After early-season rains that slowed the start of the strawberry season, things are on track at Wm. Manis & Co. in Plant City, FL.

Following “a few showers” that were “a pain in the butt” getting out of the gate, the season settled down and has progressed satisfactorily “quality wise and weather wise,” according to owner Rick Sullivan.

Last season, a great early start was dampened by too much of a good thing — sunshine. In December 2011, Florida farmers had crop sets that portended a bumper crop. An abnormally warm winter ensued and that crop arrived, but growers found they had no market for it. California’s season had gone longer than usual and Mexico also had abnormal heat and a bumper crop.

This year, Florida enjoyed cooler-than-normal nights from late November through December and into the first few days of January.

Early rains slowed the Manis strawberry crop, but the season has settled into a good one with cool days promising a steady harvest. (Photo courtesy of USDA/ARS)Grey days and cloud cover kept temperatures down and gave strawberries a chance to thrive without running rampant, setting up a timely harvest that should provide a steady supply of fruit throughout the season without the kind of heavy volume that can tank a market.

“We’ve gotten through" the rainy start, Mr. Sullivan said. “Right now we’re really enjoying this weather and so is the farm and the grower.”

It also helps that California had an earlier exit from the deal this year. Mexico beat Florida to the market, with strawberries on store shelves in early October before the first Sunshine State product arrived around Thanksgiving. But since then, the Florida crop has come on in earnest, Mexican production is average, and markets are solid.

While the Manis Co. deals in a variety of produce 12 months of the year, the staffers are strawberry experts.

The company’s offices are located in the heart of Plant City, surrounded by thousands of acres of strawberries fanning out in a 30-mile radius of the building.

The company’s experts visit fields regularly to keep an eye on the crop. Digital images show buyers what’s available, and the Manis employees are available to help out around the clock.

That is no surprise coming from a company that has been in the produce business for more than 50 years as a grower, shipper, importer and procurer. Manis is a leading marketer of watermelons, Athena cantaloupes, citrus, strawberries, import specialties, Southern vegetables and fruits of the Pacific Northwest, and also imports melons, asparagus and other offshore items enabling customized mixed loads as customers need.

This year the company expanded its homegrown program, adding fall watermelons, mini seedless watermelons, green peppers, squash, eggplant and cabbage to its Primus Labs-certified farming operation in Wauchula, FL.

Despite the busy strawberry season — or perhaps because of it — “there’s really not a lot of new stuff to tell; everything’s really status quo,” Mr. Sullivan said.

“We still have the same team here and we’re just out doing our thing,” he added.