HAINES CITY – For decades, Florida strawberry growers worried about competition from California, the largest U.S. strawberry grower, and its ability to encroach on their exclusive market window as the sole domestic producer of fresh strawberries east of the Mississippi from late November to March.
Entering the 2012-13 season, the competitive threat comes from Mexico, which is fighting in that same market window to supply U.S. consumers with fresh strawberries.
"As long as I can remember, I heard about big, bad California," said Andy McDonald, a third-generation strawberry grower in Plant City and president of the Dover-based Florida Strawberry Growers Association. "Now Mexico is staring us in the face."
Florida is the second largest U.S. strawberry producer with 9,900 acres in the 2010-11 season, still small compared with 38,000 California acres, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.
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