Good Afternoon,
As a frigid chill moves through Florida, we are seeing warming trends take hold in Mexico and Arizona. The warmer weather is helping production push forward in both growing regions. When this cold front passes in the south east, we should be welcoming better domestic supplies on PEPPERS, TOMATOES, and STRAWBERRIES.
ASPARAGUS pricing is coming off! Valentine's Day provides a significant increase of demand for asparagus. We are now through the holiday demand, and wouldn't ya know, supplies are picking up. With improved supplies out of Mexico and steady volume out of Peru, ASPARAGUS pricing is on the way down.
Mother Nature must be single because clearly, she does not care about our Valentine's Day plans. Freezing temperatures in Northern Florida have completely stopped STRAWBERRY production. When temperatures near freezing, growers run water to cover the berries in ice, protecting the fruit from freeze damage. The cooler temps have also stopped the maturation process of the fruit, leaving anything still on the plant green and underdeveloped. Unfortunately, this puts Florida strawberry growers hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cases behind in production year over year. It is a terrible situation but we have done our best to get everyone at least some fruit for the holiday.
TOMATOES and COLORED BELL PEPPER are on the verge of breaking through this supply shortage. Warmer temps in Mexico this week will really help RED, YELLOW, and ORANGE pepper supplies ramp up. TOMATOES will require a little more warmth in Florida to see markets settle, but we expect warmer conditions later next week.
CELERY markets have turned around this week! Although most of the availability is in 24-30ct sizing, this is a welcome change to a market that looked like it could have kept moving into the $40's.
PINEAPPLES are seeing better numbers for next week. Arrivals from Costa Rica have picked up, especially on larger fruit. Shippers are looking for deals on 6-7ct PINEAPPLES as the volume is concentrated on larger sizes.
More as it happens,
Parker Tannehill