Valentine’s Day (February 14th) is the one of the most popular days of the year for strawberries and shipments soon will be ramping up for the occasion.
Florida strawberry shipments are steady with adequate volume expected. About 90 percent of some shipper’s supplies from the Plant City, FL have already been pre-sold.
Still, the strawberry industry says there are never enough berries for Valentine’s Day, especially stem berries. These are always popular as a Valentine’s Day gift. Both Florida, as well as Mexican strawberry shipments are running ahead of last year’s totals, while California strawberry shipments are down a bit. Mexican strawberries are crossing the border in south Texas, as well as border crossings into California.
California reached the 1 million tray-per-week level in mid-January, but by the end of the month supplies had dropped below that threshold. However, California berry loadings are expected to increase each week in February as volume builds from Orange and Ventura counties.
Meanwhile, Southern California also has lettuce shipments as well as some other vegetables from the Coachella and Imperial valleys, plus from the nearby Yuma (AZ) district.
In south Texas, besides Mexican strawberries, there are a number of other items available ranging from vegetables, tomatoes, citrus and tropical fruit.
While Florida strawberries are coming out of the growing area just west of Tampa, Central Florida also is shipping in light volume vegetables, tomatoes and citrus.
Southern California berries – grossing about $4000 to Dallas.
South Texas/Mexican produce – grossing about $2400 to Atlanta.
Central Florida berries, veggies – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.