“50 percent of the harvest are completed, the weekly deliveries are showing a slight drop”
For week eight ending August 21st, PTAB is estimating 846,707 metric tonnes (mT) (933,335 short tons, sT) will have been delivered to the factories; another 845,278 mT (931,759 sT) are estimated to be harvested in week nine which ends August 28th. Provisional total (5,300,269 mT) at this date would still be 11% lower than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time (5,981,012 mT). According to the latest report published by Westcon Foods, “With almost 50 percent of the harvest completed and the weekly deliveries showing a slight drop, it confirms that it will be even tougher to reach the 11.6 million tons estimated by the USDA in May”.
The 2021 California Organic processing tomato deliveries for the seventh week ending August 14th were 26,691 mT (29,424 sT). The total tons YTD for week ending August 14th is 420,188 mT (463,178 sT), or 8% of the total delivered quantities. Provisional total is 26% higher than in 2020 on the same date and 41% higher than the average quantity processed during past three seasons at this time.
PTAB figures for week ending August 14 state that 153,652 loads were delivered to date (1,235 less loads delivered in 2021 than in 2020), of which 74% were delivered in the Southern region (and 20% in the North), with YTD solids reaching 5.33 compared to 5.43 for the same time period in the 2020 season, or 0.10 lower.
Taking the current figures into consideration, quantities being harvested will bring the provisional processed total just above 50% of the official target of the season (10.5 million mT or 11.6 million sT).
Source: PTAB, Westcon Foods
