California strawberries shipments are shifting to Ventura County, while the state’s citrus volume is predicted to be down this season.
While California strawberry shipments got off to a roaring and early start at the beginning of they year, the late season shipments are well below normal as a result. Now the situation finally moving back to increased volume as the season shifts from the Watsonville area in the north to Ventura County in Southern California.
California Citrus Shipments
The estimates for the 2014-15 California citrus shipping season stands at 78 million 40-pound cartons, which would make it the smallest crop since the freeze year of 2008-09. However, California Citrus Mutual thinks the crop is even smaller than the USDA’s estimate, since it does not take into account losses due to the current drought conditions.
“After canvassing a significant number of producers and shippers, CCM believes the crop estimate is high,” CCM President Joel Nelsen said in a recent statement. “We know acreage has been removed from production” due to the drought, but getting figures for a range has been difficult. We know the lack of water has affected fruit size during the growths stages, but surveying 126,000 acres is almost impossible. We also agree there is more fruit on the tree as compared to last year” in terms of the number of pieces of fruit. “However fruit size is a concern. All of this affects the number of cartons ultimately packed.”
Unlike Navels, Mandarins should be up in volume this year because of more acreage in production.
California supplies 85 percent of the nation’s fresh citrus,
Southern California Citrus – grossing $5600 to Atlanta.