August 17, 2016 LOCALLY GROWN cucumbers, tuscan cantaloupe, sweet onions and yellow squash Conventional Local: 48ct green top radishes, 14/1# cello red radishes, 40# bulk trimmed radishes and 24ct green kale, Wisconsin celery, Minnesota green top beets, bunched collard, bunched mustard and bunched turnip greens, yellow beans, green beans, sweet corn, green cabbage, cucumbers, green top beets, green peppers, dill, variety peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, green top white radishes, eggplant, green peppers, poblano peppers, red cabbage, red potatoes, russet potatoes, gold potatoes, and white potatoes are now 100% locally grown! Local Apples will start approximately August 21-October 5th depending on variety. 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, artichokes and collard greens Shared Grounds Farmers Coop - St. Paul, MN: Organic jalapeño, shallots and tomatillo St. Croix Valley - Woodville, WI: Organic green kale, lacinato kale, red kale, red chard, rainbow chard, green cabbage, cucumbers, sweet onions, roma tomatoes and red chard Blue Fruit Farm - Winona, MN: Organic aronia berries Harmony Valley - Viroqua, WI: Organic arugula, baby bok choy, dandelion greens, rainbow chard, green top gold beets, green top red beets, cilantro, jalapeños, green top radishes, cucumbers, eggplant, mini sweet peppers, lacinato kale, Italian parsley and curly parsley Hill and Valley - Hillsboro, WI: Organic radishes, green kale, green chard, red chard, sugar snap peas, zucchini, curly parsley, Italian parsley, cucumbers, blueberries, red cabbage, fennel, cherry tomatoes and lacinato kale VEGETABLES Asparagus: Production is declining for asparagus and will continue to do so until the season ends the first week of September. Real Foods - Athens, WI: Organic heirloom cherry tomatoes, russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com
Bunched Greens: Cilantro has tightened up industry wide due to increased demand. Cilantro market will be up again for next week and is expected to remain at higher-than-average levels for the next several weeks. Cabbage: Local green and red cabbage are currently shipping with good supply. Market price is steady. CANADIAN HOT HOUSE: Cucumbers: We are picking a lot and will be fresh daily. There s excellent quality and heavy production. Now is a great time to promote. Beefsteak Tomatoes: There is excellent quality and good production. Now is a great time to promote. Tomatoes on the Vine: Excellent quality and good production. Promote now! Peppers: Quality is just OK and production is very low. Cauliflower: Cauliflower market will be up in price for next week. Some shippers report decent volume, whereas others report light supply for next week. Celery: Celery continues to be abundant in supply, with most shippers volume peaking on 30ct size. The 30ct market will drop for next week, whereas 36 s and hearts will hold steady. Cucumbers: Local cucumbers are finishing, and we will move to Michigan and Tennessee, Market price will increase. Dill: Local dill is finishing for the season. We will source other areas as needed. Eggplant: Local eggplant is available with good quality and steady market price. Green Beans: Local green beans are currently shipping with excellent quality. Market price remains low. Time to promote! Green Bell Peppers: Local green peppers are shipping with great supply and quality. Market price is declining. Hard Shell Squash: Local hard shell squash is projected to start the last week of August. Iceberg Lettuce: Iceberg markets will drop next week, with plenty of supply available across the board. Mini Sweet Peppers: Supply and quality are good. The market should remain steady for the next couple of weeks. Onions: RDW is now supplying new crop Washington onions. Supplies of onions are plentiful and currently meeting demand. Initial quality out of Washington has been good. We are anticipating a very good year to promote onions as current figures point to a big supply for the rest of the year. Pickles: Local pickles are finishing for the season. We will source other areas as needed. POTATOES: Russets: RDW is sourcing both New Crop Wisconsin and New Crop Minnesota Russets. Quality out of MN has been very good and quality out of WI is improving as more potatoes are harvested. We are carrying both consumer bags and baker local potatoes. With each passing day, more and more new crop russet potatoes are coming available. Growers are expecting an above average crop with larger than normal size. Some downward pricing is expected in the upcoming weeks as supplies increase. Reds: RDW is sourcing both New Crop Wisconsin and New Crop Minnesota Reds. Quality has been good. The red potato market remains steady. Supplies are available in many growing regions with average movement. 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. Whites: New Crop WI Whites are now available. Pricing is steady. Radishes: Local red radish supply will be hit and miss next week. Our local grower is experiencing some field quality issues in the tops due to recent rain and high humidity. We will be sourcing CA radishes to cover the gap until supply improves. Whites remain unavailable due to quality. Rhubarb: Local rhubarb is finishing for the season. Snow/Snap Peas: Guatemalan product will be available for a couple more weeks. Then we will make the switch to Peruvian product russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 2
