Market Update June 18, 2023

The California CHERRY harvest will begin wrapping up next week. Tight labor resources in the region are being allocated to new crops of grapes and stone fruit as they become ripe for picking. Take advantage of quality cherries priced to move while they last!

SPINACH crops have suffered slightly from predominantly overcast skies this past week. Lack of sunlight has led to decreased leaf strength with some producers reporting product not holding up well in the washing process.

After a very late start, GRAPES of all colors out of Mexico are now crossing in great numbers. The early flood of green seedless has slowed, being replaced by an abundance of red and black grapes. Quality has been good from what we've seen so far, with solid berries and green stems. Early California grapes are arriving in a small way in time for business next week. If you would like to be the first to have California fruit on your shelves, make sure to add some to your next order!

It appears we may be in for a tough Summer with ASPARAGUS. With seasonal domestic production wrapping up, and Mexico past the peak of their season, Peru is under a lot of pressure to cover much of the industry. Unfortunately, major flooding in current Peruvian growing regions has caused a significant reduction in volume produced. Things will be tight for the next couple of months, but we should see some relief down the road when growers transition into new fields.

This time last year we were in the midst of a massive RUSSET POTATO shortage. Controlled atmosphere storage facilities were nearly cleaned out as production was gapping, but this year we can expect a much smoother transition. While a period of shortages among some sizes is possible, it appears we will not be facing a total gap this time around.

The Carolinas have seen some nasty weather this past week including heavy rains and even hailstorms affecting crops of CABBAGE, SQUASH, GREEN BELL PEPPER, CUCUMBER and EGGPLANT. With Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and New York all coming into the fold in the coming weeks, we will keep our fingers crossed for better weather conditions ahead.

That's it for me, everybody. Parker will be back with your market update next week!

Thanks for reading,

Robert Bare