Crop Report: August 11th, 2020
Tomatoes
Conventionals – Harvest began Thursday, July 30th upon the completion of organics. Early season fruit quality is good and field yields are average. Mid and late season crop continues to mature.
San Marzano Style – Harvest began Thursday, July 30th upon the completion of organics. Fruit quality and field yields have been very good making for an overall great crop.
Organics – Harvest was completed July 30th. We feel very blessed and fortunate to have completed our 2020 organic tomato commodity with a budget pack. This organic harvest started out very rough with extremely low yield per acre, however our second week of harvest brought better news and an adequate recovery of remaining field tonnage. Demand this fiscal year for organic tomatoes is higher than ever with 20% to 30% growth expectations from all customers and items. We are pleased with our results as customer needs in this next 52 week period will again make for very tight supply of our organic crop.
Peaches
Organics – Harvest began on June 3rd. Growers are harvesting late varieties of this crop and should be finished this week. Normal cultural practices and irrigation continue as needed.
Conventionals – The majority of growers are wrapping up current varieties to move into harvest of late varieties. Labor continues to be tight but currently manageable. Orchards in the north are ten days ahead of schedule due to heat and fast ripening of fruit. Fruit quality is good overall, with some struggles of splits. Normal cultural practices and irrigation continue as needed.
Pears
River and Linden district growers are nearly finished with their deliveries. Received tonnage from these growers averaged 50-80% less than expected. The few remaining growers in this district should help offset this deficit. Fruit size and quality has been fantastic overall. Lake and Mendocino districts will begin harvest next week. Fruit quality in these regions appears to be good. Normal cultural practices and crop protection continue.
Grapes
Harvest continues. Tonnages look to be on target with preseason estimates. Normal cultural practices and crop protection continue.
Cherries
The cherry harvest is nearly complete. Orchards at high elevations in Washington remain. We will continue to receive cherries for the next two weeks to finish out the 2020 harvest season.
Apricots
Apricot harvest was completed on June 25th. Actual tonnage received was significantly less than anticipated. Stress from the full tonnage harvest and premium quality of 2019, unfortunately led to a lighter yield in this year’s crop. Apricots (like avocados) tend to yield excellent quantities every other year. Other contributing factors include lack of adequate winter rainfall and less than ideal chilling hours by 40%.