July 19, 2017 LOCAL ITEMS Conventional: Rhubarb, Corn, Green Beans, Cabbage, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Sugar Snap Peas, Radishes, Bunched Greens, Dill Seed to Seed Farm - Balsam Lake, WI: Organic green kale, green top radish, collard greens, zucchini and yellow squash Harmony Valley - Viroqua, WI: Organic bag arugula, bag baby kale, green top radishes, mustard green, bunch arugula, dandelion greens, rainbow chard, collard greens, red kale, cilantro, green top gold beets, green top red beets, curly parsley, Italian parsley and baby bok choy Hill and Valley - Hillsboro, WI: Organic cilantro, green chard, red chard, collard greens, fennel, green kale, lacinato kale, cucumbers and sugar snap peas Driftless Organics - Soldiers Grove, WI: Organic collard greens, green kale, red kale, lacinato kale, zucchini and yellow squash Shared Grounds Co-op - St. Paul, MN: Organic romaine and green leaf Asparagus: Supply is catching up with demand. Market trend may remain in this general range for the next two weeks and then may trend upwards yet again for August as some growers will be completing the summer harvest for the season at the end of July/ beginning of August. Bunched Greens: 100% locally sourced! Cabbage: Local is starting with markets slightly declining. Availability will improve quickly. Red and Jumbo are approximately 7 days behind green. Celery: Sleeved celery and celery hearts will both decrease in market price for next week. Yields are catching up with demand and are expected to steadily rise in the weeks to come. Corn: Local sweet corn is harvesting with great quality. Markets will be steady until availability improves. Cucumbers: We continue to load Mexican product. We will load a few pallets in Tennessee next week. Quality is good. Market price is stable or slightly declining. Local will start the week of July 24th. Dill: Local dill is currently shippping. VEGETABLES russdaviswholesale.com Eggplant: Georgia, California and Tennessee are now shipping. 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com
Markets have increased with lower volume available. Green Beans: Local have started with good quality. Markets will remain high until volume improves. Green Bell Peppers: We will finish loading in California and Tennessee and move to local in the next 5 to 7 days. Local will start the week of July 24th. Hard Squash: California, Georgia are shipping with limited volume. Markets remain high. Iceberg Lettuce: Iceberg will decrease in price for next week. 24ct and larger sizes are rebounding from an availability standpoint. Supply is expected to be good. HOT HOUSE PRODUCTS: Tomatoes on the Vine: Quality and production is good. Great time to promote. Colored Peppers: Quality is great and production is lower than normal. Beefsteak Tomato: Quality is great and production is excellent. Great time to promote. Cucumbers: Picking fresh daily with good quality and okay production. Misc Veg: 12ct green top beets are now 100% locally sourced! ONIONS: The onion market continues to be very active. Pricing on medium-sized yellow onions remains strong and red onions have begun to follow suit. Demand is good and the high quality product is demanding a premium price. High temperatures in New Mexico have caused shippers to require more expensive refrigerated trailers for shipping its onions, thus increasing product prices. The market is expected to remain strong until growers in Washington bring new crop onions by mid-august. Sweet: Georgia s Vidalia sweet onion season continues with good quality and promotable pricing. POTATOES: Russets: Supplies of storage crop russet potatoes are limited in certain growing areas, while Idaho growers continue to ship at a normal pace. With decreasing supplies, the smaller-sized russet potatoes are starting to increase in price. New crop Russets from MN and WI are projected to start the week of August 1 st. Reds: The new crop red potato market continues to be strong as supplies are limited nationwide and pricing is on the rise. Overall, quality has a wide range of appearance in new crop potatoes. WI new crop B s are projected to start on the 20 th with MN getting going the following week. We will see prices come down once these two regions begin. Golds: Supplies of new crop yellow potatoes are very limited from growers in Texas, North Carolina and California. New crop yellow potatoes from WI and MN have a projected start date of the second week of August. This will increase availability and may decrease pricing. Whites: New crop California White Potatoes are in! Item codes: 35353 10/5# Bella Blanca White Potatoes and 35340 50# Bella Blanca Whites. Radishes: 100% locally sourced! Rhubarb: Our local growers are shipping with excellent quality. Romaine Lettuce: Romaine hearts and 24ct cartons will both drop in market price for next week. Supply is expected to be good and steady. Sugar Snap Peas: Local are available with good quality and limited availability. Zucchini and Yellow Squash: We are seeing great Local quality. Markets are steady with great availability. Good time to promote this item. VALUE ADDED DOLE: Iceberg: Great supply and good quality. Romaine Lettuce: Good supply with okay quality. Higher temps will increase the insect pressure. Conventional Spinach: Tight supply. There s a potential gap russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 2
towards the end of next week. Quality is good. Conventional Spring Mix: Good supply but we will see it tighten up next week on lettuces. Quality is okay. MANNS: Brussels Sprouts: In short supply due to the heat in Mexico and a slow start of the domestic season. We have been able to source what we need, but could potentially be short if our suppliers fall short. EARTHBOUND FARM: Romaine Clamshell: Our new supplier continues to experience challenges packing to forecast. All orders were covered in full early in the week, however, they were unable to produce the schedule in full since, and we will experience shortages shipping mid and late week. FRUIT Avocados: The avocado world is seeing a shortage on smaller fruit. We will be into new crop mid-august and should see better pricing and availability on smaller fruit. Organic avocados are very hard to find. Blackberries: Quality has been good with a steady supply. Blueberries: Michigan/BC/New Jersey/Oregon are all producing with good quality and steady supply. Great time to get a promotion set into place. Cherries: Washington is in full production on red cherries, organic cherries and rainier cherries. Citrus: Import citrus is now in full swing. GRAPES: The heat we have been experiencing the last several days does not seem to be adversely affecting the