MARKET UPDATE OCTOBER 13, 2023

Good afternoon,

Product here on the East Coast looks to be in mostly good supply. SQUASH, CUCUMBER, CORN, EGGPLANT, and GREEN BELL PEPPER are all coming into season in Georgia and North Carolina. TOMATOES are already starting in a light way up in Northern Florida. Last season we had some severe hurricane damage to TOMATO growing regions, making for a difficult October and November. This season we should see fairly moderate conditions and hopefully that should return favorable markets. 

On the other side of the country, the climate is completely different and so are the challenges. CAULIFLOWER supplies have been ahead of schedule for weeks and as we always try to point out, when a crop is above projections for months, you will almost certainly run into a supply gap. The warmer weather that helped push supplies forward through August and September is now causing some late season quality issues. Bruising and discoloration is being sorted through at the field level, but there will be problems that make it into the pack. The sorting through troubled supply will also continue to shorten availability and push up market pricing for the next few weeks. 

BROCCOLI and CAULIFLOWER are like those two cousins that always end up getting in trouble, you know if one of them is into something, the other was either there or was helping to cover up. And like those two cousins, it’s only a matter of time before the same issue becomes a problem for both of them. We are seeing better supplies on BROCCOLI than Cauliflower but not by much. Both crops run late into the Northern California season, wrapping up in late November, and won’t start up in Yuma until around the third week of November. We could be in for a bumpy ride on the BROCCOLI and CAULI cousins for the next month.

LETTUCE and ROMAINE are riding that warm weather wave out near the California Coast. There will be some heat issues on these commodities as well, but the difference is that we just might be lucky enough to get to new crops in Huron and Yuma Arizona before the leaves hit the fan. 

FALL ITEMS are in stock and ready to sell! We have JACK-O-LANTERN PUMPKINS, PIE PUMPKINS, GOURDS, and even those little Pie Pumpkins with cute hats and faces painted on them. Check your price lists or call and speak with a team member here to secure some fall goodies to help set the seasonal mood. 

Pro-democracy protests have brought the country of Guatemala to a stand still. Several commodities like, BROCCOLINI, MIXED BERRIES, BABY SQUASH, and others come from this region nearly year round. The protests have paralyzed exports from the country and in response, availability is severely short and non-existent on goods that don’t have another area of production.   

More as it happens,

Parker Tannehill