LOCAL ITEMS VEGETABLES. March 28, supply remains average.

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Noel Wheeler
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March 28, 2018 LOCAL ITEMS supply remains average. Urban Organics - St. Paul, MN: Organic clamshell salad mixes Cabbage: Texas is shipping with excellent quality. Market prices are declining.

russet potatoes, purple potatoes and variety pack potatoes Cauliflower: Cauliflower will increase in market price for next week. Supply will remain lighter than average due to strong Holiday demand.

Overall supply has tightened up due to strong Holiday demand and recent rainfall in growing regions. Corn: Quality is very nice. Market price is stable.

limited for the next 7 to 10 days. This year prices will fluctuate more than in past years due to variable freight availability and rates.

1 March 28, 2018 LOCAL ITEMS supply remains average. Urban Organics - St. Paul, MN: Organic clamshell salad mixes Cabbage: Texas is shipping with excellent quality. Market prices are declining. IGL Farms - Antigo, WI: Organic red potato, yellow potato and russet potato Driftless Organics - Soldiers Grove, WI: Organic turnips Hugh s Garden - Moorhead, MN: Organic red potato, yellow potato, russet potatoes, purple potatoes and variety pack potatoes Cauliflower: Cauliflower will increase in market price for next week. Supply will remain lighter than average due to strong Holiday demand. Celery: Sleeved celery will increase in market price for next week whereas celery hearts will hold steady. Overall supply has tightened up due to strong Holiday demand and recent rainfall in growing regions. Corn: Quality is very nice. Market price is stable. The Florida Spring Sweet Corn crop is projected to be excellent quality and availability, although most growers are currently going through a harvest gap caused by cooler temperatures making supplies limited for the next 7 to 10 days. This year prices will fluctuate more than in past years due to variable freight availability and rates. VEGETABLES Asparagus: With Mexico winding down look for the shift to California product. Quality was excellent out of Mexico this year. Cucumbers: Mexico continues to ship the best quality and consistency. The markets are starting to decrease, Southern Mexico has started harvesting new fields bringing more volume to the market. Florida is expected to start harvesting more volume in the weeks to come which should take markets even lower. Broccoli: Broccoli 14 s will see a slight decrease in market price for next week whereas crowns will see a slight increase. Overall russdaviswholesale.com crazyfreshproduce.com

2 Eggplant: We are loading in Nogales with good quality, markets are stable. Southern California growers are projecting a mid-april harvest start. Green Beans: Florida quality and supply are excellent. Market price is stable. Green Bell Peppers: Nogales and Florida are shipping with good availability. Markets have increased slightly. Southern California is starting to harvest in a light way, cooler than normal weather lately in California has slowed growth but most growers a looking at being in full production by mid-april. Green Onions: Green onions will see a slight increase in market price for next week. Overall supply remains good. Green/Red Leaf Lettuce: Both green leaf and red leaf lettuce will see slight decreases in market price for next week. Supply on green remains tight whereas red remains good. Cool weather and heavy rainfall in growing regions is negatively impacting overall supply as well as creating industry-wide quality issues. Moving forward, multiple labels will be necessary to obtain better quality product. We are currently sourcing leaf lettuce from multiple regions. Hard Squash: We are loading in Mexico with excellent quality. Markets have increased on most varieties. Spaghetti remains low. Iceberg Lettuce: Iceberg will decrease in market price for next week. Supply is average for the time being. We are now sourcing iceberg from the Huron growing region. Expect active markets as we progress through the south-to-north transition. ONIONS: Demand in the onion market remains light but has seen some pick up in the weeks before Easter. Supplies are available out of most storage areas as well as Mexico. Pricing adjustments are not likely in the next month, as demand figures to trail off following Easter. Vidalias: The official start date for Vidalias will be April 20 putting the first Vidalia labeled onions into our warehouses around 4/23. There will be some early Georgia Sweet onions but the cool weather in Georgia is limiting the early crop availability this year. POTATOES: Russets: Russet potato pricing and demand remains steady throughout the country. Supplies of russet potatoes appear to be adequate in most growing areas to last until 2018 harvest. Idaho is feeling a bit more optimistic about the size of their current inventory resulting in some weakening on prices. Local Reds: The red potato market has softened as supplies from Florida hit the market Florida has a large crop this year. Red River Valley quality is good with very promotable pricing. RDW is now bringing in New Crop Florida B Reds. Local Golds: Major shipping regions are beginning to wrap up their supplies of storage crop yellow potatoes. New crop yellow potatoes are becoming available from growers in Florida but at a considerably higher cost. Red, Yellow, Orange Peppers: Mexico continues production with good availability. Markets are slightly declining. Canadian Hot House product is starting in a light way. Romaine Lettuce: Both romaine hearts and cartons will see slight decreases in market price for next week. Romaine supply remains very tight industry-wide due to the desert winding down earlier than anticipated. Cool weather and heavy rainfall in growing regions is negatively impacting overall supply as well as creating industry-wide quality issues. Moving forward, multiple labels will be necessary to obtain better quality product. We are currently sourcing romaine from multiple regions. Snap/Snow Peas: Currently production is fairly steady and decent on snow peas and sugar snaps out of Guatemala however traditionally around end of March through May Guatemala starts to wind down and the switch to CA and Peru can experience gaps and supplies usually dwindle and prices spike, especially sugar snaps, Peru and CA do not have enough volume to pick up the slack. At this time though we don t have any serious weather events in Guatemala which will affect us in the extreme short term. Sweet Mini Peppers: Western supply is very strong with excellent quality and markets are low. Time to promote! Zucchini and Yellow Squash: Mexico continues to ship the best quality. Nogales supply and markets have decreased as southern Mexico growing regions are producing more volume. Time to russdaviswholesale.com crazyfreshproduce.com 2

