Wednesday, February 02, 2005

January is gone and we are looking at February. Inundated with unbelievable amounts of rain in Southern California (15 inches in LA!!), California strawberry production was spotty at best. While the Southern California shippers are anxious to really start,

Mexico produced fruit is becoming more of a factor. Baja crossings as well as the growing Central Mexico region have really stepped up a notch this year. We are seeing more and more crossings of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Full truckloads of product are actually moving directly from Central Mexico into such markets as Philadelphia, Texas and Florida. This year’s production seems to be a dramatic increase over previous seasons. This is likely an area that will become increasingly important for winter supplies.

We expect California volumes to start to seriously ramp up by late February. There appears to be a gap in early February caused by January's weather. Pending other weather events, this should be short lived.