The 2020 California crop is coming to an end. This will be the last weekly report until the final tonnage number is published by the PTAB. According to local sources, this has been a challenging season as reflected by the 11.3 million tons, nearly 6% short of the initial 12 million sT estimate. The 2020 crop faced multiple extended heat waves, which affected fieldyields. There were only three weeks that reached 1 million short tons.
For the sixteenth week of harvest (ending October 17) PTAB estimates that 116,265 metric tonnes (mT) (128,172 short tons (sT*)) were delivered. Provisional total (10,223,750 mT or 11,269,755 sT) is 1.3% higher than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time (10.2 million mT or 11.25 million sT).
For week 17 (ending October 24), projection for California harvest amount to 31,814 mT (35,072 sT). If achieved, this would bring the provisional total up to 10,255,567 mT (or 11,304,827 sT).
According to the PTAB, solids as of October 17 were about 0.07 higher than in the same period in 2019, averaging 5.20 versus 5.13 last year.
There were no deliveries of organic processing tomatoes during the week ending October 10. Total organic harvest remained unchanged at 477,256 mT (or 526,085 sT), accounting for 4.7% of total harvested quantity. Local sources note that with no organic carrying over going into the 2020 pack, this year’s pack will most likely just be enough to cover consumption and inventories and will remain tight going into 2021.
Taking the latest figures into consideration, quantities being harvested will bring the provisional processed total beyond 99% of the official target of the season.
* Note: 1 short ton = 0.90718474 metric tonne
Source: PTAB, WestConFoods
