According to Mike Montna, chief executive of the California Tomato Growers Association, hail hit tomato fields hard last May, particularly in the southern San Joaquin Valley: “I think the impact of that hail, when all is said and done, is going to be half a million to 600,000 tons.” Montna estimates the harvest as of Aug. 23 to be about 1.4 million tons behind last year’s levels.
The state’s tomato processors reported contracts for 12.1 million tons of fruit on 94,000 ha as of May 31, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Production last year came in at 12.3 million tons, with 11.9 million under contract, USDA said.
Montna: “With this reduced crop, we are going to have pretty tight inventories, I would expect, going into next year’s pack.”
Matt Maring, a diversified grower in Patterson, said harvest of his early fields started on time around Aug. 10, but he predicted later fields will come in behind schedule, as rain in late April and early May hindered his planting.
“We have completed one field, and it was right at average, like 50 tons,” Maring said. “The next one we’re in is pretty good. It’s the upper 50s, and that’s as far as we’ve got so far.” The later fields, usually done by Oct. 1, likely won’t be done till about Oct. 15, he added, and that could be problematic.
“A lot of things happen after Sept. 15, between rain and mold,” Maring said. “There’s a lot of unpredictability.”
Source: dailydemocrat.com