Despite the fact that significant areas of farmland were submerged this spring, prices for Valley products are rising as California's producers and soil once again show their resilience. The biggest amount of contracted planted acres since 2016 was announced by California's tomato processors, who had or will have contracts for 12.7 million tons of processing tomatoes for 2023. This output estimate is 21.4% more than the actual contracted production amount in 2022 and 2.4% more over the January intentions prediction of 12.4 million tons.
Heavy winter storms provided the state an extraordinary quantity of rain after three years of drought conditions, flooding regions in the Central Valley. Farmers were unable to plant on schedule because the fields remained damp and muddy far into April. Through May, transplantation continued, and temperatures remained cooler than normal, resulting in a lag in crop maturity.
Valencia prices a-peeling
Valencia orange prices were reportedly hovering about $14 a month ago, according to Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual. It is averaging $17.39 this week. The supply of navel oranges has been scarce for a few weeks, and size structure has been favorable, which are two important causes of the price increase.
A decrease in imports is another reason for this week's price hikes. Approximately 63% of the crop has been harvested, while utilization is close to 70%. This is excellent news for Tulare County, which produces roughly half of the state's Valencia crop.
Not so peachy in Georgia
The University of Georgia estimates that Georgia typically produces more than 130 million pounds of peaches per year. According to Dario Chavez, an associate professor of horticulture, this season they lost more than 90% of their harvest due to unusually warm temperatures in the winter and a late-season freeze. Lawton Pearson of Pearson Farm in Fort Valley, Georgia, claims that the last time conditions were this awful was in 1955.
The market for fresh eating peaches is now completely filled by California's harvest, resulting in higher pricing for producers this year. According to the USDA Market website, peaches from the San Joaquin Valley only cost $18 a box on the same date, August 30, 2022, for the same size fruit while selling for $39 per box in LA.
Source: The Sun Gazette
