Weather has been much better this season for Ohio produce, said Ken Holthouse, spokesman for sister companies North Fairfield, Ohio-based D.R. Walcher Farms and Willard, Ohio-based Holthouse Farms.
Together, the companies grow, pack and market more than 30 commodities, Holthouse said.
“Weather has been much better for us compared with last year, so we are about a week ahead,” Holthouse said.
An early May frost won’t have much of an impact on production, he said.
“I think we are a little head of the game this year,” he said.
With leafy items active in June, cucumber harvest may start at the Fourth of July or perhaps earlier, he said.
Acreage is fairly stable from a year ago, with planted area up a little for bell peppers and cucumbers, Holthouse said.
Later in the season, the marketer will offer summer squash, sweet corn, eggplant, hard squash and then fall ornamentals with gourds and pumpkins.
Marketing outlook
The market outlook this year is positive, Holthouse said, with foodservice business expected to make a nice recovery.
“We’re kind of anticipating an increase in the foodservice (sector) to recovery,” he said. “I don’t know if it’ll get back to exactly where it was before the pandemic, but I expect as restaurants open, and things get a little bit back to normal — schools have been opened here in Ohio — that that part of the business (will be) pretty normal.”
Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s coronavirus assistance helped the industry, he said.
“We had a pretty decent year in 2020,” he said, noting that the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program was a “giant benefit” to the industry.
“It was one of those programs that sucked up so much volume that I think anybody that participated in it, directly or indirectly, benefited from it,” Holthouse said. “We’re going to be missing that this year.”
D.R. Walcher Farms sold packaged produce directly to consumers (pickup or curbside touchless service) during the early weeks of the pandemic last year.
The company tried the strategy again in the fall, but the direct-to-consumer sales were not as popular as they were in the spring, he said.
Holthouse said D.R. Walcher Farms may begin to experiment with value-added produce this season.
“We are going to attempt to dabble now a little bit and we have got a few customers that said they would support us,” he said.
“Value-added seems to be the direction that people want to go,” he said, noting chili peppers, jalapeño peppers, cucumbers and perhaps other items could be packed in 8-ounce to 10-ounce consumer bags.
Working
The labor supply is adequate, he said, helped by the H-2A program.
“We have not had any issues whatsoever getting (H-2A workers) across the border.”
Farmworkers have been eager to get vaccinated, with those workers having a 95% vaccination rate, he said.
