Weekly Market Review February 6, 207 Overview The previous month s adverse unstable weather conditions in the Yuma growing region is still causing quality problems with lower overall weights and yields in fields. The unusual weather has created industry wide shortages in supply on multiple items including: Clilantro, Lettuces, and Salad mixes. We do think this will get better within the next week or two. Avocados are back in an extreme market as supply is limited and prices are high. Market Alert Asparagus EXTREME Avocados - EXTREME Cucumbers (Euro) Cilantro - EXTREME Garlic - EXTREME Lemons- Sizing Lettuce (Green leaf, Iceberg, Red leaf, Romaine, & all blends) - EXTREME Good Buys Herbs are steady, fresh herbs make such a difference when cooking. Mardi Gras is coming up, enjoy a few Mardi Gras traditions and add fresh herbs!!! Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday orginated in medieval Europe. It became a legal holiday in Louisiana in 875 with roots in ancient Rome. Every year partygoers flock to New Orleans to take in the floats, the festivities and the food, and to leave their mark on the Big Easy. BEANS WITH ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE: Kidney Beans, onion, celery, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, garlic, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley, bay leaves, and Andouille Sausage. Serve with rice or cornbread MARDI GRAS SEASONING FOR CHICKEN:Rosemary, oregano, chili powder, garlic, creole seasoning, cumin, mustard, and pepper. Great on chicken wings, too. MARDI GRAS POTATOES:Purple and Gold potatoes, lemon zest, olive oil, salt, pepper, Rosemary and thyme. Transportation Trucks are in adequate supply in all districts including the Northwest, Southwest, Texas and Florida. Weather A series of storms will resume the wet-weather pattern in California for the next week, beginning on Thursday. Oxnard, Caifornia is the growing area forecasted to have the heaviest precipitation, with more than 3 ½ inches between Thursday and Friday. The desert districts in Southern California and Western Arizona will not be spared in this round of weather, with almost an inch in the forecast. High winds are included in the forecast for coastal and inland California districts, accompanied by a cooling trend. Significant rain and cooler temperatures are in the weekend forecast for the Culiacan, Sinaloa district in Central Mainland Mexico while moderate showers will extend as far as Southern Mexico. Rain is in the Saturday forecast for Central Florida, with moderate shower activity in the south. Fruits & Vegetables Avocados: EXTREME We continue to see a shortage in supply and prices rising. We expect this to continue to get worse particularly on larger fruit as the size mix shifts to the heavier fruit. Bananas: Demand and quality are good and supply is steady. Grapes: Supplies are improving and demand is lighter than expected. Sugraones and Flame pricing is down this week.
Berries Blueberries: Quality is outstanding on blueberries from Central Mexico. Peak production will continue through February, with the season finishing by June. Baja California, Oxnard and Santa Maria will begin to increase their volume moving forward. Next week will be the final week of the Chilean season. Blackberries: Cooler weather in Central Mexico has delayed the anticipated increase in production however, availability has improved slightly. We expect to have good supplies by late February. Raspberries: Production volume remains strong in Central Mexico, supplemented by Baja California and Oxnard. Oxnard raspberries are grown by Driscoll under hoops, offering protection from weather. Strawberries: Strawberries are in good supply from Central Mexico. Production remains well below average for California growers due to continuing weather events. Heavy rain (including the potential for flooding) and strong winds are in the late-week forecast for Oxnard. The Florida strawberry season will continue through mid-march and availability is plentiful. California / Arizona Citrus Rain has continued to hinder citrus harvests in California. There is another couple inches of rain expected by the upcoming weekend. Smaller, choice grade fruit has been very hard to come by. Most supplies are of the larger, fancy grade fruit. Navels: Supplies are expected to increase by the beginning of next week, depending on the weather. Quality, flavor and internal color are good. Larger, fancy grade due to recent weather. Lemons: Volume is expected to be low for the next couple weeks. Very tight on 65s and 200s. Mostly large, fancy grade fruit. Limes: Limes are available in good supplies, packing in Texas and California. Great quality and color. Grapefruit: Texas grapefruit is packing, good supplies of 40s and smaller. Florida Red and Dark Red grapefruit will be finishing up at the end of February. Grapefruit quality has been very good this year. Specialties: Minneola Tangelos and Mandarins are available, great quality and color. Blood Oranges are in good supply, great color. Cara Caras are available, excellent color and quality. Pummelos are in the final week of harvesting. Pineapple: Supply will be tight through next week. Expect prorates. California Lettuce Green and Red Leaf: Supplies on green leaf are extremely light. We are seeing a lot of dirt due to the heavy winds, seeders and tip burn. We are seeing very short supply on red leaf, however quality is good. Prices are high on both. Iceberg Lettuce: Supplies of iceberg lettuce are well below average although slightly better than last wekk, quality is good to average, and we are seeing some mildew due to the rain. Expect shortages and high prices.
