Fresh From The Farm Produce Market Update July 4th, 2012

ICEBERG LETTUCE

The lettuce market continues overall to be steady but suppliers are being reported as light and this will cause prices to increase. We are hearing different reports on quality anything from good to decay, pink ribbing and brown outer leaves, so please check the product.

ROMAINE & LEAF

The leaf market is active on green leaf and romaine. Supplies are expected to be light to moderate throughout the week. Fringe burn is being reported on leaf items so please be aware. This is an issue with many suppliers. A few suppliers are already indicating lower volumes of production on romaine starting next week so please be aware, as prices will be increasing. Romaine weights are up in the 35- 36 pound range. Green leaf supplies are getting to back to normal and quality is good.  Red Leaf supplies are good and quality good, pricing. Butter supplies are good and quality is good.

POTATOES

The Idaho market is flat with good supplies available on all sizes. Everyone with old crop is just looking to finish before the newer deals begin. The first new crop russets should begin out of Nebraska by sometime next week. Most shippers are still peaking on 80-count and smaller. Washington is steady but firm with light supplies available. Many Washington shippers have finished packing old-crop. The Colorado market is steady and they are still peaking on 50-80’s. Most Colorado suppliers are trying to conserve their storage product so they don’t run out before new-crop. Bakersfield, California continues to pack russets and they are peaking on 80’s and smaller. The russet quality has been excellent in all areas. Bakersfield is still packing red, gold, and white potatoes and the availability is good for all colors. California is heavier to A-size now but there is no shortage of B’s. North Carolina & Virginia have started packing reds, whites, and golds and they are both heavier to A-size. Alabama continues to pack reds.

ONIONS

Yellows in New Mexico are still short as many of the shippers there are still in a small gap between the winter-over’s and direct seed. The New Mexico market is strong and limited as many suppliers are not harvesting during the holiday week. California yellows are also steady on jumbos and larger and they are also short of medium yellows. Whites onions and Reds are mostly steady in both states and they have limited numbers of mediums. The quality has been good on all colors.

TOMATOES

Western Markets: The Central District of California is now into full production.  This has put a lot of additional supplies with a good range of sizes in the pack outs available in the market place.  Their fruit is currently running big so the market continues to be inverted. The Central District is also now packing roma tomatoes.  This is helping to finally add enough supplies to the system to allow for the market to come down. The light harvest of cherry tomatoes in California is providing no relief to the short supplies of cherry tomatoes and the prices remain high.  With a new commodity now available to load in California, the demand for trucks has almost doubled.  This will be another factor that will affect the market.  As they run more and more cases they will get to a point there will not be enough trucks available to haul the loads putting pressure on the market price. Baja Mexico is harvesting a lot of grape tomatoes at this time.  This flush in supplies has pushed the market price downward for grape tomatoes. Central Mexico has started a new growing area for roma tomatoes.  These supplies along with those out of Baja have increased crossings into the United States and thus has helped with the decline in the roma market.

Eastern Markets: Quincy will continue to harvest limited supplies of 2nd picking tomatoes through next week as long as the seasonal daily rains stay off of the fruit and the heat does not get the fruit.  The harvest of these crops in Quincy are helping to provide enough small fruit in the country to take pressure off of the previous two weeks of extreme limited supplies.  Once these crops are done, everyone moves north or west for fruit to the summertime growing districts of Virginia, Tennessee and California. South Carolina is trying to get their 2nd picking fruit out of the fields, but the rain from the tropical storm is hindering these efforts.  This area, like Quincy, is almost completed.

Vegetables & Value Added Produce

CUCUMBERS

Western Markets: Market is steady to slightly trending up movement is steady.

Eastern Markets: Supplies are steady out of Michigan and the quality has been excellent. Georgia is finishing up this week and North Carolina’s volumes are hit and miss. The market is a bit stronger this week with the limited supplies out of the south.

EGGPLANT

Western Markets: Market is active and trending up. Supplies continue lightening up as transitions to other growing districts take place. Light supplies on large fruit.

