August 30, 2017 LOCAL ITEMS green kale, red kale, lacinato kale, cucumbers, broccoli, green cabbage, red beets, zucchini and yellow squash Conventional: Rhubarb, Corn, Green Beans, Cabbage, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Green Bell Peppers, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Sugar Snap Peas, Radishes, Bunched Greens, Dill (Local Acorn, Buttercup, Butternut and Spaghetti Squash will be in the week of Sep 4. Pumpkins, Pie Pumpkins, Gourds, Mini Pumpkins and Indian Corn will be in the week of Sep 11.) Seed to Seed Farm - Balsam Lake, WI: Organic green kale, red kale, green top radish, collard greens, cucumbers, green top radishes, cilantro, green cabbage, green peppers, brussels sprouts, zucchini and yellow squash Chicken Ridge Orchard - LaCrescent, MN: Organic paula red apples St. Croix Valley - Woodville, WI: Organic cucumbers, rainbow chard, lacinato kale, red chard, green chard, zucchini, sweet onions and yellow squash Shared Grounds Co-op - St. Paul, MN: Organic romaine, red romaine, jalapeño, tomatillo and green leaf 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, cucumbers, shallots and baby bok choy Hill and Valley - Hillsboro, WI: Organic cilantro, blueberries, Italian parsley, green chard, red chard, collard greens, fennel, green kale, lacinato kale, green cabbage, red cabbage, green peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, green onion and sugar snap peas Hoch Orchard, LaCrescent, MN: Organic apple cider VEGETABLES Broccoli: Wrapped broccoli and crowns will both adjust downward in market price for next week. Supply looks good and steady for the week to come. Driftless Organics - Soldiers Grove, WI: Organic collard greens, russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com
Cabbage: Local quality and volume are great. Time to promote. Red and Jumbo are also shipping. Cauliflower: Cauliflower markets remain deflated for next week. Overall supply looks good for the week to come, with promotional volume still available. Celery: Celery markets remain deflated as overall, multi-regional supply is very good. Shippers are stating that quality is very nice and promotional volume remains available. Corn: Local sweet corn is harvesting with great quality. Markets are steady. Cucumbers: We are increasing our loading of Mexican product as quality is excellent. Market price is stable. Local cucumbers are finishing. Dill: Local dill is finishing in the next week. Eggplant: Local growers are now shipping with excellent quality. Markets remain steady. Green Beans: Local growers are shipping with excellent quality. Markets are steady. Green Bell Peppers: Local growers are now harvesting with steady market prices. Quality has been very good. Green Onions: Green onions will increase in price for next week. Vendors are reporting extremely light supply for the next couple of weeks due to high heat stunting growth in Mexican growing regions. The use of non-standard labels and pack sizes will be necessary to cover demand. Hard Squash: Shipped in produce is finishing. Local is starting. First of the season deliveries are expected to arrive the week of September 4th. HOT HOUSE PRODUCTS: Tomatoes on the Vine: Good quality and production. Colored Peppers: Good quality and production. Beefsteak Tomato: Quality is great and production is good. Cucumbers: Picking fresh daily with great quality and good production. Iceberg Lettuce: Iceberg will decrease in price for next week. Supply is expected to be good and steady with promotional volume available. Onions: The onion market remains weak on smaller-sized yellow onions; however, the market remains strong on all other sizes and varieties. Shippers from the Pacific Northwest are shipping limited numbers of jumbo yellow and colored onions. Within the next couple of weeks, we can expect a dip in those markets as more shipping regions come to market.. Our switch to NW Heavenly Sweets will keep your sweet onion promotions rolling along with promotable pricing on this NW favorite. POTATOES: Russets: As more new crop russet potatoes come to market, demand appears to be softening. Pricing on the larger-sized russet potatoes remain the same; however, pricing for smaller-sized russet potatoes is seeing a slight drop. The Idaho russet market took a large jump this week as packers finished old crop and few sheds running new crop. This should come off in about 2 to 3 weeks. Reds: The demand for new crop red potatoes is currently exceeding supply out of the Minnesota and Wisconsin growing regions. This trend is expected to continue through the weekend. Golds: More and more yellow potatoes are coming to market; however, no major changes are expected until after Labor Day. Rhubarb: Our local growers are shipping with excellent quality. Local season is finishing soon. Romaine Lettuce: Romaine hearts will hold steady in market price whereas 24ct cartons will slightly increase in market price for next week. Supply is expected to be good & steady. Sugar Snap Peas: Guatemala is shipping great product. Markets are increasing. Zucchini and Yellow Squash: Local supply is not steady with market price stabilizing. We are loading from other areas in addition to russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 2
local to meet our needs. VALUE ADDED DOLE: Iceberg: Good supply and quality. Seeing small amount of fringe burn. Romaine Lettuce: Great supply and quality is okay. Mildew, insect pressure and tip / fringe burn are all manageable. Red & Green Leaf Lettuce: Green and red supply is good with good quality. Conventional Spinach: Better supplies and good quality. Insects are present. Conventional Spring Mix: Better supplies and quality is okay. Insects are present. MANNS: Brussels Sprouts: Will continue to be hit and miss again this week. Our sourcing team is buying from all available districts, but quality in most districts is just okay. Finding quality sprouts has been a challenge for our sourcing team. Organic Broccoli: Was supposed to be in better supplies this week, but the crop continues to be light supplied due to insect pressure. Organic Snap Peas: Supplies are expected to be better this week. EARTHBOUND FARM: We do not have any raw