Romaine: Very tight with light supplies. We anticipate supplies getting tighter and more expensive. Quality is hit or miss with epidermal peeling. Romaine Hearts: Supplies are light. We are seeing twisting with average quality, and peeling. Prices are rising. Eastern and Western Vegetables Green & Red Bell Peppers: Availability has tightened significantly for green bell peppers from Mexico, with the production shortfall now affecting all sizes. The high winds and rain that occurred during late January in South Florida will continue to have a negative effect on quality and potentially yield through March. Prices are trending higher in the eastern and western growing areas. Red bells from Mexico are continuing to have good supplies. Cucumbers: Import volume into Florida from Central America has eased and prices have firmed up, with quality remaining variable. Demand has improved for Mexican cucumbers in Nogales, Arizona and McAllen, Texas with good quality. English Cucumber: Supplies have increased in Nogales and prices have eased from the recent highs. Green Beans: Quality is variable on beans in Florida and Mexico. Prices remain firm for premium quality product. Zucchini & Yellow Squash: Prices have eased for product from Florida and Mexico. Quality is variable for all Florida product and for yellow squash from Mexico. Quality is excellent on zucchini from Mexico. Herbs Quality on all the other herbs is very steady. We are having no issues with the cold temperatures around the country. Please keep us informed if there are any changes that we need to be made aware of. SAVORY: This is the only herb that is short. We do not anticipate any supply to be available until the end of the month, at the earliest. HERB SUPPLIES QUALITY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN Arugula Good Good USA Basil Good Good USA/MEXICO Opal Basil Good Good USA/MEXICO Thai Basil Good Good USA/MEXICO Bay Leaves Good Good COLUMBIA Chervil Good Good USA Chives Good Good USA/MEXICO Cilantro Good Good USA Dill Good Good USA/MEXICO Episode Good Good MEXICO Lemongrass Good Good USA Marjoram Steady Good USA Mint Good Good USA Oregano Good Good USA Italian Parsley Good Good USA Rosemary Limited Good USA Sage Good Good USA/MEXICO Savory Good Good USA Sorrel Good Good USA Tarragon Good Good MEXICO
Thyme Good Good USA Lemon Thyme Good Good USA Lavender Good Good USA Lime Leaves Good Good USA Hora Santa Good Good USA Melons Production is lower and this trend will continue. The Spring cycle from the Zacapa region of Guatemala is projected to start arriving into Florida the week of 3/6. The Honduras second cycle production is scheduled to begin approximately the week of 3/3. Weather has been ideal to date and no issues are projected as we move into the heavier volume months of March/April. Cantaloupe: Good movement continues with smaller fruit being shorter in supply. We anticipate pricing to remain steady over the next few weeks. Quality remains strong with good internal brix levels of 0-4%. Honeydew: Production from Guatemala and Honduras has remained fairly steady. We will see a decrease in overall numbers over the balance of the month. External quality has been clean with brix ranges of 0-3%. Watermelon: A little more production is occurring on seedless varieties. This has caused the market to slightly settle off its seasonto-date highs. Supply should be consistent over the next 6-7 weeks from Honduras. Mixed Vegetables Artichokes: We expect good supplies of artichokes this week, as supplies industry-wide have increased. Better volume is expected in the upcoming weeks. Prices are steady but trending lower on some sizes. 