While Watsonville strawberry shipments are winding down, loadings will continue in lighter volume until November. Meanwhile, strawberry volume from about 7,000 acres in Oxnard and Santa Maria are building heading into fall.
Picking has just got underway and should continue through October and into November.
Summer-planted acreage for fall production is up about 10 percent from last year. Fresh plants and new fruit from the summer plantings has shippers predicting good sizing and quality for strawberries.
California strawberry shipments are trailing previous years due to rain and cold weather during the winter and spring, which delayed picking.
As of August 3rd, the state had shipped over 131 million trays of strawberries.
At the same time in 2018, the figure was over 148 million trays, and in 2017 it was in excess of 138 million trays.
How close 2019 volume will come to previous years won’t be known for another couple of months. Typically, half the year’s crop is shipped by July 1st.
California strawberry and vegetable shipments from Santa Maria and Ventura County – grossing about $4800 to Chicago.