Curry set to market quality blues crop
Curry set to market quality blues crop
Curry & Co., headquartered in Brooks, OR, has entered its seventh year in the California blueberry deal. The company will build upon its prior successes with increased volume and good quality during 2013.
“Weather so far this spring has been just great,” Director of Sales Bruce Turner told The Produce News. “We got enough chill hours to set a great crop, bloom came a little early and the weather was warm enough for great pollenization. Some of the early varieties are already harvesting in the southern San Joaquin Valley, and the Fresno area should start on time around the 15th of May. Some of the coastal California berries started last fall in small volume and will ship through May. The majority of the California fruit will harvest between May 15 and the end of June.”
Because younger acreage is maturing, Mr. Turner said Curry & Co. will see increased crop volume this season. “With the nice spring weather, we expect excellent quality and sizing which should be good for our retail packs,” he went on to say.
Conventional California blues are marketed in the western United States and Canada under the “Curry & Co.” label primarily to retailers and wholesalers serving small regions chains. “Although we have found the foodservice channel a little fragmented, we participate where we can,” Mr. Turner stated. “We export blueberries, by air, mostly to Asia. We ship a lot more of our Oregon production overseas than we do out of California.”
Mr. Turner said Curry & Co. is upgrading its facilities. “We’ve started a three-year facilities upgrade last fall to prepare for the increasing blueberry volume out of the Pacific Northwest,” he stated. “Implemented this season will be new high-speed doors, pallet racking throughout our cold storages and new high-density insulation in our packing area. We’ve also been upgrading our packingline equipment, and we will be operating two A&B Evolution exact-weight fillers this season.”
