The California Strawberry Industry: Current Trends and Future Prospects

Fruit production, plant production, genetics, technological advancements, food safety practices, and dedication to sustainable practices make California the most important strawberry production area in the world. California grew 16,303 hectares of strawberries in 2023 in three growing districts located along California's Central Coast: Oxnard, Santa Maria and Watsonville-Salinas. Transplants are grown on approximately 1,627 ha at high and low elevation nurseries located up to a thousand km from fruit growing districts. Almost all fruit production is in open fields with a small amount under high plastic tunnels either in soil or on tabletops. Nursery production is almost all in open fields. In 2022, there were 13 public cultivars grown with the most popular being Monterey, Portola, Fronteras, Cabrillo, and San Andreas grown on 27%, 13%, 11%, 4% and 2% of the planted acres, respectively. All proprietary cultivars combined made up 39% of the planted acres. Fresh market makes up 81% of the harvested fruit with 19% destined for processing into concentrates, individually quick frozen, purees and juice. Most fruit are sold domestically (87%) while 13% is exported, the majority to Canada (62%) and Mexico (25%). The most important diseases are Macrophomina root rot, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, Phytophthora root rot, Botrytis fruit rot and powdery mildew. The most important arthropod pests are twospotted spider mite and Lygus bug. Current challenges include increased regulation on water quality, fumigants, pesticides, labor and increased urbanization.