MARKET UPDATE WEEK #19

Good Afternoon Everyone,

A low pressure system off the coast of California pushed some heavy thunderstorms into growing regions this week. Rainfall of this magnitude is not exactly expected this time of year out west, but it's not very unusual either. However, the increasingly cold weather hitting this week is rather unusual, with temperatures hitting 10-20 degrees below seasonal averages. Slow growth and decreased yields may bring some uncertainty into markets next week.

BLUE, BLACK, and RASPBERRIES are in good supply out of Mexico, but STRAWBERRIES are not doing as well as the rest of the berry family. STRAWBERRIES are predominantly coming out of California and if there is one thing we should know about berries by now, it is that they do not fare well in rain. SHORTAGES on STRAWBERRIES are abundant this week and shippers are moving orders all over the state to get volumes covered. Please be conservative with your STRAWBERRY orders for next week as the fruit will be MORE MATURE and have MORE COLOR than they have for the past month. With dry weather scheduled for the rest of the week, we should see this market make a quick turnaround next week.

Field PRICES are UP on AVOCADOS from Mexico. With supplies lower in both Mexico and the Dominican Republic, market prices have gone up overall. Mexican growers have begun to curtail their production in an effort to push the season into late July. A strong summer crop in Mexico may allow market prices to dip slightly but we are expecting to see high costs throughout the summer. Please keep in mind that the later in the season, the less shelf life you will see in your AVOCADOS.

GREEN PEPPER has been in and out of our market update for a few weeks now. The update out of Georgia is that QUALITY and SUPPLIES are looking VERY GOOD. Growers will need another week or so to get into seasonal volumes but we are already seeing this market come back down to earth!

CHERRIES out of California faced a painfully short season this year. Harvest estimates for this season dropped from 8 million boxes to 1 million due to rain damage. Some growers are chalking the crop up as a complete loss and others are still walking their fields, assessing damage. We were one of the lucky ones to get some nice quality cherries in this week, but it looks like that was it. Unfortunately, this market will gap until Washington starts around the first or second week of June.
STONE FRUIT volumes will start to increase weekly! Please keep an eye out for different varieties and availability throughout the summer!

More as it happens,
Parker Tannehill