MARKET UPDATE OCTOBER 23-30, 2021

Good afternoon,

LETTUCE markets have seen an aggressive uptick this week as growers in Salinas struggle through late season supplies and Canadian growers are mostly finished for the season. We still have another three to four weeks until we transition down to YUMA, AZ, where things should start to calm down. Our hope is that LETTUCE pricing has reached its peak this week. Shippers are quoting product with BRUISING and LIGHT WEIGHTS for the remainder of the Salinas season. Please keep your customer base informed.

BROCCOLI and CAULIFLOWER will finish up in Northern California about two weeks after lettuce and leafy greens. The good news is that BROCCOLI supplies have picked up this week. Although we will see volumes incrementally decline as the end of harvest nears, it looks like we made it through the worst of it for BROCCOLI.

CAULIFLOWER markets tend to follow broccoli trends a few weeks behind schedule. We are seeing some activity on CAULIFLOWER this week, but if history is any indicator, prices will start to climb like broccoli prices did the last few weeks.

The USDA has reported that total PINEAPPLE imports from Central America have increased by 35% this week. Fortunately, Florida arrivals are all on schedule. Importers in California and Philadelphia are not so lucky, seeing delays of several days on containers. The remainder of 2021 will see declines in production throughout the industry which could produce shortages once economies fully rebound, but for the time being we are in good shape.

Port delays on the West Coast have tightened GARLIC markets around the country. While we see a lot of Peruvian and Brazilian product here on the East Coast, the Western states depend heavily on Chinese supplies coming into California by ocean container. As most of you are probably aware, the ports in California are jammed up, with some vessels waiting out on the water for weeks to get offloaded. This bottleneck in the supply chain is going to continue into the holiday where more vessels are set to arrive to meet the holiday demand.

Cool temperatures in Georgia have slowed things down a bit. GREEN BELL PEPPER, EGGPLANT, CORN, and CUCUMBERS are seeing a pull back on supply this week. As of now, it is just the cold weather slowing the growth cycle, so we should see availability improve rather quickly. Mexico is also seeing a huge shortage on BELL PEPPER that will play a factor in the domestic GREEN BELL PEPPER market for the next few weeks.

More as it happens,

Parker Tannehill