Wind and rain in late January spoiled hopes of having an abundance of berries for Valentine’s Day for Southern California strawberry growers, but they say the fruit still should be available, albeit at lower volumes and at higher prices than anticipated.
Until Jan. 19, Southern California was enjoying an ideal strawberry season.
Dry weather with temperatures reaching into the 80s on some days was bringing on a plentiful supply of berries.
But then Mother Nature had a change of heart.
Wind gusts of 80 miles per hour on Jan. 19 prompted growers to pull pickers from their fields and caused scarring on some berries.
Cindy Jewell, who handles marketing for Oxnard, Calif.-based Bobalu Berries, was in the field that day.
“I have never experienced wind like that before,” she said. “It was incredible.”
No sooner had the fruit recovered from the windburn when rain moved into Southern California followed by more precipitation Jan. 28 and 29, just as growers were gearing up for Valentine’s Day.
"It’s going to be a demand-exceeds situation." — Cindy Jewell, on Valentine's Day supplies
Despite the setbacks, suppliers were optimistic that there would be good-quality strawberries available for the holiday, though not likely at promotable volumes.
“It’s going to be a demand-exceeds situation,” Jewell said.
And prices will remain fairly high.
F.o.b. prices for trays of eight 1-pound clamshells were mostly $18-20 on Jan. 29, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A year ago they were mostly $16-18.
Last year, Southern California growers shipped 40.3 million trays of strawberries, according to the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission, and the commission expected similar volume this season.
As of Jan. 23, growers had packed just over 2 million trays.
There was heavy demand for stem strawberries when picking began, Jewell said, but volume will be down as Bobalu Berries tries to balance the need for stems versus the need for 1-pound clamshells on supermarket shelves.
“There definitely will be stems out there, and people will be able to find them for Valentine’s Day, but not as readily as they would have without the rain,” she said.
For Watsonville, Calif.-based Well-Pict Inc., near-freezing temperatures were a big concern in the Oxnard growing area, said Jim Grabowski, merchandising manager.
“We did have rain, but the main problem has been cold weather there,” he said.
“The cold weather is not advancing the crop as we would have liked it to at this time of the year.”
The company did not anticipate having a large amount of berries for Valentine’s Day and was asking retailers to pull back their orders for Valentine’s Day ads, he said.
"The cold weather is not advancing the crop as we would have liked it to at this time of the year." — Jim Grabowski, on Oxnard conditions
“The volume is not going to be there.”
Backus Nahas, director of marketing for Oxnard-based Success Valley Produce, said he expected the company to weather the Valentine’s Day storms quite well.
He even was pleased to see the precipitation.
“With the lack of rain that we’ve had this year, we’re welcoming it,” he said. “We need it for the bigger picture.”
Success Valley will have enough berries to fill its Valentine’s Day orders despite the bad weather, he said.
“It’s not a massive loss,” Nahas said.
He remained optimistic for the coming season.
“We’re going to be in a position that we’ll be able to put our foot on the pedal and keep that pedal down all through summertime,” he said.