Plenty of quality California strawberries remain for shipping to retail and foodservice companies entering the last half of summer.
Well-Pict Inc. Watsonville, CA came off seven weeks of peak loadings the second week of July when it was estimated to be picking over 100,000 packages a day. Needles too say, volume has been excellent.
The company will be shipping good supplies of strawberries from Watsonville into mid September, although production will be tapering between now and then.
Bobalu Berries of Oxnard, CA will have a fall strawberries in Oxnard for the first time this year.
Oxnard kicks in early September and will complement the Santa Maria crop. This means the company will more late-season fruit at a time strawberry volume tends to drop.
Strawberry taste, size and quality have been good this summer for Gem-Pack Berries LLC, of Irvine, CA. It has been shipping medium and large sized berries.
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.
Wish Farms of Plant City, FL ships summer berries from Salinas, which includes conventional and organic strawberries.
The company reports good quality this season with high sweetness levels and good flavor and sizing.
It also reports the costs of trucks to deliver products alone has dropped a little but remains 30% higher or more than past seasons.
Loads which were shipping for $5,000 before now are shipping for $8,000.