To improve its spring supply situation in strawberries, Watsonville, CA-based CBS Farms LLC has added a deal in the Santa Maria district this year.

Charlie Staka, who wears the title of director of sales but has moved to the operations side of the business, said the new acreage “will give us more consistent supplies in the April/May time slot.”

CBS Farms is the sales arm for the strawberry production of three growers headquartered in Watsonville: Beach Street Farms, Colleen Strawberries Inc. and Surfside Farms. The growers produce both organic and conventional berries throughout California with acreage in Oxnard, Watsonville, and now Santa Maria as well.

Like the other shippers interviewed, Staka said this year has gotten off to a slow start and a hot market with Florida’s lack of supplies being the biggest factor. In recent years, Florida has become a bigger player in the early end of the strawberry deal and this year, late fall heat wiped out a good portion of their production. Most are estimating that Florida is down 50 percent. Cold and wet weather in California has seen the Golden State’s strawberry supplies lag behind early volume levels of the last few years exacerbating the lack of supply situation and producing a very strong market.

“I think we will have a good market for the next couple of weeks and then supplies should be better and prices will stabilize,” Staka said on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

He noted that the market for organic berries should remain stronger for a bit longer as there just isn’t that much acreage in the state to fill demand in the early going. He said it will probably be around mid-March before the organic supply and demand curve is in sync.

As far as trends are concerned, Staka said the two-pound clamshell seems to be gaining popularity, cannibalizing some of the sales from the larger four-pound clamshell. “We have had some customers adopt the two-pounder and others moved from the four-pounder,” he said. “The two-pounder in an eight down box is becoming very popular.”

The majority of sales continue to be in the one-pound clamshell.

The sales desk at CBS Farms includes veterans Jerry Summers and Bob Rigor, along with Luke Scurich, a local kid who graduated from college and started with the firm about a year ago after interning with the organization.