MARKET UPDATE WEEK # 8 -2020

Good Afternoon,

Another week closer to spring and overall, conditions are in good shape. Seasonable weather will continue in Mexico which might allow some commodities to catch up with demand. Florida will see more showers next week which is out of the ordinary for this time of year. California and Arizona are seeing better conditions as well, so it looks like the positive trends of recent will continue out west.

STRAWBERRY volumes are starting to crank out of Florida! Markets will be flooded with less than desirable cheap fruit so keep that in mind. The cheapest price is not always the best buy! QUALITY will continue to be FAIR as temperatures continue to warm so it remains critical to have someone monitoring your fruit.

BLACK, BLUE, and RASPBERRIES remain TIGHT this week. We are still seeing short supplies out of MEXICO on mixed berries which is pushing this sellers' market. We will be seeing some volatility on mixed berries for at least another week.

Shippers may have acted too quickly in their attempt to raise prices on west coast veg commodities like LETTUCE, LEAF, and BROCCOLI. With the recent seasonable conditions, production remains favorable on these commodities. Expect another week of aggressive pricing with a slight bump of maybe a few dollars.

CAULIFLOWER will be our west coast anomaly this week as most shippers are LIGHT on SUPPLY. Some shippers only have 9ct, some have 12's, some have 16's and others have absolutely nothing. This could be a sign of a gap approaching but hopefully the decent conditions help CAULIFLOWER produce better yields over the next week.

CANTALOUPES and HONEYDEWS are in GREAT SUPPLY! Huge volumes out of Honduras and Guatemala continue to arrive here in South Florida, giving us a true buyers' market. LOUPES and DEWS will be great deal items for the next few weeks.

Early Chilean GRAPE varieties are starting to improve. Peru is still producing some arrivals, so the market finally has a good amount of fruit to work with. We should see a gradual increase in supply over the next few weeks but please be warned, we have reports that the season will FINISH a few weeks EARLY. We may see supplies start to taper off sometime in late March.

More as it happens,
Parker Tannehill