Crop Report: July 12th, 2021
Tomatoes
Conventionals – All plantings are progressing nicely. Growers are doing their best to keep plants hydrated despite extreme heat. Woodland had a recorded high of 108 this past Friday and 109 on Saturday. Forecast projects cooler temperatures in the low 90’s this week.
San Marzano Style – Crop looks good and is maturing as expected. Fruit will be ready for harvest as soon as the organics finish.
Organics – Harvest has begun. Fruit is looking good but yields are not quite as expected.
Peaches
Organics – Harvest continues and is progressing nicely. All normal cultural practices continue in all orchards.
Conventionals – Harvest has officially started. Growers will have to stay on top of picking their orchards to avoid overripe fruit due to extreme heat. Oroville had a recorded high of 113 this past Saturday. Growers are doing their best to sort out small fruit but overall volume is there. All normal cultural practices & crop protection continue including irrigation to combat extreme temperatures.
Pears
The Pear Punch was held on July 8th. This event is where growers bring fruit to be tested for firmness and sugar levels to determine if their orchard is ready to harvest. All growers passed and have begun harvesting for the fresh market. We will begin receiving fruit later this week. Water is still a concern for some growers. Growers feel they will have enough water to make it through harvest but are unsure what will happen once harvest is complete.
Grapes
The extreme heat has taken a toll on the crop in some areas. There is some raisining in a few vineyards. All normal cultural practices and crop protections continue.
Cherries
The Pacific Northwest had record breaking temperatures over the past week. This advanced the maturity of the fruit leaving some cherries softer and smaller in size. Trees with vigorous growth provided good shade protection to cherries. Exposed fruit suffered from sun burn causing crop loss.
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%.