MARKET UPDATE 12.01.24

Good afternoon,

As we gather to celebrate the season of gratitude, all of us at GPS want to express our heartfelt thanks to you. Your trust and loyalty fuel our mission to deliver the freshest fruits and vegetables to your table every week. This Thanksgiving, we're especially grateful for the opportunity to be part of your meals, your traditions, and your moments shared with loved ones. Here's to health, happiness, and a bountiful holiday season. From our family to yours, thank you for letting GPS be part of your team.

After a long and somewhat painful VALENCIA ORANGE season, NAVEL ORANGES are off to a great start. Sizing is peaking on popular export sizing, 113-138 ct ORANGES. As we progress, sizing will shift towards larger fruit, increasing the amount of 88 ct fruit but still keeping 113 sizing in the peak range!

LETTUCE and ROMAINE supplies are increasing in Arizona! The holiday week is keeping things snug for now, but all signs point towards markets continuing to drop even further sometime next week. Quality has improved over the last few weeks and we anticipate this trend to continue into the month of december.

GRAPES continue to finish up out of California, with only RED SEEDLESS grapes loading in the west coast. PERUVIAN fruit is coming in with great quality, helping ease this transition. Although we have not seen any significant gaps in supply, we are still moving from one growing region to another, and have seen pricing move up slightly.

Similar to grapes, STONE FRUIT has all but finished off the west coast and we are starting to see early arrivals out of South America. CHERRIES, PEACHES, NECTARINES, and APRICOTS are all arriving by plane from CHILE. Pricing is high due to the airfreight but we should see prices begin to improve through December.

STRAWBERRIES are slow going out of California. Cool temps are keeping production in check resulting in higher market pricing. FLORIDA FRUIT looks to get going sometime late next week. Once Florida starts, we usually see two or three weeks of markets hanging on to higher price levels and then the bottom drops out. Supplies will pick up quickly here in the Sunshine State but that is not always the best for export fruit! Too much heat will bring on tons of fruit and pricing will hit the floor but fruit will struggle to make container arrivals. Ideally, we get some cooler weather and the fruit will be much more suitable for export. As always, Mother Nature gets to decide.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parker Tannehill