How Oregon’s strawberry season is shaping up

Oregon strawberries are renowned for their deep-red color and exceptional sweetness. They’re a special fruit, but the high sugar content that makes their flavor pop also makes them difficult to ship and store. Most of the state’s berries go into the processed market, to be used in ice cream, pastries and other goodies.

But as reported in the Capital Press, California strawberries account for more and more of that market, meaning fewer profits for Oregon farmers. The shift has led to a decline in strawberry production across the state. Oregon growers produced just 11 million pounds of strawberries in 2021, down from 40.2 million in 2001.

Jayson Hoffman grows strawberries and is chairman of the Oregon Strawberry Commission. He joins us with more details on the state of the industry and an update on this year’s strawberry season.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. It is strawberry season in Oregon, but there are many fewer berries here than there used to be. In 2001, Oregon farmers grew about 40 million pounds of strawberries. Last year, according to the state’s strawberry commission, it was down to only 7 million, an 83% drop. And as the Capital Press reported recently, Townsend Farms, which is one of the largest growers and processors in the state, just announced that they’re getting out of the business after 40 years. So what is happening? And what does the future hold for Oregon’s super sweet, super juicy, often fragile berries? Jayson Hoffman is a second generation farmer at Hoffman Farms and serves as the chairman of the Oregon Strawberry Commission. He joins us now. Jayson Hoffman, welcome.

Jayson Hoffman: Hi, welcome. Thanks for the opportunity to come in and speak about Oregon strawberries.

Miller: Thanks for joining us. What went through your mind when you heard that one of the largest strawberry growers and processors in the state was getting out of the business?

Hoffman: Yeah. So my initial thought was that it solidifies the idea that we are an ever changing ag-economy in the state of Oregon, and the economics have produced unappetizing grower returns. So growers are having to go elsewhere with their land and grow something that’s more profitable.

Miller: California grows about 90% of the country’s total strawberry crop, and they’re sent in those plastic containers all over the country, including a lot of them in Oregon. How does California’s dominance affect Oregon growers?

Hoffman: We have a really profound breeding program with USDA and Washington State University and Oregon State University that has developed very, very good varieties that Oregon growers are growing today. Not just the classic Hood that everybody knows of and is familiar with.

The challenge is that private researchers in California and the private companies have developed berries that have been comparable to a processed berry that Oregon is growing. And so the economics are their fresh berries are going to the supermarkets, and their berries that don’t make it into the clamshell are going into the process market and competing with Oregon strawberries.

Miller: This was news to me, the basic economics of strawberry growing here. You’re talking about two different potential end products: fresh ones in the plastic clamshell, and processed ones. What percentage roughly of the strawberries that are grown in Oregon are for the processed market?

Hoffman: Roughly 95-96% of the berries that are grown in the state of Oregon go to processed. So that’s to your ice cream, your strawberry lemonade, your strawberry flavoring. A lot of it is to freezer berries, or they’ll go to the freezer packs that people buy in the supermarkets – a tri-berry, or a quad berry, or a fruit bundle that people put in their smoothies.

Miller: Why is this? To me, it’s a little bit confounding. I think of Hoods – they’re not the only one, but they’re the most iconic Oregon berry – [and] to me, what’s so amazing about them is how sweet and strawberry flavor-filled it is. It seems like a shame to have them go to be frozen and then eaten a year later, if fresh, they’re so amazing. So why is it that more than nine out of 10 of them grown in Oregon are not eaten fresh?

Hoffman: The idea is because they’re so sweet … and when you think of Oregon strawberry, people think of just immense amount of flavor in their mouth when they bite into it. That does not travel very well throughout the country. So if you try to put that into a clamshell that people buy in the supermarkets, or you try to put it into a pack, we’re able to ship small quantities through the country but not large volume. They don’t last very long. People know this by going to a you-pick farm and buying their berries, picking them themselves or buying at the farm stand; their berries don’t last very long in their refrigerators at home.

Miller: You have to take them home carefully, otherwise they’ll turn into jam on your way home.

Hoffman: Correct. We do it delicately and we do it because we’re taking the utmost care of our berries. And the transportation system is meant for economics and it’s not meant for the most delicate care. And so they don’t last very well if we want to ship an Oregon strawberry to Georgia, The quality just doesn’t stand up. So the best way to ship them to Georgia is frozen in a pack that they can consume later.

