The volume of processed strawberry delivered so far this year is still very low compared to the past four seasons. The low volume of freezer grade and juice grade strawberries to date are related to the unusual weather patterns along with strong fresh market sales for fruit so far this year. The volume of fresh market fruit is beginning to increase in the state, and it will continue to do so over the next few weeks. The strawberry growers in the state seem to have been able to move almost the entire crop fresh with very little need to move fruit to processing channels so far this year. There seems to be a lot of activity with processors looking for juice grade fruit to cover existing business needs, but it doesn’t seem like there will be a large increase in the availability of processing grade fruit in the near future.
