MARKET UPDATE 07.18.24

Good afternoon,

The summer heatwave continues on its relentless pace this week providing temperatures much warmer than expected this early in the season. The challenges range from the east coast all the way to the west, impacting a wide range of commodities.

LETTUCE and ROMAINE production is pushing on ahead through the heat. We are seeing fringe burn on romaine and some pink discoloration on both romaine and iceberg lettuce. The markets, though, have settled, partially due to product moving ahead of schedule in the warmer climate, and in some small help from Canadian supplies of lettuce and leaf picking up. It will not be the prettiest lettuce and leaf we will see all year but so far, condition is average or better and pricing is favorable.

RASPBERRIES are nearly non-existent, at least raspberries of good quality! Major production areas right now should be Mexico and California, both of which have seen increasingly high temperatures over the last several weeks. Production is not expected to improve until later next week at best.

GRAPE supplies have struggles to start off the domestic season. Availability has been hit or miss and product out of Mexico has not been consistent either. We are a week away from the San Joaquin Valley growing area ramping up production. This area is home to the best grape production in California due to a long season with minimal significant rain events. Hopefully we see temperatures cool off over the next few weeks, giving us a healthy push to the domestic grape season.

Import PEARS are also hit or miss in availability. Sizing is often substituted at time of loading as shippers try to move through what limited fruit they have in storage. California PEARS look to begin this week as we should see USA BARTLETT, BOSC, and RED PEARS come back into play very soon. Pricing will start off high on this fruit as the California pears have no real competition until Washington harvests begin again in late August and September.

More as it happens,

Parker Tannehill