36 counts are not readily available Arugula: Supplies of both baby and wild arugula are light due to mildew. Asparagus: Prices are still up as the end of the season approaches. We expect this to get better in a week or two. There is currently a widespread problem in Caborca, Mexico that is resulting in delayed harvest productivity in fields ranging from 50 55% BELOW the levels forecast for this time of year. Current weather is excellent and growers are trying to figure out WHAT factors are causing the delayed initiation of normal productivity and harvest levels. Growers are unable to provide volume forecasts to cover pre-planned promotional (ad) commitments. There is so little volume crossing outside of prior commitments that the USDA has almost no open market volume on which to report pricing. There is a lot of activity with importers SEARCHING for volume to cover commitments. Growers are mixed in their opinions of what will happen in the next 7 0 days. One major grower believes that the situation should improve by the week of February 3, while another large group of growers doesn t share that optimism. They are pointing to 205, when a similar lack of normal volume took place during early February, and volume levels never reached the anticipated levels for the balance of the season. There may very well be some plant behavior due to a combination of climatic factors, that results in the fields being alternate bearing to a degree being strong producers one year and then producing at dramatically lower levels the following year. Bok Choy: Quality is good and we are seeing some higher quotes on WGA cartons. Broccoli: We saw improvement this week however, we are being told to expect a bumpy ride on this commodity over the next few weeks. Due to warmer than usual weather patterns plus the amount of rain that has fallen, we are seeing a gap in harvest schedules and supplies. Although we saw prices drop, we are seeing shortages in product. Brussel Sprouts: The market and supplies are good this week. Quality is good. Carrots: Georgia carrots have arrived. Rain in Kern County, CA, has made the carrot market a bit more active in that region of CA, so please order ahead to keep a good supply. We are seeing a shortage of supply continue due to the rain. Cauliflower: Quality is average. We are seeing yellowing. Supplies are down and prices are higher than normal.
Celery: We continue to experience rain events throughout California, with February historically being our rain month. In Oxnard, the result of these constant rains has caused the celery to develop many defects in the acres we are currently harvesting and will harvest for several weeks to come. The outer petioles continue to get water logged (becoming translucent), and although we will try to strip these petioles from the stalks while harvesting, we will not be 00% effective. More recently we are experiencing a level of pith much higher than we were three to four weeks ago. Pith at high levels can be a major defect as the inside of the celery will tend to break down quicker and turn into decay. It becomes very apparent at the ends of the celery where the celery has been cut. Even the use of our waterjet cutting technology cannot minimize the effects of high amounts of pith we are experiencing. Some of the other overall quality issues that celery is experiencing under these constant rain conditions are listed below.. Outer petioles Water logged (translucency) 2. Light color/pale 3. Mud inside petioles. 4. Reduce shelf life (7 days max) 5. Brown ends. It is very important that our customers make every attempt to order the minimum amount of product necessary to fill orders and to avoid any type of inventory on their end. With reduced shelf life and the potential higher level of pith than usual this time of year, this is not a good time to stock up for promotions or introduce this product for the first time. We will update this information as we see any substantial shifts in quality. Corn: Florida sweet corn has seen a spike in pricing this week. There has been less availability as in previous weeks due to planting gaps and the cooler weather hindering maturity. Cilantro: EXTREME Market- Supplies are very light. Quality is variable as there is still yellowing with some decay. Price are high and we are seeing shortages. Fennel: Supplies for the week will be light. Garlic: We saw yet another rise in price. The supply of domestic garlic remains tight. Pricing on domestic peeled 4x5s is still high. In the past week or two, we have observed a slight relief in demand. This is fairly normal after the New Year. Concerning Chinese supply, at the moment, there is definitely more supply available, especially on the East Coast. This time of year, it is normal for Chinese exporters to export all pounds that did not