Conventional Spring Mix: Good supplies (mustard is getting tight) and good quality.

3 promote! VALUE ADDED DOLE: Iceberg: Better supply and good quality. Romaine Lettuce: Tighter supply for the next 3-5 weeks. Quality is okay. There is fringe burn, greener material, epidermal peel and blistering. Red & Green Leaf Lettuce: Good supply and quality on both. Conventional Spinach: Good supply and good quality. Conventional Spring Mix: Good supplies (mustard is getting tight) and good quality. MANNS: We re expected to be in good supplies on all items as long as we do not have any production line issue we should be fine this week. EARTHBOUND FARM: Romaine: Currently, we are seeing some quality defects in our Romaine, due to the time of the year and growing region transition. A good portion of our supply did not meet our quality spec. FRUIT Apples: Import Braeburns will start around the 2 nd week of May. Washington will have product up until the imports start. Organic Honeycrisp and Organic Pink Lady apples are finishing up for the season out of Washington. We will have New Zealand Smitten apples available the 3 rd weekend of April. Avocados: CA fruit is growing slower than expected because of rain, and even further it is solely being consumed in CA so it s not really effecting the market that much. There are still some shortages that the market as a whole is experiencing. There needs to be great weather improvements for CA volumes to go up. This is expected sometime in April, but not sure if it will improve. Real market change won t happen until the fruit naturally comes in early summer. Blackberries: Quality has been very good, one of the only promotable berries currently. Blueberries: We will be transitioning out of imports and into Florida blueberries. Look for quality to improve. Cantaloupe/Honeydew: Growers are moving back into Guatemala for the second harvest with sizes being larger. Quality has been excellent throughout the import season. Cherries: The crop is coming along great so far. We should see the first product available during the third week of April. Mother nature permitting. CITRUS: Sky Valleys- We will have Sky Valleys available for approx. the next 7 days. Navels- Sizing is still peaking on larger fruit and will remain that way through the season. Navels will wrap up around June 15th. Cara Caras- Sizing is still peaking on larger fruit, they will be available through the end of April. Moro Oranges- Sizing is still peaking on larger fruit, they will be available through Mid-May. Minneolas- Sizing is peaking smaller, great opportunities on bagged fruit. They will be available through April. Grapefruit- Texas will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. After that we will transition to California. Florida White Grapefruit- Done for the season. Halos- Volumes are strong with availability through May. Pummelos- Are winding down for the season, we will have them available for the next two weeks. Organic Navels- are winding down for the season, they will be russdaviswholesale.com crazyfreshproduce.com 3

