The California Processing Strawberry Advisory Board established a price posting date of May 8 today at their board meeting. This date is the latest industry price posting date of the past five years. Freezer grade strawberry deliveries to processors are also the lowest in volume that they have been in the past five years. Current fresh market conditions have been disrupted by recent rains, and processors don’t seem to be in a hurry this year to receive large volumes of freezer grade fruit early. Juice stock volume has been heavy so far this year, and the current week we are in will also be very heavy in volume as the Santa Maria and Salinas districts are cleaning up their plants after the recent rains this week. It looks like heavy fruit volumes could come back again into the fresh market by next week or the week after.
