Excellent weather has led to a normal start for pepper loadings from the Coachella Valley, while an early season start for San Joaquin Valley grapes should lead to the season wrapping up in late November or early December, a few weeks earlier than normal.
Peter Rabbit Farms of Coachella, CA notes bell pepper harvesting started in late October and early November.
Production in Coachella production begins just as green bell pepper production in California’s San Joaquin Valley is winding down. Georgia is already shipping, although it has faced weather issues; particularly rain. Usually, California has a window between Georgia and Mexico production. About half of November’s U.S. pepper volume comes from Coachella. The desert green pepper harvest will likely extend into December, Peter Rabbit reports.
Red bell peppers started in early November and will continue until the end of the year, barring any major weather events such as a freeze.
Overall bell pepper volume is described as fairly average.
Peter Rabbit’s next commodity, leafy greens– which includes Romaine, green leaf, red leaf, iceberg and butter lettuce–which will start to be harvested at the beginning of November and run until April
Concerning California table grapes, heading into the final weeks of the season, green grape loadings are expected to last until about Thanksgiving (November 27), with red grapes available until early December, according to Bari Produce of Fresno, CA. Shipments are about 6 million pounds ahead of a year ago, when the season extended well into December.
As for varieties, on green grapes, the company is shipping Autumn King grapes while on reds, it’s finishing Scarletts and it is still packing some Jack’s Salute. The biggest block of red grapes that are yet to go however are seedless Allisons.
California’s table grape cold storage holdings totaled 14,790,674 packages as of October 15, 2026, compared with 11,986,852 packages on the same date in 2025, an increase of approximately 23.4 per cent. According to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Western Fruit Report, published on October 20, 2026, holdings declined from 15,002,198 packages recorded on September 30, 2026.