make it into cold storage for the year. A percentage of the loads being received in the US the past month are due to this. The garlic was never put into cold storage, and if it was not sold/shipped in late November/December, the product will/would expire altogether. A percentage of Chinese peeled lbs. received in the last month are challenged (especially on the East Coast). Issues include excess translucency, pink and yellow aging/stress marks, and mold, etc. With the additional supply overlapped with some quality issues, the price of Chinese garlic has come down some in the past month, however as of this week we are seeing it rise again due to Chinese supply decreaseing. As we move forward in the next 3 months, we expect the Chinese supply to decrease more, and the Chinese market again to return to abnormal highs. Some Chinese shippers have recently received higher duty rates from US Customs. There are indications that these companies will not be exporting garlic to the US for the foreseeable future. Ginger: Chinese ginger is in good supply. It is being offered at a substantial discount compared to ginger from Brazil. Green Cabbage: Green cabbage is in good supply and should be steady this week. Quality is good. Green Onions: The green onion supply for the industry is getting better. We are seeing prices come down. Kale (Green): Demand is steady and quality is average. We are seeing some mildew. Mache: Availability is adequate. Napa: Supplies are good and quality is excellent.
Parsley (Curly, Italian): Prices are normal and quality is average. Radishes: Quality is good and supply is plentiful. Red Cabbage: Quality and sizing have been great, with good color. Overall, the market is strong. Snow and Sugar Snap Peas: Snow and sugar snap peas are in high demand with good quality. Spinach (Bunched): Supply is average, quality is only fair. We are still seeing some mildew in this product. Spinach (Baby): Baby and clipped spinach supplies are light. Quality is fair to good, with good prices. There are some reports of mildew. Spring Mix: There is plenty of product with quality being average, but it has improved. Onions Pricing has remained sluggish as Mexican supplies on all three colors have continued to increase. The northwest is back to normal shipping and supplies are plentiful for the amount of season they have remaining. Potatoes Demand on 40/70ct is moderate and almost everything else is just fair. We can expect the same for the next few weeks, and of course it's Potato Lovers month. This is what we have found to be typical business for this time of year. Prices have not really seen any significant changes up or down in the industry. TOMATOES East: Rounds Supplies in the east remain good despite the recent weather events. FOB prices are mostly unchanged this week with excellent quality being reported. Roma Harvest forecasts are mostly unchanged and quality is good. Pricing will be mostly unchanged this week. Grapes Supplies are good and quality is excellent. FOB prices remain unchanged this week. Quality remains very nice. Cherries Supplies are steady and quality remains good. FOB prices are remaining mostly unchanged. West/Mexico: Rounds Vine-ripe production is good through Nogales and McAllen, still light crossings through Otay. FOB prices are mostly unchanged this week. Overall quality is very nice on all sizes throughout Nogales, McAllen and Otay. Romas Supplies are good through Nogales and McAllen with great quality expected over the next 7 to 4 days. Grapes Good supplies are crossing through Nogales and quality remains excellent. Cherries Supplies are good, but the quality is off a bit this week. We expect to see a tick up in the prices as demand is driving more pull out of the East. APPLES, PEARS, & TREE FRUIT Apples: Demand and movement is steady with supplies readily available in most sizes and grades with the exception of golds and grannys. Supply remains tight on 00s and smaller on all grades except premium. 25s and smaller sizes in all varieties will continue to be tight all season. Pears: Demand and movement are steady. Most supplies are now coming out of California. Prices remain high on D Anjous, 00s and smaller whereas Bartletts have a much better value.