4 available through April. Grapes: Reds are still promotable with good volume and quality. Greens are going into storage fruit. Look for higher prices. Mexico will be starting up the middle of April. Kiwi: Italian winding down, markets tightening up. You will see Chilean kiwi begin to trickle into the market in the next few weeks. Domestic Kiwi through the end of May. Limes: Limes are loading out of Vera Cruz and Jalisco, Mexico. We are still seeing a crazy market on limes for the next few weeks due to fungus affecting the lime blooms several weeks ago. We will start to see better supplies of limes in the next 2 to 3 weeks. Mangoes: Mangoes are plentiful loading out of Florida and Texas. Nicaraguan / Mexican Tommy Atkins and Ataulfo / Honey Mangoes available. Pears: Market is steady on Import Bartlett s with steady pricing. Good supply of Anjou Pears out of Washington and market is steady. Raspberries: Quality is good, production is normal for this time of year. Stone Fruit: We have cleaned up on imported fruit. Look for some Florida Peaches to become available the middle of April. Strawberries: We do not expect to see any relief on strawberries for another week or two yet. The rain has forced everyone to strip the fields and are now waiting on production to come back. TOMATOES: Roma: Quality remains very good from most shipping points. Markets are declining as Mexico is seeing an abundance of fruit currently. Markets are projected to stay low for the next few weeks, time to promote! Grape/Cherry: Quality is excellent. Markets are stable. On the Vine: Markets are slightly declining as more volume from Canadian greenhouses is becoming available. Beefsteak: Markets are declining. Mexico is shipping and Canadian Green House Tomatoes will not be available until mid-april. WATERMELON: Mexico is starting to harvest their new crops in Western and Eastern side. Volume will be light to start but in the next week or 2 we should see some good volume and prices should start to come down. Domestic watermelon will be ready around mid to late April if the weather continues to cooperate. Mini Seedless: Market is steady, quality is good from Mexico. ORGANIC New Items: Organic Easter Egg Radish 24ct. These did not end up happening. Cal Organic s fields were rained out and they did not harvest anything the second half of next week Org 15# Rhubarb /5oz Urban Organics Spring Mix /5oz Urban Organics Rose Blend /5oz Urban Organics Classic Duo /5oz Urban Organics Twin Kales /5oz Urban Organics Umami Blend /5oz Urban Organics Patio Mix /5oz Urban Organics River City Mix /5oz Urban Organics Just Romaine Up Next - Org ataulfo mangos in a couple weeks. Org cantaloupe, mini seedless and honeydew in 3-4 weeks. Organic Asparagus: Asparagus has tightened up due to holiday demand and cold weather slowing production. Organic Blueberries: We have Chilean blueberries at promotable volumes right now. Organic Brussels Sprouts: Brussels sprouts are from Mexico and California. Organic Grapes: Organic red and green grapes are done for the season. There may be some very limited import red grapes next month, otherwise next season isn t until May. Organic Grape Tomatoes: We are back into just carrying DelCabo russdaviswholesale.com crazyfreshproduce.com 4

5 grape tomatoes. Organic Fingerlings: We are done for the season with organic fingerling potatoes. Next season starts in June. Organic Jalapeños: Should have solid availability on organic jalapeños for a couple of months now. Organic Mandarins: Both bagged and bulk murcotts mandarins are here! Season should go through April with promotions available all season. Organic Mangoes: Kent mangoes are done until the undipped start in august. we just have tommy atkins mangoes now. Organic Parsnips: Done for the season with bulk and wrapped parsnips. May have some local over wintered parsnips in April, but otherwise out until fall. Organic Pomegranates: Pomegranate arils will be gapping for a few weeks while we wait for imports to start. Organic Sweet Onions: Organic Vidalia onions will start in April. Organic Turmeric: We are back into Hawaiian turmeric. russdaviswholesale.com crazyfreshproduce.com 5

LOCAL ITEMS VEGETABLES. March 21, 2018

LOCAL ITEMS VEGETABLES. March 21, 2018 March 21, 2018 LOCAL ITEMS Everything is pretty much done for the season for storage crops. We have some stragglers around. But we will have local potatoes for a few more months! Look forward to local