Strawberry Prices Down, For Now

The long, cold winter meant a late harvest for strawberries in Florida, California and in Baldwin County. And for the past week to ten days, the crops from those areas have all been hitting the market at the same time.

That's pushed prices lower, according to Dennis Young at Burris Farm Market in Loxley. The Florida and California harvests were overlapping putting a lot of strawberries on the market. Baldwin County strawberries were just beginning to find their way to markets over this past weekend.

George Nolde, a strawberry farmer, says don't let the plump berries fool you. It's taken a lot of work and expense to bring in a decent crop this year. The good news is, if the weather doesn't turn really hot, which forces the plants to stop producing, farmers should have another six weeks of strawberry picking weather to go.

Prices are already starting to creep back up because Florida is getting toward the end of its season, according to Young.

Even though it was a late strawberry season, it was just in time for this year's Baldwin County Strawberry Festival in Loxley, April 10 and 11th at the Loxley Municipal Park.