MARKET UPDATE APR 11-15, 2022

Good afternoon,

Although a beautiful time of year, the spring season brings its challenges, especially early on. Production begins to move up north on both costs, leaving perishable purchasers to deal with dreaded transitions. Florida SQUASH, TOMATOES, PEPPERS, and more, move to the northern part of the state. On the west coast, CAULIFLOWER, BROCCOLI, LETTUCE, and LEAFY GREENS move from Arizona up to northern California. With all of the starts and stops in place, production gaps and early season struggles are common this time of year.

Fortunately, we are on our way to being completely out of late season ARIZONA products. Starting next week, we will have BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWER, LETTUCE, and ROMAINE exclusively out of California. BROCCOLI and CAULIFLOWER prices look to be returning to lower levels, while LETTUCE and LEAFY GREENS continue their descent from the outrageously expensive costs of this past March.

GREEN BELL PEPPER out of Florida is in the midst of a production gap. While southern supplies finish up and northern Florida farms start early harvests, pricing is moving higher due to the supply defecit. Look for GREEN PEPPER to hit its peak pricing next week and hopefully come down from there. SQUASH in Florida has found better footing as markets are settling near normal levels.

GRAPE prices have come well off their March highs, but we now notice a split tier market has formed. Due to PORT DELAYS, some GRAPES sat in containers for weeks, waiting to be unloaded. Other shippers may have had better luck getting their containers released, or better relationships that helped get their product to market faster. Either way, the closer we get to the month of May, the more cautious we all need to be searching out the cheapest GRAPE available. Luckily for now, some of the cheaper RED SEEDLESS are still acceptable in quality, but there is a clear difference in FLAVOR and SHELF LIFE.

CANTALOUPE and HONEYDEW are nearing the end of their season. Although we still have around 4 weeks left, we are beginning to see sparse availability. Importers have inventory, but the size profile is becoming inconsistent. We started with better availability on large sizes, then moved to smaller sizes being in favor, and now, availability is all over the place. Look for pricing to creep up over the next several weeks.

More as it happens,

Parker Tannehill