The Processing Strawberry Advisory Board of California held it’s annual price posting meeting today to establish a beginning date to post a field price and to review crop progress in the state. It was decided that April 9 this year will be the first date for price posting. Last season the date was nearly a month later. The crop information reviewed shows that very little processing fruit has been delivered so far this year. The lack of juice grade fruit is especially being felt by processors as there is steady demand for the fruit and very little volume. The fairly large juice pack last year is mostly sold out, and some processors are in need of this type of fruit currently to cover existing business. The current week of wetter than average weather will add some to this, but with good fresh market conditions, growers are managing their fields so far in a way to allow them to continue shipping fresh market strawberries instead of having to remove some of them due to rain damage. There is a forecast for continued wet weather through next week, so some of this may change depending on how that affects the crop.
