California's organic strawberry deal growing gradually

This year’s heavy rainfall throughout California posed a particular challenge for organic strawberry growers, said Craig Moriyama, director of berry operations for Naturipe Berry Growers, Salinas, Calif.

“Organics are much more sensitive to the rain because you can’t use fungicide,” he said.

As of early March, supplies of organic strawberries were fairly tight because of the weather, he said.

On the plus side for growers, those tight supplies kept prices strong.

“Prices never went to a low point,” Moriyama said.

This year was the opposite of 2016, when there was a glut of organic strawberries.

On March 9, f.o.b. prices of trays of eight 1-pound clamshell containers of organic strawberries from the Oxnard district were mostly $20-22, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A year earlier, they were mostly $10-12. By April 4, f.o.b. prices for organic strawberries from the Oxnard district had dropped to $14-16.

Meanwhile, organic acreage continues to inch upward.

“We see organic increase each year,” said Anthony Gallino, vice president of sales for California Giant Berry Farms, Watsonville, Calif.

“You’re not seeing huge increases, but baby steps,” he said.

Growers are scrambling to come up with organic land.

“There are a lot of guys who are transitioning conventional ground into organic ground,” he said.

California has 3,307 acres of organic strawberries this season, according to the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission. That’s up from 2,989 acres in 2016.

Watsonville/Salinas has 2,295 acres (69%), Santa Maria has 534 acres (16%), Oxnard has 360 acres (11%) and Orange County/San Diego has 118 acres (4%).

Vancouver, British Columbia-based The Oppenheimer Group has an organic program in Watsonville, said Jason Fung, director of category development,

“We’re looking forward to building that out in the future,” he said.

Organics are in strong demand at retail, he said.

“Consumers and the millennial generation are looking for something like that — especially in a field crop, like strawberries,” he said.

Los Angeles-based Eclipse Berry Farms LLC has some organic strawberries in Salinas and in Florida, said Stuart Gilfenbain, sales and marketing director.

So far, organic only accounts for about 5% of the company’s volume, but that should change.

“Popularity (of organic) is increasing, and we’re going to be increasing,” he said.

Success Valley Produce LLC, Oxnard, has been involved in organic strawberries for more than 10 years, said Backus Nahas, director of marketing.

“We’ve been selling our organic production to our mainstream retailers the entire time,” he said.

But it’s becoming difficult to make money from organic strawberries at times because of competition from south of the border, he said.

“It seems to us that more and more ground in Baja California has been converted to organic,” Nahas said.

“We are finding it extremely difficult to have profitable organic production when we’re forced to compete with product out of Mexico at the same exact time,” he said.

Sustainability

Sustainability also is a concern of retailers, said Michelle Deleissegues, marketing director for Red Blossom Sales Inc., Salinas.

“We address it on a yearly basis with all of them,” she said, adding, “Our sustainability program continues to be monitored and updated.”

Here are some of the practices the company already has introduced:

• using reduced-volume irrigation systems;
• improving water storage and monitoring systems;
• encouraging crop rotation on many farms and seasons of “rest” for some plots;
• planting cover crops on resting plots to reduce soil erosion and build up soil nutrients;
• integrated pest management-reducing chemical usage along with border plantings to attract beneficial insects to the field and watering roads to reduce dust that attracts mites;
• selection of varieties that are suitable to ground and weather conditions and thus more resistant to pests and extreme water usage;
• using forklifts that are electric to reduce exhaust and use a non-petroleum energy source that is renewable; and
• using Peak Fresh bags to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  

Oppy also “does some incredible things” in the area of sustainability, Fung said, especially when it comes to the social aspect.

The company has some “really great examples” to follow and “some footsteps that have really blazed some trails.”

For example, an Oppy grower in British Columbia was the first domestic Fair Trade pepper grower, he said.

The company hopes to develop similar programs in the berry category in both the organic and the social responsibility areas, Fung said.