The California strawberry juice stock supply is running behind most of the last few years. Demand is high for juice grade fruit presently since the season was cut short last year. The volume of fresh market fruit has increased in the state, but the juice supply is running behind because the crop is very clean and the market is very strong right now. Last week had the lowest volume of juice fruit delivered to processors in the past ten years for that week on the calendar. It looks like the juice and freezer grade supply of fruit could stay lower through the month of April unless there is a weather event to drive diversion to processors.
