MARKET UPDATE for 09.29.24

Good afternoon,

Today on the 26th of September, we remember the earth's wind and fiery temperatures on the west coast this season. Now, with a storm headed right into the Florida panhandle, we hope for a chance to chase the clouds away before they damage early season crops in Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas.

We are nearing the end of the short fall season in Michigan, which has provided us with consistent availability and great quality this season. CORN, CUKES, EGGPLANTS, SQUASH, and more are beginning to wrap up their production cycles and head south. We will see some gaps in availability with the upcoming starts and stops through the Carolinas and southbound from there, but the main concern is Hurricane Helene's trajectory and massive amount of wind and rainfall.

OCTOBER will be here next week and we are fully prepared for the fall festivities. HALLOWEEN PUMPKINS, GOURDS, DECORATIVE CORN, and a full fall assortment of HARD SQUASH are available! Set the mood with a hard squash display or have a Jack-o-Lantern carving contest to drum up some seasonal excitement.

ASPARAGUS supplies remain right with most of the availability coming in small and standard sizes. PERU continues to produce better numbers but until we see some relief out of Mexico as well, this market will stay tight.

EGGS have been incredibly scarce, and expensive, for the last few months. Fortunately, supplies have started to recover resulting in better market pricing! The start of this problem dates back to 2022 when an outbreak of H5N1, commonly known as bird flu or avian flu, decimated the number of egg laying chickens. Cases eased in early 2023 but came back strong in November of the same year, severely limiting the supply of EGGS. This has been the largest bird flu in history, accounting for the sad loss of over 100 million birds. For now, cases are down and hopefully they stay that way!

In just a few weeks, we will see California VEG start to transition into Arizona. LETTUCE and LEAF will start to move first while BROCCOLI and CAULIFLOWER will hang on much later in Northern California, with supplies hopefully overlapping in both states.

More as it happens,

Parker Tannehill