The Ojai pixie tangerine season in California is seeing a slightly earlier start this year. Normally, harvest begins in early March for the citrus crop. “However we started early this year as the fruit is ready and we wanted to get ahead of this next rain event,” says Emily Ayala of Friend's Ranches, a grower, packer and seller of Pixie mandarins. She notes the rain is hitting the region later this week and may last until early next week.
Grower Ernie Ford and Chuy working to get the Ojai pixie crop harvested.
It’s not surprising the inclination is to get ahead of the rain given what the region saw during January’s rains in California. “The valley sustained quite a bit of flood damage--mudslides, expansion of river beds and some orchards had trees that went to sea. Roads were closed and orchards were inaccessible--this was with 15 inches of rain in less than 24 hours after a year or not having that kind of rain,” she says, adding that the region’s trees and mountains are also still recuperating from a fire in December 2018.
Post-rain concerns
In addition, growers had to spray post-rain for brown rot, a disease citrus can be prone to when there’s a lot of rain--particularly fruit hanging low to the ground. “It’s not typical in this part of the world. Up in the Central Valley, they get more moisture so they are used to doing an early preventative spray for it but it’s not something growers up here are used to doing,” adds Ayala.
It's anticipated that the Ojai pixie crop will go through May.
That said, Friend’s Ranches, like most California growers, welcomes rain and in turn, the crop is a medium to large crop with all sizes of fruit. “The fruit quality is also really nice. It’s great tasting with great color,” says Ayala. “We complain about cold nights but cold nights do lend to good colored citrus because the bright orange comes out.” In all, it’s anticipated the crop should go through May.
The effect of the economy
As for demand, while it looks strong, the state of the economy looms. “People’s pocketbooks are not flush so we’re hoping they’ll still be looking for a great-tasting piece of fruit,” says Ayala. “We tried to keep our prices pretty much the same as last year. Last year we set prices higher because we had a smaller crop so prices are more than two years ago but similar to last year. We’ve also had some efficiencies we’ve worked on to keep costs on our end down.”
“The fruit quality is also really nice. It’s great tasting with great color,” says Ayala.
Demand looks strong for export too, particularly to Japan. “Things are also easier to ship compared to the last few years of COVID. The transportation corridors are clearer than they’ve been in the last few seasons, though transportation costs have not gone down,” she says. She does note that carton costs have come down. “Labor has gone up but we have a bigger crop so we’re hoping the size of the crop can mitigate those changes in labor costs,” adds Ayala.
For more information:
Emily Ayala
Friend's Ranches/Ojai Pixie Growers
Tel: +1 (805) 646-2871
[email protected]
www.friendsranches.com