Crop Report: May 29th, 2020
Tomatoes
Conventionals – Everything has been planted. Early, mid, and late season plantings are all looking good and maturing nicely. Early season plantings are beginning to have fruit the size of dimes and nickels with some consistency.
San Marzano Style – Crop is growing very nice and plants look healthy. Plants are looking good and fruit is maturing as expected.
Organics – Crop is continuing to grow and mature nicely. Plants continue to look healthy. Anticipate we will begin to see color by mid to late next week.
Peaches
Organics – Color is beginning to show. We expect harvest to begin June 5-8. All other normal cultural practices continue along with standard crop protection.
Conventionals – Growers continue to thin Late and Extra Late varieties and should be finished by the end of the week. Sizing continues to look promising in all orchards. The second round of Reference Date sizing was 38.4mm, putting average fruit size slightly larger than last year. All normal cultural practices along with crop protection continue.
Pears
River and Linden district growers are estimated to have a smaller than average crop. Other districts’ volume appears to be average. The majority of fruit has turned down and trees have held onto fruit. Average fruit sizing is over 1.6” Normal cultural practices and crop protection continue.
Grapes
Grapes are continuing to progress with warmer temperatures. Normal cultural practices and crop protection continue with irrigation as needed due to warmer temperatures.
Cherries
Harvest is almost here and we are expecting a good quality crop. Orchards in The Dalles will begin harvest June 5-8. Salem will start machine harvest June 6 and handpicked will begin June 9-12.
Apricots
Harvest is anticipated to begin June 9th. Apricots are sizing well and are beginning to turn color. Growers are meeting with contractors to plan for and prep for the upcoming harvest. Normal cultural practices and crop protection continue.
Oysters
This year’s expected yield is not as ideal as anticipated which will affect the availability of inventory. Market pricing of fresh oysters is making it hard for canneries to compete, resulting increased cost for raw product. We anticipate we will be able to continue to source the majority of our pack from Korea however will balance out as necessary from Chinese supplier.
Mandarins
Plants in China are 100% up and running. Although they are on time with shipments, we are facing challenges in other areas as a result of shutdowns due to COVID-19. Freight and trucking at the ports are delayed as they continue to play catch up with increased shipments.
Mango
Current crop appears to be balanced for the upcoming harvest. We expect to see a normal pack for this year.
Pineapple
Overall tonnage is down significantly. Factors for this include 2 consecutive years of drought as well as farmers leaving the market to plant other crops after a drop in prices in 2017. Lower yields are causing facilities to run at lower capacity, reducing efficiencies therefore increasing production costs. Facilities are competing against one another to bring in more raw product causing prices to increase. These factors along with increases in labor and transportation are causing the already reduced market amidst a global pandemic where consumers are demanding more product to become quite expensive.