Press release
, François-Xavier Branthôme
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In May, the USDA revised their 2018 California Processing Tomato Harvest estimate to 11,900,000 short tons (sT), or 10,794,000 metric tonnes (mT); approximately 12% higher than 2017’s harvest of 10,463,000 sT (9.49 million mT).
While higher, this year’s crop is off to a slower start. This first week PTAB projects a delivery of 8,800 sT (7,980 mT). When comparing to the same time frame this is 19,011 sT (18,100 mT) less than 2017’s start. PTAB estimates that 160,000 total sT (145,000 mT) will be harvested by week ending July 14th.
Fresno County remains the top California County for contracted tomato acres in 2018. Rounding out the top five are Yolo, Kings, Merced and San Joaquin. These top five counties make up a little over 62% of the total contracted tomato acreage for California. In the graph below, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Madera, Sacramento, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and Tulare counties have been combined into “Other”.
According to professional sources, the CTGA price negotiations continue for 2018’s raw product price. Most speculate an increase to last year’s price of USD 70.50 citing cost increases across the board. Due to an agreement made by Stanislaus Foods in February, the price will not exceed USD 75.00 per short ton (about 70,8 Euro/mT, value 10 July).
The last water supply update (July 2, 2018) puts the northern California reservoirs at 78 to 103% and the central ones at 93 – 125% of historical average. Of the main 12 reservoirs 8 are at or greater than 100% historical averages. When comparing to this time frame last year, 10 out of the 12 reservoirs were at or greater than 100% of historical averages.
Source : PTAB, WestConFoods
