September 14, 2016 LOCALLY GROWN Conventional Local: Cortland apples, McIntosh apples, Sweet Tango apples, apple cider, green top beets, green cabbage, red cabbage, cucumbers, dill, eggplant, green beans, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, green kale, gourds, Indian corn, large pumpkins, mini pumpkins, pie pumpkins, gold potatoes, red potatoes, russet potatoes, white potatoes, cello radishes, bulk and tray sweet corn. Chicken Ridge Orchard - LaCrescent, MN: Organic paula red apples Seed to Seed - Balsam Lake, WI: Organic green kale, green top radishes, zucchini, yellow squash, red kale, green cabbage, red cabbage, green peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, Brussel sprouts, turnips and collard greens Shared Grounds Farmers Coop - St. Paul, MN: Organic jalapeño, shallots, brussels sprouts, watermelon and tomatillo St. Croix Valley - Woodville, WI: Organic rainbow chard, green chard, cucumbers, sweet onions, yellow onions, white onions, Roma tomatoes, Brussel sprouts, acorn squash and spaghetti squash Driftless Organics - Soldiers Grove, WI: Organic mini peppers clamshell, red beets and gold beets Harmony Valley - Viroqua, WI: Organic arugula, baby bok choy, dandelion greens, green top red beets, cilantro, eggplant, curly parsley, butternut squash, and mini sweet peppers Hill and Valley - Hillsboro, WI: Organic sweet onions, red onions, yellow onions, red beets, gold beets, spaghetti squash, butternut squash and concord grapes Hoch Orchard - LaCrescent, MN: Organic apple cider Real Foods - Athens, WI: Organic heirloom cherry tomatoes, sweet onions, red onions and yellow squash russdaviswholesale.com VEGETABLES Asparagus: Quality and production are both good. Steady supplies are being flown in from Peru. Some shippers are still going in Mexico as well. 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com
Broccoli: Broccoli will continue to rise in price for next week as supply is expected to lights than originally forecast due to weather in Mexican growing regions reducing overall yield. Cabbage: Local green and red cabbage are currently shipping with good supply. Market price is steady. Cucumbers: Local cucumbers are finished, and we will move to North Carolina and Georgia until Mexico starts. Market price will Eggplant: Michigan will ship for a short time with market price increasing until Georgia is ready in the coming weeks. Green Beans: Most local suppliers have finished sooner than anticipated due to too much rain over the past couple weeks. We will be loading in Georgia at the beginning of October, and the market will increase with tight supply. Green Bell Peppers: We are loading green bell peppers in Michigan for another week. Market price is projected to slightly Hard Shell Squash: Local hard shell squash is available. Time to promote! HOT HOUSE: Canadian Cucumbers: Picking fresh daily. Quality is great. Excellent time to promote! Canadian Peppers: Canadian production is low due to the Pepper Weavel bug. Mexico is running with decent production and quality. TOV and Beef: Production is low as the struggle against the weather in all regions has taken a toll on the plants and not giving them time to regenerate. Look for a strong market to continue for the next month on all tomatoes. Mini Sweet Peppers: Supply is tightening as some growing areas finish and others are not at full production. The market will increase slightly. Onions: RDW is now supplying new crop Washington onions. Growers are quickly moving through early varieties. Supplies of onions are plentiful and currently meeting demand. Initial quality out of Washington has been good. We are anticipating a good year to promote onions as current figures point to a big supply for the rest of the year. POTATOES: Russets: RDW is sourcing both New Crop Wisconsin and New Crop Minnesota Russets. Quality is good from both regions. We are carrying both local consumer bags and local baker potatoes. We are also bringing in new crop Idaho Russets in the Green Giant label. There is good availability on russets, and growers are expecting an above average crop with larger than normal size. Some downward pricing is expected in the upcoming weeks as supplies Reds: The red potato market has been under considerable pressure as demand has been strong, but availability has tightened up. Prices have increased. Minnesota will soon be done with reds and North Dakota isn t projected to have much volume until the last week of September. A short supply gap is possible. Availability on B Reds is limited and no ads are recommended for the next few weeks. RDW is sourcing both New Crop Wisconsin and New Crop Minnesota Reds. Quality has been good. Golds: Supplies of new crop yellow potatoes are becoming available. This has transitioned the summer s high market prices to more reasonable harvest-season prices. Pumpkins: Local pumpkins and fall decorative items are available! Radishes: Local radishes remain light in supply. Green tops will remain a product of CA/MEX for next week, where cellos will be a mixture of local, USA and Canadian product. Snow/Snap Peas: New Peruvian product is what we are currently loading. Market is stabilizing. Sweet Corn: Good quality corn supply is quickly fading. Market price is climbing. Georgia will start to load around October 1st. Sweet Potatoes: New crop Mississippi sweets should be available for the first week of October. We should have a good supply of sweet potatoes through September with no gaps before new crop in October. Quality on storage crop sweets continues to be good and pricing is stable. We are now carrying new crop Jerseys and Red Garnets from California. russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 2