and the market will increase. Sweet Corn: Local sweet corn s supply and quality are at the peak. Market price is low. Great time to promote! Sweet Onions: We have new crop California Panoche onions. Pricing remains stable. Heavenly Sweets out of the NW are also available. Variety Peppers: Local yellow hot, yellow sweet, Anaheim, Poblano and jalapeño are in stock now. Good quality and availability. Zucchini and Yellow Squash: Local is finishing for the season. Prices will climb as we move to other areas to load. VALUE ADDED DOLE: Iceberg: We are in excess supplies of iceberg for the next couple of weeks with good overall quality. Romaine: We are in a good acreage position on romaine and should have current demand forecast covered for the next few weeks. Quality is good. Leaf Lettuce: Good volume and supply. Cabbage: Green and Red supplies and quality are good. Radicchio: Supplies and quality are good. Tenderleaf: Excess supplies available in spring mix and spinach. Quality is good. MANN: Brussels Sprouts: Brussels Sprouts continue to be hit and miss due to quality issues and sizing. Beans: French and Wax beans supplies continue to be inconsistent due to quality issue from the extreme heat in Baja Mexico. EBF: Plant and production issues continue causing shortages this week. We will keep you updated on availability. Organic Romaine Hearts: Great promotable supplies. Production issues with Romaine Easy Leaves - unavailable at this time. FRUIT Apples: Local Apple start dates: Paula Red - Aug 21, Sweet Tango - Sept 5, Honeycrisp - Sept 19, Cider - Oct 5, Macs - Sept 5, Corts - Sept 25 Washington new crop galas have now started. We will be into new crop galas by 8/13. Avocados: We are now into new crop Mexican avos. We are seeing pricing starting to come off slowly on all sizes. Larger fruit will remain tight through the month of August. Blackberries: Guatemalans and USA are available. Quality has been just OK. Growers are expecting to start earlier this year in Mexico, somewhere around the 1st week of September. Blueberries: Michigan had about 8 of rain last week and has all but knocked the crop out. NJ still has a few, but keeping them close by. Argentinian blues will not start up until the end of September. Look for the transition into 6oz to happen next week. Cranberries: We will see Wisconsin cranberries by the end of September. Dragon Fruit: Florida should get going soon. Grapes: UPDATE FROM THE FIELD: We are almost in the middle of August and ramping up for the big ad next week. Expect an earlier than normal year again and very similar to the timing of last season. The good news is that the past heat waves we have had has done little damage to the crop. The bad news is we are expecting another hot week again next week, so packing only half days. They have been packing Scarlet Royals for size, and quality looks russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 3
GREAT and will eat well this year, too. These are so much stronger than the Flames we had this year, so expect better movement on the retail end. At this time, they are thinking they will have Scarlet Royals into early November and transfer to Allison through November, but it all depends on the weather has to how far we will make it this year. Expect the red market on XL s to stay steady through the month and start to creep up in September. They are one week into packing Pristines and this is looking like one of the best (quality/size) crops they have ever had. They are still a little early on some ranches as we are waiting for sugar, but expect to have these stay strong through the month of September and transitioning to Autumn Kings after. 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 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. 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! Rambutan: Available! Raspberries: Growers are falling down on organic raspberries due to pollination and malformed fruit issues. The conventional raspberry issues are a little different. They are due to cold weather and some quality issues at the field, causing growers to cull and thus come in with extremely light estimates, paired with applications ramping down much faster than expected. Look for raspberry production to keep trending downwards. Star Fruit: We will see limited supplies until around mid-july when better availability will happen. STONE FRUIT: Colorado: We reached a point this weekend in which our average pack out quantity reduced due to fruit quality and quantity. Look for production to slow down. California: Some shippers have tightened up on nectarines while others still have plenty of volume. Red/black plums have seen a decline in volume this last week, but should rebound. Peaches are still going strong. Washington: Peaches and nectarines are available. Strawberries: Production is on the downhill slide as growers start to transition into new regions. Expect price to remain high with just OK quality. WATERMELON: We are currently loading in Indiana. Indiana has experienced excessive rain over the past week which has delayed some harvest, but overall the supply and market are steady. Mini-Seedless Watermelon: We are currently loading in Kentucky and Indiana. We will see a market increase as these two growing areas finish in the next couple of weeks. Then we move back to product from Florida and Texas for the fall season. ORGANIC New Items: 48977-40# Organic Diva Apple 49820-12ct Organic Rainbow Green Top Carrot 49969-20# Local Organic Tomatillos (no PLU) 49655-10# Local Organic Shallots (no PLU) 49472-10# Local Organic Artichokes (no PLU) Up Next - Blue Fruit Farm will be harvesting Elderberries next week Organic Cilantro: Thursday we will have local cilantro again, and we shouldn t have anymore hiccups for the rest of the season. Organic Figs: The calimyrna figs are done for the season. Black mission should go on for a month or so. Organic Limes: Very tight right now and expensive. Pressure from a silver mite outbreak in several growing areas. Expect shortages for the next few weeks. russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 4
Organic Mangoes: Ataulfo mangoes are done until maybe November. We have a bunch of the undipped kents coming to carry us a couple weeks and then we will move on to California-grown Keitts. Organic Nectarines: We have Washington nectarines right now. Organic Plums: Red plums and pluots are done for the season. We have a few left. Organic Potatoes: We will have our first shot of Wisconsin grown potatoes coming in next week on red, yellow and russet. MISCELLANEOUS New Items: -Local Minnesota Cello Carrots -Bolthouse Organic 1915 Vanilla Protein Plus Juice -Bolthouse Organic 1915 Chocolate Protein Plus Juice -Bolthouse Organic 1915 Coffee Protein Plus Juice -Organic Love Beet and Ginger Juice russdaviswholesale.com 800.332.7104 crazyfreshproduce.com 4