Miller: I used to see those gargantuan strawberries from California. And they just didn’t taste like strawberries. But I have to say that in recent years, it seems like something has changed. They taste better, they taste sweeter, they taste more like strawberries. That’s the expensive strawberry, privately created genetics, that have actually just meant they can make better strawberries down there?

Hoffman: Breeding programs have developed very, very good fruit for across all regions and has really impacted the California strawberry market. Now a strawberry plant is only lasting a year or two at most in Oregon. We can get three years on a really good clean field. The same in California, their roll over on new varieties are changing quite frequently because the strawberry plants don’t survive very long. Well, their breeding programs have upped their game in the last two decades. That old style, kind of taste like cardboard, white in the middle, not the greatest strawberry, but hey, it’s fruit in the winter months, it is now deep dark red through the berry. And I don’t want to be a spokesperson for California, but they’ve done somewhat of a good job of creating a sweeter berry and listening to the consumers.

Miller: Is there any kind of an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude among Oregon growers? If you’re being squeezed out of the market by California growers who can sell both the fresh ones and get more money for those, and then with their leftovers outcompete you to some extent for the processed ones, are there Oregon growers who are saying “well, let’s just grow some of the hardier versions, the ones that we can put in clamshells as well”?

Hoffman: So that’s a good question and a great thought process. The challenge is that Oregon and Washington have a completely different growing system than California. Their heat days, how hot it gets, and their sandier soils that they have down there, they’re grown in a different way than the Pacific Northwest. Oregon and Washington have very similar growing systems, and we have cold chills where it goes into the cold parts of the winter, where California never gets into the cold, they never get below 32 for a long time in the winter. So the growing systems just quite frankly aren’t the same. We’re not able to even grow similar. We’re able to grow very sweet berries, but we have to grow different varieties of berries in Oregon and Washington. And Washington State University, Oregon State University and USDA have had very good success in developing good varieties outside of that iconic Hood.

Miller: Do you see ways to bump up the market for Oregon’s fresh berries?

Hoffman: There’s a strawberry shortcake week that’s coming up here in the next couple of weeks, James Beard culinary week that’s coming up. Having local support for fresh market strawberries when the strawberry season is in, it’s a short season, and then we can get into some day neutrals that can carry us to August and September. But it’s supporting local farm stands and supporting the local stores that are carrying local strawberries, during the time that Oregon is actually growing this fruit.

Miller: What are some of the other varieties that you think Oregonians should be aware of? Let’s say they already know Hoods, they’ve seen the signs saying “the Hoods are here.” What else should we be paying attention to?

Hoffman: Sweet Sunrise is a great variety, and Puget Crimson, Marys Peak – those are three varieties that have good flavor. Sweet Sunrise is an earlier one that comes on just right before Hoods. But they have a really good flavor profile. We showcase those at our farm store, and we do a taste test between Hoods and Sweet Sunrise, and even a Tillamook. And we can change some people’s minds when they taste one of these other varieties. We say, look, the Hood is a great flavor, everyone remembers it and they remember it from their childhood and it’s a great berry. But it doesn’t last the longest in storage at your home or in the car. But these other varieties have great qualities, they’re still comparable in sweetness, and they last longer in the possession of the consumer.

Miller: The last 24 hours, just in the Portland area, we’ve seen some rain, some sun, not too hot though. What has this season been like for you and for strawberries weather-wise?

Hoffman: This season has been a moderate/good growing cycle. We had a really good bloom season, and then we got a little bit of incremental weather where we had a late frost, and then we had some colder, rainier days. And then it went really hot, and then it kind of went back down to temper. What we’re finding is this overcast kind of cool windier weather is fantastic for strawberry sizing. It works really well and the strawberries really increase their sugar levels and ripen evenly. But we’re finding that some of the berries are looking a little ugly, if you will. We call them monkey face in the market. They’re not the prettiest, iconic teardrop, almost like a heart look. They’re kind of a little mangled, but they taste just as good. But their appearance maybe is a little off.

Miller: And if you mush them up and put them in ice cream, who’s going to know?

Hoffman: You put them in ice cream or a shortcake, they taste just the same.

Miller: Jayson Hoffman, it was a pleasure to talk with you. Here’s to a continued at least moderately good year, if not better. Jayson, thanks very much.

Hoffman: Thanks for the time.

Miller: Jayson Hoffman is the chairman of the Oregon Strawberry Commission, a second generation strawberry farmer at Hoffman Farms.

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