional fall crop quality was “great with nice shape and size.”

In the Watsonville/Salinas area, quality was good, with some overripe and soft fruit.

“Production continues with a slight downward trend,” according to the report.

The summer berry program at Plant City, Fla.-based Wish Farms includes conventional and organic strawberries from Salinas, Calif., said Nick Wishnatzki, public relations manager.

Quality has been good this season with high sweetness levels and good flavor and sizing, he said.

California strawberry movement industrywide seemed favorable in mid-July.

As of July 9, California growers had shipped nearly 128 million trays of strawberries this year, according to the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission. That’s an increase from 112.3 million trays at the same time last year and 121.8 million trays in 2020.

Last year’s total volume was 212.8 million trays, up from 210.2 million in 2020.

For grower-shippers, though, prices left something to be desired.

“Strawberry prices are a little bit weak right now,” Grabowski said in mid-July.

As of July 14, fob prices for trays of eight 1-pound clamshell containers were mostly $8-$9, according to the USDA. That was slightly better than a month earlier, when they were selling for mostly $5-$7. A year ago, fob prices in mid-July were $8-$10.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Inflation and rising costs continue to plague California’s strawberry growers.

“As a farmer, you have to pass those costs along, you can’t just absorb them,” Jewell said.

At the same time, the retail community is trying to keep prices down for consumers.

“It’s a tough balance,” she said. “Some customers get it, and some are still trying to be the low-cost leader.”

Wish Farms continues to monitor economic challenges, such as rising costs of fuel, transportation, packaging, inputs and the availability of labor, Wishnatzki said.

Costs are rising for all strawberry growers, Casca said.

“Freight is higher than last year but has leveled off at the higher prices,” he said. “Clamshells, cartons, pallets, etc. continue to go up with supply chain issues.”

The costs of trucks to deliver products alone has dropped slightly, Grabowski said. But it remains 30% higher or more than past seasons.

“Loads that were shipping for $5,000 before now are shipping for $8,000,” he said.

Despite challenges, grower-shippers remind strawberry buyers that summer remains a great time to promote strawberries.

“There’s still a long way to go in the season,” Jewell said.

“The plants are healthy, we’re planting different varieties for the fall, so there is a good variety mix as we transition from spring to the fall crop,” she said.

Supermarkets have been featuring strawberries quite often since March, Grabowski said.

“Strawberries are still a good, promotable item for the rest of the summer.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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