Crop Report: August 25th, 2020
Tomatoes
Conventionals – Harvest is progressing and we are currently in the mid-season crop. Last week we experienced scattered rain, high humidity, followed by several consecutive days of high heat. Despite this out of character weather fruit quality and field yields continue to be positive.
San Marzano Style – Harvest continues and is expected to be completed early next week. Last week we experienced the same out of character weather as conventionals. Fruit quality and field yields continue to be positive.
Organics – Harvest was completed July 30th. We feel 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 was completed August 17th. Normal cultural practices and irrigation continue as needed.
Conventionals – Growers have moved into picking their late variety crop. Labor continues to be tight but manageable. Split pits are apparent in the extra late varieties but fruit size looks great. Normal cultural practices and irrigation continue as needed due to extreme heat. Thunderstorms moved through the state last week but orchards were not affected by this weather. Harvest should be completed by next week.
Pears
River and Linden district growers completed harvest. Fruit size and quality was fantastic overall. Lake and Mendocino districts continue harvest. Thunder, lightning, and rainstorms hit growers last week where they received 3/4” of rain. This caused growers to stop harvest for one day to allow orchards to dry out before continuing. Size is smaller than fruit from River & Linden growers, however fruit quality is still strong Harvest will wrap up early September.
Grapes
Harvest continues. Tonnages look to be lighter than anticipated but will have a better indication over the next few weeks.
Cherries
Cherry harvest was completed on August 13th. This was the lowest volume of crop in the Pacific Northwest in the past 5 years. Crop loss occurred early in harvest due to spring frost and rain. As harvest advanced, the crop volume and quality improved. This allowed us to be just shy of meeting our anticipated goal despite the region’s overall low tonnage year.
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%.