For week eleven ending September 11th, PTAB is estimating 738,592 metric tonnes (mT) (814,158 short tons, sT) will have been delivered to the factories; another 754,899 mT (832,134 sT) are estimated to be harvested in week twelve which ends September 18th. Provisional total (7,555,480 mT) at this date would still be almost 14% lower than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time (8,738,036 mT).
According to the latest comment published by WestConFoods, “it’s very unlikely that the industry will achieve the USDA’s 11.1 million short ton estimate. To date, we have not exceeded one million tons in a single week with highest being 923,194 tons in mid-August. The weekly deliveries have dropped below that high point ever since. In order to hit the USDA’s 11.1 million ton estimate, the industry will need to process two million tons in October; historically, that has never been done. A record will be 1.5 million tons in October, which would result in a final crop delivery of 10.6 million tons”.
The 2021 California Organic processing tomato deliveries for the tenth week ending September 4th were 27,879 mT (30,844 sT). The total tons YTD for week ending September 4th is 526,330 mT (580,179 sT), or 8.7% of the total delivered quantities. This is the largest crop on record at this point in the season, some 6% ahead of the second one which occurred in 2016 and resulted in the total harvested of 668,428 mT. Provisional total is 24% higher than in 2020 on the same date and 37% higher than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time.
PTAB figures for week ending September 4 state that 262,145 loads were delivered to date (11,982 less loads delivered in 2021 than in 2020), of which 59% were delivered in the Southern region (and 28% in the North), with YTD solids reaching 5.32 compared to 5.33 for the same time period in the 2020 season, or 0.01 lower.
Taking the current figures into consideration, quantities being harvested will bring the provisional processed total just above 75% of the new official target of the season (10.07 million mT or 11.1 million sT).
Sources: PTAB, Westcon Foods
