Berry impressive: Strawberry growers predict another record year

Issue Date: March 1, 2006

By Christine Souza
Assistant Editor

 

The challenges are there, including an ever-changing regulatory environment, high input costs and a potentially dire labor situation. But so is the optimism. With acreage up about 5 percent this year, California's strawberry growers are hopeful of surpassing production records set in 2005.

"Last year we hit a record volume and we are well on our way to exceeding that this year. Overall, statewide our production is double year-to-date over last year," said Mary DeGroat, California Strawberry Commission director of public relations. "About 94 percent of American households eat strawberries. California provides 88 percent of that, so being committed to quality and providing a safe product is what makes California stand out above the rest."

The commission's acreage survey for the 2006 season reports a total of 34,155 acres planted statewide. The reported increase over 2005 is 1,518 acres or an additional 4.7 percent.

The Watsonville/Salinas district remains the largest strawberry-producing area with 12,910 acres, but Oxnard is closing in with 11,936 acres. These two areas account for almost half of the state's strawberry acreage.

In spite of the extreme weather brought by Mother Nature--warm temperatures followed by a cold snap--DeGroat says the state's strawberry production is going very well. Harvest is currently under way in the southern growing districts such as Santa Maria, San Diego and Oxnard.

Daren Gee farms 480 acres of strawberries in Santa Maria and began harvesting in January. Although he experienced warm weather followed by freezing temperatures this month, Gee said things are going well.

"Overall, I'm really satisfied with how things are going," he said. "Normally at this time of year you are always having these kinds of weather issues, but up until recently it has been one of the more mild winters that I can remember."

Southern California's warm temperatures in early February were delightful, Gee said. He was able to take advantage of selling berries for the Valentine's Day holiday, which was one of the few times he remembers having fruit for sale that early in the season. The warm spell was followed by two severe freezes where Gee lost some flowers in the fields. He said the freezing temperatures that hit Santa Maria strawberry fields translated into more lost fruit than in the other growing areas. This week Gee is bracing for a rainstorm that could potentially bring up to 3 inches of moisture. He has taken measures to protect the strawberry plants against Botrytis fruit rot, also known as gray mold. In the weeks to come, Gee expects a gap in production due to these weather-related issues.

"So far this year we've gotten off to a better start than we ever have in our company's history, so I'm really pleased," Gee said. "We have never harvested as much fruit to this point in our history and we've been in the business here since 1990. That is the positive."

Along California's Central Coast, strawberry growers in the Salinas Valley such as Elia Vasquez, a member of the California Farm Bureau Federation board of directors, says changing weather conditions have impacted some strawberry plants, but overall she is not worried about any long-term impacts.

"Our season started ahead of time with the warm weather we were receiving, then suddenly the flowers got hit by the frost. A lot of the flowers were ruined by the cold temperatures and crews had to strip flowers and small berries from the plants," Vasquez said. "That is going to put us two weeks behind, but we have to be optimistic."

Vasquez, who has farmed strawberries in Watsonville for 36 years, says the warm temperatures would have brought an early harvest. However, the recent cold snap has delayed it to about where it typically occurs. Harvest is expected to begin in March, Vasquez said, and that delay should result in the plant having a stronger root and sweeter berries. It will also allow farmworkers time to arrive.

"We depend on labor that comes from the south, and if harvest is very early, the growers in the south are not done with the season yet. Usually we start seeing that flow (of workers) coming in late May, so if we need people in early April, we are not going to have them. So maybe this cold weather is good for us."

Harvest along the Central Coast is expected to last through October.

Approximately 13 percent of California's strawberry crop is annually exported. Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan are the largest importers. Canada receives the majority of California's fresh strawberries, and Japan is the largest importer of the state's frozen berries.

A new report by Rabobank's North American Food and Agribusiness Research group highlights significant factors that are driving the growth of the U.S. fresh strawberry market. These include the production of varieties that have improved shelf life qualities, the implementation of better post-harvest techniques and the development of packaging to enhance quality of the final product and its appeal to consumers.

The market for U.S.-produced fresh strawberries is expected to continue its 25-year growth streak, according to Rabobank, as improvements are made to stimulate consumer demand.

"The fresh market will continue to be a source of profit for U.S. growers who leverage competitive advantages in technology, distribution and climate to deliver even higher quality product to retailers year-round," said Chris Noble, fresh produce analyst with Rabobank. "Canada and Mexico are also increasingly important export markets for U.S. fresh product, as consumers in those countries acquire a taste for year-round strawberries."

Noble added that China looms as a major threat to U.S. frozen strawberry production. The country is increasingly dominating traditional U.S. export markets for processed strawberries and reports a projected annual growth of 10 percent to 15 percent over next five years.

"As the quality of China's frozen strawberries improves and its cost structure remains low, both U.S. and foreign companies will import greater amounts of Chinese product," Noble said. "U.S. frozen processors will have two choices to remain competitive: focus on supplying high-end users who need high-quality product, or begin to source frozen strawberries from China for sale to existing customers."

China has increased its share of the Japanese frozen strawberry import market from approximately 38 percent to more than 60 percent since 2000, Rabobank reports, while the U.S. share of the same market has declined from approximately 41 percent to 20 percent.

Low pricing has been the determining factor to help China begin taking over export markets traditionally owned by U.S. processors.

"Processed strawberries from China are coming in and challenging the California processed market," DeGroat said. "But from a California standpoint, we have the regulations and food safety practices in place for growing safe fruit. Those practices are not necessarily in place in China."

Of the strawberries produced in California, an estimated 74 percent are sold in the fresh market and 26 percent in the processed market. California is the nation's leading producer of strawberries. In 2005, growers harvested 1.6 billion pounds of strawberries, which accounted for 88 percent of the country's total fresh and frozen strawberry production.

(Christine Souza is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top