Vendors getting ready for Watsonville Strawberry Festival, despite winter storm setback

WATSONVILLE, CA. (KION-TV): The annual Strawberry Festival in Watsonville is just a few days away, and local businesses that sell at the festival are getting ready for the big weekend.

Jose Antonio Reynaga, owner of Corralitos Pizza in Watsonville, said this year has been rough for his family-owned business because of the storms that happened earlier this year. He hopes the strawberry festival will bring them extra cash.

Corralitos Pizza in Watsonville had been here for 5 years. They have been selling their strawberry pizza at the strawberry festival since 2018, but this year Reynaga said he was worried he wasn't going to find enough strawberries because of the storms.

"It was hard to find it in the beginning but they said the strawberries will be there, for the pizza,” said Reynaga

The California Strawberry Commission said because of the storms we had earlier this year-- approximately, 5% of the farms in the Pajaro and Salinas area were destroyed. They also said strawberry production was 4–6 weeks behind, but wants the consumers to know to not worry.

"In general we're going to have a very productive year, there will be plenty of strawberries, in the produce aisles, at the festival. It should be something, obviously, if you're a farmer locally, you might see an impact, but for consumers very little impact,” said Jeff Cardinale, Director of Communications of the CA Strawberry Commission.

Reynaga hopes this year's strawberry festival will be a good one for his family's business.

"My expectation is to bring the community together, especially the business, help the community, help the business, local business, my expectation is to bring come good pizza," said Reynaga.

Reynaga said the money that his family makes from selling their strawberry pizza at the festival a portion of it goes out to local non-profits.

The festival starts this Friday and goes on through Sunday in Watsonville.