“The industry continues to report less than anticipated field yields”
For week five ending July 31st, PTAB is estimating 764,766 metric tonnes (mT) (843,010 short tons, sT) will have been delivered to the factories and another 806,430 mT (888,937 sT) are estimated to be harvested in week six which ends August 7th. Weekly projected quantities are only a 41,000 mT increase from the previous week
Provisional total (2,906,814 mT) at this date would still be 5% lower than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time (3,070,609 mT).
According to a previous report published by Westcon Foods, it is expected that it may take until August for all factories to reach full capacity. The industry continues to report less than anticipated field yields resulting in what can be considered a slow start. Further, these lower yields support current projections of the 2021 pack crop coming up short when compared the USDA intention.
The 2021 California Organic processing tomato deliveries for the fourth week ending July 24th were 70,575 mT (77,803 sT). The total tons YTD for week ending July 24th is 311,102 mT (342,931 sT), or 11% of the total delivered quantities. Provisional total is 50% higher than in 2020 on the same date and 59% higher than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time.
PTAB figures for week ending July 24 state that 55,998 loads were delivered to date (7,170 more loads delivered in 2021 than in 2020), of which 92% were delivered in the Southern region, with YTD solids reaching 5.21 compared to 5.42 for the same time period in the 2020 season, or 0.21 lower.
Taking the current figures into consideration, quantities being harvested will bring the provisional processed total close to 28% of the official target of the season (10.5 million mT or 11.6 million sT).
Source: PTAB, Westcon Foods