quality. The fruit has very good maturity and everything has great condition with excellent flavor. Harvest is occurring simultaneously in Maricopa and Delano. Production is ramping up a bit as more fields are ready to harvest. The only grapes slow to come on are Black Seedless, but we should see production increasing later this week. We are packing in Summer Pretty Lady, Pretty Lady and Sunlight labels both in cardboard cartons and foam. As we mentioned earlier, the net weight is 19 pounds this season The next several months will see steady supplies of high quality, flavorful fruit. As the volume increases, we encourage promoting this California Grown crop. Green Seedless: We are moving through the Supreme Green in Maricopa and have started our Valley Pearl in Delano. Both varieties are very flavorful and yielding good production. The Supreme is elongated, the Valley Pearl is oval shaped. Either way, they taste great and have good size. We are about ten days away from starting the Esteem and once again the quality will be very nice. The Green Emerald is expected to start in mid-august. Red Seedless: The Flame Seedless are in full production both in Maricopa and Delano. The fruit has large berries and bunches with full red color. The brix readings are high so the flavor is outstanding with crunchy texture. Up next will be the Scarlet Royal from Maricopa but that will be mid-august. Promote the Flames, they are eating great. Black Seedless: We ve had a false start on this crop but not to worry, plenty of fruit is hanging on the vine and things will ramp up as the week progresses. Summer Royals have great color, taste, sound condition and will be ready later this week. Midnight Beauty should kick into gear in the next several days as well. Red Globe: We will have them in mid-august, and we will keep you posted as the harvest approaches. Mexican Globes are available to fill the gap. Mangoes: We are starting to see promotable pricing and volume on Mexican mangoes. MELONS: Cantaloupe/Honeydew: Look to get your summer melon promotions going. Harvest is coming on and shippers are looking to have great supply! Quality has been excellent! russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 3
Kiss Melons: After a small production gap, we will have Honey/ Sugar/Summer Kiss all available again starting July 25th. Sizing is normal in a 9/11ct. Quality has been outstanding on all Kiss Melons this year. Raspberries: Low production with excellent quality. No promotions advised on raspberries. STONE FRUIT: Another week of warm weather is expected with temperatures remaining in the triple digits through the end of the week. As I have mentioned, this has put us in tough situation with estimates off and low yields for the past several weeks. We will continue working hard to meet your expectations and continue to execute and help you perform on the category. Yellow Peaches: The Summer Flame 29s have arrived and they look fantastic. Zee Ladys aren t far behind and Kaweah s will be here by mid-end-week. Good supply and fruit eats amazing. Yellow Nectarines: The Honey Royales have good volume and are peaking on the 48LRG size. Fire Sweet and Sumer Flare 28s all are eating great but the volume with these are not much. Summer Fires have begun in a small form, just not picking every day to get the volume needed. As such, this puts us in an artificial GAP as we will get fruit in the barn just not the volume we are accustom to. We are expected to hit August Bright s on 7/23 and if all works to plan, this variety has volume and will help get us through until we hit August Fires early August ( 8/3-4th). White Peaches: Snow Princess are under way and have decent supply to get us through the week. Don t forget that after the Snow Princesses there will be a small gap with white peaches until the arrival of the Snow Giants (approximately 7/28 start date). I will have Snow Giants in between but not to the volume of Snow Giants. Just want to keep you posted. White Nectarines: We continue picking/packing Majestic Pearls. Once we wrap up with this summertime treat, the next white nectarine variety will be Snow Pearls- 7/30 and Artic Prides- 8/4. Black Plums: The Owen Ts have wrapped up and we are now picking Friars and a few Black Diamond 11 s Keep this in mind as the plum deal is going to remain snug for us as the next few varieties don t produce much volume until we hit Black Kats on 8/15. Red Plums: A steady supply of red plums currently. Strawberries: Quality has been good with okay demand and excellent supplies. Look for shippers to start to tighten up in a couple weeks as they move into some of their fall fields. TOMATOES: Grape: Quality has been excellent. Great time to promote with a steady supply of USA product. Roma: Production is just okay. Look for the market to stay up for another week or so. WATERMELON: Georgia is finishing. Texas is shipping. Indiana, Arkansas and Missouri are all starting to ship. Quality reports are good with markets steady to slightly declining. Mini Seedless: Mini seedless watermelon are excellent quality. We are loading in South Carolina currently and moving to North Carolina next week. Market price is stable. ORGANIC New Items: Up Next: Organic Local Tomatillos, California Asian Pears Organic Local Asparagus: Local asparagus is done for the season. California / Mexico will be available for loading next week. Organic Black Currants: The black currants from Blue Fruit Farm are done for this season. Next up is aronia berries in early August. Organic Black Mission Figs: Gapping for a couple weeks. Organic Brussels Sprouts: We have a couple weeks left with the Mexican brussels sprouts. We will then gap until local are available in August/September. Organic Hard Squash: Acorn squash is here and butternut and spaghetti will be here in the beginning of next week. Organic Jalapeños: Very limited until local starts in a few weeks. Organic Kiwi: New Zealand kiwi is here. Organic Mangoes: Right now we have Tommy Atkins and Ataulrussdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 4
fos. Look forward to the organic undipped Kent mangoes from Baja Mexico coming in August! Organic Pom Arils: The producer had problems with the arils fermenting, so they are starting fresh and looking over their production. This has been delayed... Organic Stone Fruit: We have California peaches, nectarines, pluots, apricots, white peaches, white nectarines and black and red plums. Organic EBF Strawberries: Plenty of EBF strawberries available next week. Organic Turmeric: We have turmeric from Jamaica. Organic Vidalia Onions: Vidalias are done for the season. russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 5