Eastern Markets: Supplies are good at this time, some quality issues being reported with some shippers. Expect supplies to remain sufficient into next week with some growers probably stopping do to quality issues.

PEPPERS

Western Markets: Green bell market is settling as growers are transitioning from Coachella to Bakers field and other northern districts. Adequate supplies on all green bells. Colored bell continue unsettled and trending up. Demand exceeds on red bell pepper and Gold bells are extreme demand exceeds. Upcoming transition to other districts expected first, second week of July.

Eastern Markets: GA continues to finish up. May shippers have finished up this week after several days of very heavy rains. NC shippers have the majority of the pepper volume this week as Michigan is still a week or two away.

SQUASH

Western Markets: Market steady on both Italian and Yellow; production is picking up. Yellow squash has wide range of quality, and demand exceeds supplies but this is slowly improving. Italian squash is steady and production is picking up in the next week or so. Windy and inclement weather continues to affect yellow squash quality and production.

Eastern Markets: Georgia has pulled the plug on squash and Michigan is into heavy volume this week. With demand being off due to the holiday, this market should remain at the lower levels throughout the week.

BROCCOLI

The broccoli market has been eased considerably since last week on crowns and bunch. Production had been down this moth but supplies have improved and pricing has reacted downward accordingly.    Supplies are definitely better on bunched product as well as crowns.

CABBAGE

Cabbage is sourced in the Salinas and Georgia growing areas.  Michigan and Ohio will begin production in ten days.  Supplies are good for green cabbage in all areas.  Red cabbage supplies are good for California.  Georgia is finishing seven to ten days early due to weather issues.  Red supplies are light in the east.  Quality is good in all areas.

CAULIFLOWER

Not much movement in the cauliflower market as of late, this market is steady. Supplies are stronger due to a lack of demand in the market. The main sizing continues to be twelve counts. Demand like the previous week has begun light to begin the week. Light brown spotting is being seen upon arrivals, so please be aware. Most shippers continue to deal with this issue. Expect browning sporadically to be seen throughout the week.

CARROTS

California carrot supplies remain good. Sizing of the carrots are good with steady warm weather.

CELERY

The market continues to creep upward. With the absence of Oxnard, supplies have tightened up considerably. Smaller sizing commands a higher price. Salinas’ production is light to moderate, and Santa Maria is also in production. The option for Salinas and Santa Maria are the two regions to choose from when loading.

GREEN ONIONS

There is no change with this commodity. Supplies that are coming out of Mexico with most suppliers are good. The quality continues to have a few issues with decay upon arrival.

ASPARAGUS

This market is steady to start the week. Supplies out of Mexico are on the light to moderate side. Peruvian product will be light throughout the week. There continues to be no 28 pound cases being packed by any supplier, only eleven pounders. Demand continues to exceed supplies. Jumbo grass is the most difficult size to purchase.

Fruit

STRAWBERRIES

The cool weather in the Strawberry growing areas this last week and with added demand for the July 4th holiday has tighten up supplies and firmed the market. Quality is still being reported as good out of the Salinas/ Watsonville growing areas with medium size fruit. Watsonville is still 2 full weeks away from peaking.  Santa Maria has hit and miss quality depending on shipper with size being medium to small.

RASPBERRIES

The market is steady with good quality fruit being harvest currently.  Look for Watsonville to have strong volume over the next 1-2 weeks with a peak in mid-July.

BLACKBERRIES

The blackberry market is very tight.  California has started, but they are in a demand exceeds supply situation this week with the holiday.  Eastern supplies have reached the low-point caused by the hail and Tropical Storm Debbie.  Quality is being reported as fair to good.

BLUEBERRIES

Blueberries are being harvested in California, North Carolina, South Georgia and New Jersey currently. The California growing area is wrapping up for the season with the Northwest growing areas struggling to start up due to all of the rain last week. We have seen a firming of the market that will continue over the next week or so till the NW gets cleaned up. The east coast growing areas have been getting some weather on and off which has interrupted harvest in some growing areas. The main pack sizes are 6oz and larger. Quality is reported as good.

