California Giant Berry Farms plans to harvest strawberries this fall with a new program based in Santa Maria, CA. Vice President of Marketing Cindy Jewell said production from this location will ramp up in August. “This crop is a little earlier than usual, but with weather conditions everything has been early this year,” she told The Produce News. “We expect to harvest into November, but are very aware that El Nino is very probable this winter as well, which may impact the end of the season for us in California.”

Ample strawberry volume will be available into November from the Watsonville and Salinas region. The company’s blueberry program will shift to South America in October, and the blackberry program will shift to Mexico in November.

Production from California Giant Berry Farms’ new Santa Maria, CA-based program is expected to pick up in August.Jewell said weather has been a hot topic of discussion this year. “We have been enjoying great volume, flavor and sizing of all of our berry varieties but have been very cautious due to the drought conditions here in California. We are now monitoring the El Nino system that appears to be very probable this winter and will quickly shift from concerns about drought to preparing for a rainy winter.”

California Giant has a strong slate of marketing programs carrying sales through the fall and into the winter. “Our fall programs include strawberries and blueberries as we promote ‘scary berries’ to our consumers for Halloween, and a ‘pink’ campaign to support cancer awareness month,” Jewell said. “We will also be working with some industry partners on winter promotions that keep berries on shopping lists for winter baking and holidays.”

Jewell said the company’s presence on social media platforms has expanded significantly. “We are using our website as a central hub for collecting consumer data and demographics for our database,” she commented. “We are now communicating daily with our consumers and continually enhancing content and free offers to build our brand loyalty.” With a strong following on Facebook, California Giant is focusing its attention on Instagram and Pinterest. “We have seen a huge spike in our YouTube activity as well due to our participation in a commercial with Wendy’s as they feature our strawberries in a summer salad this year,” she added.

During the spring, Kristin Kleiber moved from sales to the company’s marketing department. “Since then we have remodeled our office kitchen and created a test kitchen where she is doing our recipe development and food photography,” Jewell noted.

The company recently established the California Giant Foundation to unify its philanthropic initiatives and amplify the size and scope of its giving-back programs.