Quality Rejections Continue to Decrease Apple Supply

The minute we snag apples, they disappear, and the battle to get fruit continues.  All importers are seeing substantial quality rejections, which just decreases the amount of fruit available.  This market is so tight we’re seeing importers offering fruit in the high $60 range in the U.S. 

Washington blueberries are coming on full blast.  These are grown on the eastern side of the state, where Oregon blues are grown on the west side of the Cascades.  B.C. start dates are unknown – we’re kind of waiting for summer to arrive, with gloomy days expected in the Lower Mainland, and sun for the Interior, but very cool for late June, but on blues we’re 3 – 4 weeks out at this point. 

Talk about great growing weather for grapes!  Hot, with a capital H.  Mexico is winding down with temperatures in Sonora hitting 50C the last couple of days.  Having just been there, we don’t know how people can work in an oven! 

Lemon and grapefruit prices continue to inch up as fruit become more scarce across California.  Our Mexican grapefruit program, which should be in full swing is still delayed, with too much rain to harvest over the past few weeks, and now we’re entering the rainy season in Michoacan. 

The first strawberry glut of the year will end soon, with temperatures in the Salinas valley cooler than Vancouver for the next few days. 

The artichoke season is all good, with seasonally low pricing on large crown fruit.  Those cool California temps are also slowing broccoli down, with prices up $10 from shippers in the last few days. 

We’ll have more Fair Trade ginger in on the weekend.  We didn’t expect sales to be so brisk, and have increased order sizes. 

Talk about year-round local potato supply!  We still have several storage potato listings, and now Yukon gold and Warba’s.  We don’t know what trick Mike at 2EE pulled off to get Yukon’s out of the ground in June, but good on him!  And local zucchini!  Not much, but these are coming from cold frames at Forstbauer’s in Chilliwack.  Yes, you will pay extra for these!