Good afternoon,
CABBAGE supplies have picked up in the southeast. Patches in North Carolina are beginning to produce significant numbers which is in turn, helping to lower market prices. Look for this trend to continue as CABBAGE numbers increase in both North Carolina and Georgia in the weeks ahead.
APPLE availability continues to improve week after week. GALA fruit has picked up so we have finally seen pricing on GALA 12/3 APPLES come down. We are into new crop HONEYCRISP, KIKU, AMBROSIA, GALA and more!
ANJOU PEARS are also picking up steam! Smaller pears will have a slow start to the season but we have good supplies in house on ANJOU 120ct PEARS.
POTATO markets continue to decline. As new crops come available out of several states, POTATOES have provided at least one bright spot for us this week.
STRAWBERRY supplies have struggled through the transition down the California coastline. Watsonville supplies are nearly finished for the season and we can.t do much other than hope that Santa Maria and Oxnard growing areas produce stronger fruit with better shelf life than we have been seeing. In the meantime, temper your expectations and your orders until we start to see better fruit available.
ROMAINE out of Canada is finished for the season. NEW JERSEY crops look to play the hero this year stepping in just as Canadian supplies wrap up. ICEBERG supplies look to hang on for just one more week before we have to lean on California supplies for a few weeks. We should see FLORIDA lettuce and romaine sometime in early December.
ICEBERG and ROMAINE have hit, what we hope, is their PEAK PRICING. We have never seen it this bad and we hope to never see it like this again. The severe heatwave and field diseases such as INSV and fusarium, brought damage and losses to crops that has been too much for our suppliers to overcome. Please keep your customer base informed on the unusual challenges we have seen this year and cut back your orders if necessary. We will see high prices and severe prorates next week on California ICEBERG and ROMAINE.
More as it happens,
Parker Tannehill