The production of strawberry in California increased in fresh market volume, and also in juice grade, but remained fairly flat for freezer grade. With increased acreage in 2022 over the previous year it gave the fresh market an opportunity to receive more fruit, but with less than ideal growing conditions at times in 2022 the volume was under what it could have been. Freezer grade uptake was most likely also slowed by the presence of offshore fruit that may have impacted demand.
Overall freezer grade usage in the state has been most flat over the past few years. The supply was such in 2022 that processors were able to get all they seemed to need.
Juice grade fruit receiving by processors increased quite a bit in 2022 over the past four years. This was driven by higher field prices for most of the year along with late season weather events that created large amounts of juice grade product.
