The California strawberry processing market has jumped out to an early start this season as expected. The poor fresh market, coupled with strong processor demand, has allowed for more freezer grade fruit to be moved into this channel so far this year than in previous years. This trend will most likely continue for this season. At it’s board meeting yesterday the Processing Strawberry Advisory Board set April 1 as the price posting date for this season. That is the earliest date by law that this can be done. It is likely that the volume of fruit moving into processing channels will climb after that date.
