Primavera Marketing reports California apple start spotty
Primavera Marketing reports California apple start spotty
Primavera Marketing Inc., in Linden, CA, packs and ships approximately 1.4 million of the 2.2 million boxes of apples produced each year in California, specifically for the fresh market.
On August 3, Richard Sambado, director of domestic sales, told The Produce News that Washington still had some old crop Galas on the market, a later-than-usual occurrence.
“Those and Chile and New Zealand imports are impacting our start — which was just this week — causing us to stumble a little,” he said. “Prices are high, but movement is spotty because of the old crop still being in the pipeline.”
He noted that the California window, as a result of these factors, could be a little shorter this year.
“California growers have been producing apples for decades, but the world’s apple production increased considerably in the past ten years,” Mr. Sambado explained. “Competitive pressures caused growers here to cut back. Today we have a small niche deal that works well. Primavera is the leader in the state because of our volumes, quality and service.”
Primavera Marketing specializes in the Gala apple variety, which Mr. Sambado said will certainly be in the number one position within the next couple of years, taking over the Granny Smith variety which has held the position for many years.
“California will produce 900,000 boxes of Galas this year, and we’ll have 650,000 of them,” said Mr. Sambado.
“We will also have about 225,000 boxes of Fuji, 425,000 boxes of Granny Smith and around 75,000 boxes of Crisp Pink apples this year,” Mr. Sambado added.
Primavera Marketing ships to retail chain stores across the United States, into Canada, and a small portion to offshore countries.
The company also packs and ships walnuts and cherries.
“Cherries are our number one crop,” said Mr. Sambado. “About 90 percent of our cracked walnuts go offshore. The demand for walnuts in China is very strong.”
