Crop Report: August 23rd, 2021
Tomatoes
Conventionals – Harvest continues. Field yields continue to be okay, however not as good as expected. Quality of fruit continues to be good. We expect our total crop to be 88% of what was desired for this year’s harvest.
San Marzano Style – Harvest completed last Friday in a somewhat disappointing fashion. Although our quality of plum tomatoes was quite good and yield per tons delivered was exceptional, our crop came in at 55% of desired. Products that use this tomato will be limited on availability due to this unforeseen outcome.
Organics – Harvest and production completed at the Woodland canning facility at 6am on Monday, June 26th. In review, our organic tomato crop picked out at 70% of expectations with a disappointing yield that affected our peeling percentage and total cases produced this summer.
Peaches
Organics – Harvest continues and is going well. All normal cultural practices continue in all orchards.
Conventionals – Harvest continues as more growers finish with early varieties and move into the late varieties. Growers in the north continue to struggle with labor and small fruit. Harvest is 85% complete with just 2 weeks left of harvest. Crop is picking out at approximately 85% of expectations. All normal cultural practices continue in all orchards.
Pears
Harvest has completed in the River and Linden Districts. Mendocino and Lake District harvest is in full swing. Many growers are struggling with size. Growers have added additional labor in the orchard to sort through fruit. Growers are still optimistic that they will be able to deliver their full tonnage.
Grapes
Harvest continues. Growers in the South are finishing up. Madera just began harvest. Growers continue normal cultural practices including irrigation as needed.
Cherries
Harvest completed last Friday, August 20th.
Apricots
Harvest has finished. Fruit quality was clean throughout harvest. Sizing issues were apparent but growers helped to sort out small fruit. Based on trends next season will be a smaller crop however growers will do what they can to mitigate if possible.
Mango
Harvest was late but overall quality is good and ample. Plants continue to face impacts from COVID as they struggled with labor. We continue to face increased costs due to labor and raw material cost increases.
Pineapple
COVID continues to hinder the workforce as labor typically comes into these countries from other Southeast Asian countries. Because of this, plants are operating at 65% capacity and are not running as efficient. Crop looks ample & positive for this summer’s pack as well as the winter crop.
Oysters
This year’s crop was good. Overall size was slightly smaller than average. We continue to face increased costs due to supply chain and COVID regulations.
Peaches
Peaches in Greece were effected by a large frost event that occurred during bloom this spring. This has effected the overall volume for this harvest. Pricing is still not determined. Chinese peaches suffered fruit loss as well due to weather. Fruit cost has gone up over 20%.