Produce Update-January 23 2015
Oh you know it’s warm when there’s a heavy rain warning for the peak of Whistler and it’s supposed to go above freezing at Sunshine Village on the weekend – the highest ski area in the Rockies! It doesn’t look like we have to worry about snowy roads for a few days! Growing conditions across all regions are heading into the normal range finally after several cool nights across the desert Southwest. Everyone is still recovering from the freeze and demand is very high on leafy greens – hence the very high prices on some commodities. Conventional markets are starting to drop and we expect to see price relief for many products over the next couple of weeks.The Canadian dollar has continued to plunge, nearly dropping below 80c US today – this is a substantial change – 9% in one month, and although we hate to raise prices when markets are unseasonably high already and supply is tight, we have had to make some corrections on salad and a few others.We have a plethora of avocados and stunning prices for the upcoming week – with Super Bowl weekend coming up it’s a great week to promote! Doesn’t it seem weird that only 30% of the population actually buys avocados, and it’s only weekend football parties and the related guacamole dip that increases sales. I can understand people shying away from granadilla, celery root and dragon fruit, but avocados? It’s the same story for mangos – less than 20% of the population of North America buys mangos.Berries continue to be a big seller, with strawberries still recovering in all growing areas – the quality on straws is just fine, there just aren’t enough of them to bring prices down and blues continue to ship well.This has been the worst year for Ecuador’s mango producers – the crop was down, and container lines have been refusing to bring them north with no guarantee of when they will be unloaded or delivered because of the US port strikes, now in their 8th month. Peru is now in the same “boat” as it were, and we are currently looking at diverting our containers to Houston and trucking them north, even though it will add $1 per box - but desperate people do desperate things. And we’ve pulled the plug after 3 “iffy” arrivals on Ecuador fruit – we don’t want your customers getting brown fruit, and with any containers coming into LA they have been on the water an extra 3 weeks.We’re hoping to see some more Agrofresco lettuce and kale in mid-week. Our truck from last week was rejected at the Tijuana border crossing because the inspectors found a tiny snail on one of the wooden pallets, and you wouldn’t want that snail in the US – even though it is a snail that is natural to California. Drives you nuts sometimes!We have pink lemonade lemons in stock – they are awesome – and something fun and new to put on the shelf – however, they are yellow on the outside, so we suggest having a cut one on display!Asparagus is still tight – recovery after hard frosts can be 3-4 weeks because the soil is too cold to pump up new shoots. We’re having great luck on the Texan beans – seems like a weird place to shop for beans but quality has been just great. All our English cukes for the next few days were frozen on the way to us so that will be one hole we just can’t fix for a couple of days.Last week for BC Garlic – hoard now or wait until August! We’re expecting Fairtrade La Grama ginger later in the week, now that harvest conditions in the Amazon have improved. The Fairtrasa brand ginger we have in stock is not Fairtrade in case the name fools you.