California's crop of navel oranges is into harvest and the timing looks similar to last year's harvest start. "The supply is really good but the only concern is that the fruit is on the small side peaking on 113 and 138," says Derek Vaughn of Johnston Farms.
That's a bit of a problem in that given many growers are in a similar boat, the small fruit floods the market and often makes its way to the foodservice, school, or bagged programs. "As the season goes on, they will size up. It will be about a month or so of this small fruit and hopefully by December and going into the holidays, there will be more uniform sizing," says Vaughn, adding that this summer's heat wave of 10-12 days of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit did impact the growth of the oranges at the time. "They were growing pretty well and then everything came to a halt with that heat."
No thrip challenges
Still, the outlook on an issue that challenged California citrus growers last season–thrip–is much more positive this year. "The fruit is a lot cleaner looking than last year," adds Vaughn.
Meanwhile, the start of the navel orange season was more than welcome given the California Valencia orange season ended slightly early this year.
As for demand, it's stronger on fruit that's sized 88 and larger. On the smaller sizes, it's less than fair. All of this is leaving pricing falling fast, says Vaughn. "Just on small fruit pricing–again pricing on fruit 88s and larger is good but it's quickly falling on the small fruit," he says. "That will level off at some point when everyone gets started and fruit gets into the pipeline."
For more information:
Derek Vaughn
Johnston Farms
Tel: +1 (661) 366-3201
[email protected]
www.johnstonfarms.com