MARKET UPDATE WEEK # 15 - 2020

Good Afternoon,

We hope you are all staying safe and healthy out there. Social distancing, working from home, and the precautions we are taking for this pandemic may have brought us to physical distance, but we need to stand together now more than ever. We want to wish everyone well in the upcoming weeks. The times ahead may be more difficult, but we are here to help as best we can. If there is anything you need us to chase down or try and source, please let us know.

The lack of demand we are seeing on certain commodities is staggering. Sure, some items are still holding on strong; GARLIC, GINGER, CALABAZA, value-added and processed hard goods, but overall, the lack of consumption has shocked the industry and the world. Acres of product are going unused and although that means more affordability in the short term, the cost to the farming community will be devastating. We can expect pricing to be low for a while, but as growers try to find a new normal to base their production off, we can also expect shortages in the future.

The start of production in Salinas, California saw some heavy rains this week. Monday started out with shippers completely sold out on LETTUCE, ROMAINE, and other leaf items. If we were seeing typical Easter pulls, this rainstorm would have driven prices up with ease. With the suppressed demand, we only saw a slight bump in cost. Product should be affordable and readily available for at least the next few weeks.

Once we get through the holiday and the crews return to work next week, we will only be a few weeks out from MEXICO GRAPE production. By the end of this month, small numbers are expected to be harvested and volumes should pick up from there. All varieties are at the end of the offshore season and even with the lack of demand, markets are holding firm. Look for new crop grapes in May.

Wishing you all the best. Please stay safe and let us know what we can do to help.

We are all in this together,
Team GPS