product salad supply concerns this week. Organic Romaine Hearts: Great supply. Dried Plums 12/6: Supplier shortage. Out until further notice (possibly 6 months) Dried Mango 12/3oz: Promotable supply available. FRUIT Apples: Local apple start dates: Sweet Tango - 9/5, Honeycrisp - 9/19. Sunrise: Paula Reds - 8/21, McIntosh - 9/5, Gala - 9/11, Cortland - 9/11, Honeycrisp - 9/18 Please give 2-3 days transit time from packing to warehouses. Avocados: We are now into new crop Mexican fruit with 60 s and larger being very tight. Pricing is going through the ceiling. A lot of shippers are putting out a force majeure on all prices that were committed. Field costs for labor are going up at record rates, and fruit is extremely tight. We won t see any relief in the near future. Pricing will be on the rise. Organic avocados are very hard to find. Blackberries: Most of the blackberries are coming out of Guatemala. Quality has been okay. Blueberries: Look to transition into 6oz this coming week. BC and Michigan will be coming to an end with Oregon still going. Cantaloupe / Honeydew: Cantaloupe pack outs out of Patterson and Mendota (CA) are peaking sizes on Jumbo 9s with 9s and 12ct available. The weather is in the mid-high 100 s this week during the day (It s hot!!) with lows in the mid to upper 70 s at night. Honeydew markets are steady with still plenty of product around. We should have ample supplies for another 2 weeks. After that 9/15, markets will begin to strengthen as deal begins to transition back down to the Imperial valley for the fall deal. Citrus: Import citrus is now in full swing. Grapes: Temps in valley will be extreme this week, which means shorter days for packing the grapes outdoors, but they are also doing some indoor packing as well. Temps will range from 110-105, it doesn t hurt the fruit, the vines protect the berries but it slows things down. Season is still about 1-2 weeks behind. Mangoes: We are seeing promotable pricing and volume on Mexican mangoes. Pomegranates: Early variety pomegranates will start next week! russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 3
Raspberries: Enough volume for day to day sales, but no ad volume. Look for promotable volume in late September. STONE FRUIT: As we saw a nice cool down this past week, we now find ourselves back into the 100 plus degrees for the next 7 days, 104 today and never dropping below 103 until next Saturday. Today and tomorrow we will see 109-110.This will have an effect on supply as our picks will come in short due to the lack of time we are in the fields. Yellow Peaches: Summer Flame #34 s have been very consistent, great size, color and flavor profile has been outstanding. Yellow Nectarines: Same deal as we have seen most of the past month and weeks, hand to mouth to get all core partner s a piece of the pie to keep supply in the stores. September Bright s are underway and have come in with consistent volume but demand has been high and supply has been tight. I really believe our last week shipping Conventional YN could be at the end of this coming week, maybe we can squeeze into the following week. Like to get on the phone and discuss what your estimates could be the next 2 weeks so we can assure we have what you will need. As mentioned, so many days of high day time temperatures, this has taken its toll on the YN s. White Peaches: The Late White Delights are getting underway and this volume will get us through the 2nd week of September. White Nectarines: Artic Prides have wrapped up harvest and we will our last variety Artic Snow get underway 9/3. With the Artic Snow volume we will see supply through the second week of September. Black Plums: Black Kats kick started last weekend and we are roughly 75-80% through this variety. Our last variety will be Angelenos which will start early to mid-next week. TOMATOES: Grape: Light supplies out of Virginia. Roma: With shippers cutting back on plantings and anticipating more home grown product, things have stayed rather tight in the market. Look for this trend to continue. WATERMELON: Texas, Indiana, and Michigan are all shipping. Quality reports are good with markets steady as we move to South Carolina and Texas with Indiana finishing. Mini Seedless: Mini seedless watermelon are excellent quality. We are currently loading in Indiana, however, moving to Texas loading. Market price is stable. ORGANIC New Items: 48989-10/3# Local Paula Red Apples (no UPC or PLU) Up Next - Next week local acorn squash, spaghetti and butternut should be about a week behind that Organic Aronia Berries: Blue Fruit Farm is done with the aronia for the season. Look for elderberries next. Organic Asparagus: Asparagus is still a bit limited out of Mexico. Organic Blueberries: Oregon is slowing down on blueberries right now so we will only have 6oz for only a week or two more. Then they will be very limited until imports start in October. Organic Broccoli: Aphid pressure in California. Very limited supply with heavy prorates for about 3 more weeks. Organic Brussels Sprouts: Local brussels sprouts are here, but will be limited because the farmer does not have enough labor to harvest. They have other items that have to be harvested first because they are more time sensitive. Organic Figs: Season is done on the calimyrna figs. We have a few left. Organic Jalapeños: Local jalapeños are in! Organic Kiwi: New Zealand kiwi is here. Organic Mangoes: Have you had the chance to try the undipped kent mangoes yet? What is stopping you? They are eating fantastically right now! We have our last shot here and that will be it. Next will be Keitts for a limited time and then Tommys start back up in October. russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 4
Organic Stone Fruit: We have Sweet Johanna peaches from Washington. They are enormous 32ct and eat just as great as the Sweet Dreams. Sweet Dreams are right behind them and should be in at the beginning of next week. Organic EBF Strawberries: EBF has not been harvesting any berries for the last two weeks. Hopefully they will have berries for loading at the end of this week. Organic Turmeric: We have turmeric from Jamaica. russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 5