Favourable growing conditions in California’s San Joaquin Valley are expected to allow for an on-time start to the 2013 pomegranate season this year.
“The pomegranate deal should be starting fairly early this year,” said Gerhard Leodolter of Pom Wonderful. “We expect to begin the first picking around the last week of September with the Wonderful variety.”
From all indications, there is huge California crop in the works – anywhere from 10 to 15 percent over last year, he said.
Jeff Simonian of the Simonian Fruit Company said his firm expected the season to get underway by 1 October, which is fairly typical for the Wonderful variety.
“We’ve already started our Early Wonderfuls and our proprietary variety, Urbanek,” he said. “At this point, fruit quality and sizing look fine, with no major issues to speak of. We are waiting on better colour, however, as it’s been pretty hot in the San Joaquin Valley lately.”
