CBS Farms, a Watsonville, CA-based marketing firm that sells the strawberries of several different entities, continues to add business and, as such, has expanded its sales staff again this year.

Brad Peterson, a veteran in the industry with 11 years of experiences at nearby Well-Pict Inc., joined CBS Farms at the beginning of the year. Though now a veteran in the industry with an agricultural business degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Peterson did not enter the industry with any family roots in the ag sector. Cal Poly requires all incoming students to declare a major prior to enrollment. He listed “Business” as his first choice with “Ag Business” in the runner up slot.

“I didn’t get my first choice but I got choice number two,” he said.

After graduation he still didn’t pursue an agricultural career, but eventually, as an alumnus, had a chance encounter with a recruiter from the Agricultural Business Department.

Brad Peterson“My dad had been bugging me about not using my major for my career, so I decided to check out what was available. Dan Crowley at Well-Pict was looking for somebody … and the rest is history.”

Charlie Stacka, who wears the title of director of sales at CBS Farms, said the firm’s acreage is about the same this year as it was last year “but we have added a grower in Oxnard, and more business means we needed another salesman.”

Peterson joins Jerry Summers, Bob Rigor and last year’s newcomer, Luke Skurich, on the sales desk.

CBS Farms represents both conventional and organic berry acreage. Staka said demand for organic production continues to increase, though not quite at the same pace of a few years ago. He agreed that finding suitable land for organic production is getting more difficult. “Initially, growers found fallow land and turned it into organic acreage,” he said.

While that allows for an easy conversion, Stacka said there is typically a reason land is fallow. “It is usually marginal land with issues.”

So at this point there is virtually no good land that hasn’t been farmed. “That means we have to transition conventional land to organic production, which is a three-year process,” he said. “In the long run, that’s better because we are farming on better land but it takes time. We have one farm going through the transition this year.”

Speaking on Jan. 23 as California was still getting pelted with rain, Stacka said the industry is waiting for the sunny weather forecasted for the rest of the month for volume to pick up.

“We are harvesting today but I’m not sure how many trays we are going to get,” he commented.

Looking forward, he said that if the warm weather does appear there should be a good volume of berries for Valentine’s Day, including the stem berries that everyone covets. He said the fruit for that marketing period is already on the plants and beginning to size. “If it stops raining we should be in good shape.”

That production will come from the state’s three southern districts: Orange County, Oxnard and Santa Maria. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the strawberry veteran said Watsonville should come into play the last week of March or the first week in April.

“At this point we are looking for a normal start to that deal.”