The Trade Buzz

CROP UPDATES

STRAWBERRIES

strawberry

Santa Maria

Quality: Conventional and organic fruit quality is good.

Volume: Production has now entered in a post-peak phase, and estimates will continue to steadily drop week over week until a much more significant drop happens in towards late November. This week’s drops were due to the colder weather and the change in the general production curve as we enter the late Fall season.

Pack Counts: Conventional fall crop 18-22. Organic fall crop, 22-24. 

Watsonville/Salinas

Quality: Conventional and organic quality is good with nice sheen, small-to-medium size, strong red color, and good flavor.

Volume: Overall production is low, and we are still predicted to end the season towards the beginning of November, maybe sooner.

Pack Counts: Conventional 24-26; Organic 30-34 depending on ranch. 

Florida

Region Update: Production has been pushed back around 3 weeks due to Hurricane Milton. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Mexico

Region Update: Production will begin this weekend with small quantities, and we will begin to have load volume in about 2-3 weeks. Initial counts are 22-27 a clamshell. Fruit looks good with occasional green tips and small-to-medium sizing.

BLUEBERRIES

blueberry

All Growing Locations

California Giant has entered a significant gap in our blueberry supply between domestic and imported crops. The Pacific Northwest has wrapped up fresh production and we are currently being supported by limited supplies from Peru, Chile, and Mexico.

This is an industry-wide shortage. Our current forecasts are showing our supplies bottoming out in mid-to-late October before we see volume start to increase and finally re-align around the middle of November. Be prepared for very limited supplies for the month of October with continually increasing and active markets. We are expecting international exports to begin arriving in good volume starting in about a week or two.

RASPBERRIES

raspberry

Mexico

Quality: Overall, fruit is looking good with a strong red color, new varieties sizes and firmness look good.

Volume: Volume for raspberries is staying steady as we enter October.

Watsonville

Quality: Overall, color is a nice dark red color due to the warm temperatures underneath the hoops and sizing of rasps are a good medium size on average.

Volume: Watsonville Raspberries’ production is picking back up as we get a second wind through October. We have entered peak production.

BLACKBERRIES

blackberry

Mexico

Quality: Quality is fair but improving. 

Volume: Volume for blackberries is picking back as we enter October and have good, steady volume for the rest of the year.

Watsonville

Quality: Quality is fair. Attached calyx and red cell regression is a continual occurrence and are seeing some issues of smaller fruit.

Volume: Overall production volume has taken a steep cut as we enter a low of the season.

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A berry nice note from a California Giant Berry Farms shopper:

“I’ve never written to a producer of any food, but I am compelled to let you know that your strawberries are consistently the best we’ve ever had. We’ve eaten so many that I’m surprised we haven’t grown stems. Thank you for making us believe again that fruit can be grown, packaged, and shipped and remain delicious.”

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