Zucchini and Yellow Squash: There is a shortage of product nationwide due to areas finishing sooner than expected, including our local supply. The market is high. We will source product from multiple areas as no one area is able to ship at their full volume. VALUE ADDED DOLE: Lettuce: We are in good supplies with overall good quality. Romaine: We are in excess volume for the next few weeks. Quality is good. Leaf Lettuce: Good volume and quality. Cabbage: Green and Red supplies and quality are good. Tenderleaf: Good supplies available in spring mix and spinach. Quality is good. MANN: Snap peas supplies have tightened up as imports from Guatemala have dried up. Peru supplies are also dwindling and are expected to be done for the season soon. Domestic supplies are down due to quality issues. Bruising has become the main issue and occurs when the peas are big and plump. The bruising occurs during the wash/packaging process as the peas run into each other to create the bruise. The bruising is cosmetic only. Beans: French and Wax beans supplies continue to be inconsistent due to quality issue. EBF: Our supply of baby spinach is decreasing due to quality issues in the field. We expect prorates to increase the balance of the week. We have continued to see production issues in the plant last week which contributed to our shortages. Organic Romaine Hearts: Great promotable supplies! FRUIT Apples: Honeycrisp will be available next weekend! Avocados: Saving the biggest for last. Mexico shipped 35 million lbs into the US last week. Sizing is peaking heavily to 40 s and 48 s with 60 s and smaller becoming more difficult to procure by the day. Heavy rains recently as well as local juntas (governments) holding back harvest permits, have created a very strong market for Mexican avocados in the US. The next crop (Aventajado) is still struggling to make US required maturity levels. Most are forecasting this crop will get going in a real way by early October. We should see much better supplies of small fruit once that occurs. Until then, the buying focus should be on getting supplied rather than what the cost is. The US needs at least 45 million lbs of fruit on a weekly basis to stabilize. With about 10-13 million lbs less currently, and prices are expected to be at or near these levels for another 2-3 weeks. That being said, what has happened with the US avocado markets the last few months hasn t been seen in at least the last 15 years. Blackberries: Mexico is just starting up. Quality out of other regions has been OK. Blueberries: There have been low volumes, but Peru should start up soon. Quality has been OK. Cantaloupe/Honeydew: Good production for the next few weeks, and we will transition to Arizona the first part of October. Cranberries: We will see Wisconsin cranberries by the end of September. Dragon Fruit: Florida should get going soon. Grapes: Great time to promote with excellent volume and quality. Many shippers are transitioning into new varieties, so look for prices to take a tick up. Limes: Currently the limes are loading out of Vera Cruz and Jalisco, Mexico. They did get some rain in lime country, so harvesting has been a little slow. All sizes of limes are available, however, we will see a small increase in price for just a week or so and then russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 3
back to normal. Mangoes: We are starting to see short supplies on smaller fruit. As we move through August, larger sizes will be prevalent in the market. New crop Brazilian are now available, and we will see pricing going up over the coming weeks. Francine Haitian mangoes have sporadic availability. PAPAYA: Solo: Availability keeps improving. Hopefully we will see the bigger sizes that we prefer soon. Maradol: Very good availability! Pomegranates: 26 s, 30 s and 36ct early variety pomegranates are now available! Fuyu persimmons will start in a light way next week. Rambutan: Available! Raspberries: There is still extremely low production with no ad opportunities in the foreseeable future. Strawberries: There is excellent production and quality. Now is a great time to promote. Stone Fruit: Black plums are week to week right now as production winds down. Red plums will have good production into October. Many shippers will be done this week with nectarines. Idaho is winding up this week with peaches. Shippers out of California still have some late season fruit. WATERMELON: We are currently loading in Texas. The market will increase as Texas demand increases. Mexico will not be ready until early October. Mini-Seedless Watermelon: We move back to product from Mexico and Georgia in the coming weeks for the fall season. Market price is projected to increase as Midwest and Texas crops finish. ORGANIC New Items: 49235-12/1qt organic local concord grape 48599-9/50oz organic local apple cider Up Next - We will have local organic kalettes again next weeks! Organic asparagus is two weeks out. Organic Blueberries: Pacific Northwest blueberries are done for the season. Waiting for Argentina to start up at the end of the month in 4.4oz containers. Organic Honeydew: What we have is it for the season. Organic Figs: Done for the year. See you June 2017! Organic Fingerling Potatoes: French fingerlings are done for a month or so. We will just be carrying the medley. Organic Lemons: Very tight and expensive right now. Pressure from a silver mite outbreak in several growing areas. Expect shortages for the next few weeks. Organic Mangoes: We have Mexican keitt mangoes right now. Organic Peaches: Peaches are Autumn Flares out of California. Organic Persimmons: Hachiya persimmons will be available in about a month. Organic Potatoes: We have Wisconsin grown potatoes in red, yellow and russet. Hugh s Garden out of Moorhead, MN, will start harvesting and bagging the first weeks of September. Organic Turmeric: Turmeric will be unavailable until the end of October. MISCELLANEOUS New Items: Melissa s Butternut Squash Noodles Melissa s Zucchini Noodles Coming Soon - Crunchpack Honeycrisp Apple Slices - Due in 9/24 russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 4
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