California strawberry growers have produced a record number of organic trays this year but as the crop moves toward the end of the season, production is declining, and prices are rising.

Anthony Gallino, vice president of Bobalu Berries, Oxnard, CA, told OPN Connect that the organic berry market was in the mid to high $20s heading into October, and expectations are that it will continue to rise as California’s total volume and organic volume further decline. In fact, the market on conventional strawberries is also very strong in the $19 to $20 range.

Anthony Gallino, vice president, Bobalu Berries

“Supplies will be tight for the next couple of months,” he said, speaking of all strawberry sectors. “Organics have been red hot.”

Gallino explained that there is both seasonal decline and weather-related issues as searing September temperatures “have taken their toll.  I do not think we will see any more spikes in production over the next couple of months.”

He said both the Oxnard and Santa Maria districts are picking their summer plantings, with Watsonville starting to prep its fields for next year’s crop. He said that for both organic and conventional berries, the planting season begins in mid-October. Gallino noted that as a percentage, there were fewer acres of organic berries planted for fall production than those planted for the regular season.

Thomas Smith, director of foodservice & organic sales for California Giant Berry Farms, Watsonville, CA, had a bit of a different take, speaking specifically of his company’s organic production. “We will see volume steadily increasing over the next few weeks and hit the peak of our Santa Maria crop at the end of October. Once we go through the peak production, we’ll see a swift decline in volume for the month of November.”

Thomas Smith, director of foodservice & organic sales, California Giant Berry Farms

Smith did agree that high temperatures have had an impact and that organic sales are brisk. “Availability has been affected by multiple episodes of hot weather over the past eight weeks,” he said. “We did strip a lot of subpar quality fruit from the plants to clean them up after the hot days had passed. When plants experience hot weather and you strip fruit, it puts the plants into shock, stunting production. That is what led to the limited supplies for the past several weeks. We are beyond that now and seeing the plants come back from it.  General market has been selling in the mid-$20s and sold out daily.”

He added that those cultural issues have diminished the peak production of the fall organic strawberry crop by 20-30 percent.

It has, however, been a very strong season for organic strawberry production. According to production numbers available on the California Strawberry Commission’s website, organic volume from California is up about 20 percent this year over last season.  Through September of 2020, California had sent about 18 million trays of organic strawberries to the market compared to about 15 million trays in 2019. The 2020 figure represents about 10 percent of total volume while in 2019, organic strawberries accounted for about 8.5 percent of total production. 

Organic production peaked this summer with an average of more than 800,000 trays being shipped weekly throughout the month of August.  Volume has steadily declined to about 450,000 trays per week as we head into October. If last year is any gauge, and this year’s organic production retains its percentage increase on a weekly basis, volume should stay above 350,000 trays per week through October and into early November. In 2019, California growers shipped about 2.6 million trays of organic strawberries to the market during October and November.

California is by far the leading producer of organic berries, though Mexico does get into the game in a significant way in late winter/early spring.  Gallino said Mexican production will start in mid-October, but few organic strawberries from south of the border are expected to be available until January. Weekly shipments of organic strawberries from Mexico never topped 100,000 trays in any October, November, or December week last year. In January of 2020, Mexico’s production of organic berries shipped to the United States averaged about 150,000 trays per week. That number steadily increased until it hit its high-water mark during the week of March 14 when almost 417,000 trays of organic strawberries were imported into the United States from our southern neighbor. 

Florida is not a volume shipper of organic strawberries. In fact, its 2019/2020 production of less than 650,000 trays was a drop from the previous year.

The bottom line is that organic strawberries are in a demand-exceeds-supply situation right now, and promotional pricing will probably not return until the first quarter of 2021.