GRAPES

Market steady to strong and starting to transition to the central valley as Mexico and Coachella valley winding down and should be close to finished by the middle part of next week. The overall quality out of all regions is good except for some lighter color fruit crossing from Mexico on the reds. The green grapes are in very good supply and overall condition and sugar is very good. We are starting in the central valley now with some of the first flames looking very good and minimal amount of cracks which we typically run into on the first early blocks, but the fruit this year looks very strong now and hopefully will continue through ht season. Expect good supplies of fruit out of the valley through November.

STONE FRUIT

California peaches are now in full swing with good sizing and promotable volume. Both the nectarine and plum market remains strong as demand exceeds supplies. Apricots have good size and quality.

CHERRIES

Bing cherries are finishing up in the San Joaquin Valley. Washington started up last week, but production is off heavily this week with rain.  Demand exceeds supply at the moment.

APPLES

New York is packing light volumes of Empire, Rome, and Red Delicious apples but they will only pack for a couple more weeks. Washington Reds are peaking on 88/100’s and the higher grades. The lower grades remain limited. Golden delicious are heavy to the higher grades and size 88/100’s. Lower grade Golden’s remaining limited. Granny-Smiths are also peaking on extra fancy 88/100’s and the lower grades are limited. Galas are heavy to 88’s and smaller and the higher grades but are almost finished. Washington Fuji’s are peaking on extra fancy 72/80/88’s and they are still very short as well.

PEARS

D‘Anjou pears continue to peak on the US#1 grade and are evenly spread across the size spectrum but supplies are limited especially on the fancy grade. Washington Bosc pears are finished. There are a few Red Pears still available but they are also almost finished as well. California will have new crop Bartlett Pears at the end of July.

AVOCADOS

Mexican supplies are declining weekly, with decent volume into July. California volume is good; peaking on 60ct. California fruit has good maturity, flavor and oil content.

ORANGES

Market steady with good demand on most all sizes, the overall quality of the fruit is good with some re-greening and also some softness, the interior color, sugar and juice content is excellent. Expect smaller sizes to stay firm as we are peaking on 56’s and 72’s and fruit will continue to size as we progress through the summer. We will be running valencia’s through October and then start the navels, we need to keep in mind that the quality will only continue to get rougher as we progress through the summer and the trees take care of next year’s crop which is on the tree, therefore the quality suffers on the fruit we are harvesting this year.

LEMONS

Market strong to steady with good supplies of larger fruit and tighter supplies of the smaller fruit as we are peaking on 95’s and 115’s, expect the market to keep steady and possibly ease up as we are starting to get Chilean arrivals and will continue to see fruit arrive from Chile which will help keep the pipeline filled through the next few months along with Mexico which will start to cross next month. The overall quality is fair to good with some blocks showing some checkerboard color and some with a tinge of green as well.

LIMES

Market has stabilized over the last two or so weeks.  Pricing should remain as is for about the next week or so.

Quality of the limes has been good over the last few weeks, but as the temperature starts to rise to the 90's to 100, we will start to see the stress on the tree take its toll on the fruit.  We should expect to see more skin breakdown, lighter color and leaf shading.  We have seen some rain issues this week and should continue to see as the rains continue. 

CANTALOUPES

Market is good with Arizona and the Westside going now, we are just getting started on the Westside fruit and overall quality and condition looks very good. The color on the fruit is much better than you have been seeing out of the desert and Arizona. The interior color out of both regions is very good and sugars are excellent as well. Look for good supplies of fruit out of central California through mid October barring any weather issues.

HONEYDEWS

The market steady with supplies also coming out of Arizona and the central valley. The overall quality is very good with mostly a green to cream cast and excellent color and sugar out of both areas. Expect better supplies out of the central valley going forward and expect good supplies from this area through mid October as well. Now is the time to start promoting melons as we ramp up on both varieties in the central valley.

WATERMELON

Markets are steady. Continues demand exceeds on seedless watermelon.  Nogales is all but finished up on w/melons.  Phoenix is shipping in good volume with their 4^th of July commitments filled, but look for monsoonal weather to possibly hamper harvest the rest of the week.  Product out of the East is very tight due to the same weather issues that are impacting berries.