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Market Alerts & Produce Updates
For the week of April 15, 2024
The following updates and alerts were culled in collaboration with our growing family of brands. Scroll through both lists to help prepare for upcoming obstacles and opportunities.
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Grain
Increases in energy, rival vegetable oil kinds, and stocks all contributed to the previous week's increased soybean oil prices. Considering the ongoing manufacturing problems, palm was higher. Canola increased in value when farmer seed sales decreased. -
Dairy
The markets for shell eggs are all flat, and demand is declining. The Northwest and California markets are struggling. Although avian influenza has been detected in US dairy cows, it is not yet severe enough to cause production losses. Demand for contracted cheese is stable, whereas demand for spot cheese is stable to increasing. There is a mixed demand for butter domestically. -
Beef
The market is still not rising. Tenders and ribs still exhibit discounts. Top butts and strips are hanging in there. Chucks, end cuts, and insides seem to be simple to locate, and packers are driven vendors. Thin meats have benefited from the lower yield; grinds are still appearing and indicate some market pressure. -
Pork
Due of growing demand, both boneless butts and B/I will be moving up next week. The market is rising due to the increased demand for ribs. Retail advertisements are generating greater action in loins, which will lead to a robust market. As the weekly demand for fresh bellies rises, belly trends are also increasing. Trimmings have increased in line with the general pork outlook. -
Poultry
The market for breasts has begun to decline, and more are becoming accessible. The market for wings is balanced. There is a high demand for tenders, yet they are still the hardest to locate offering. The desire for dark meat is still high. The majority of whole birds are balanced. -
Seafood
The Pacific Halibut season has begun, and while whole fish prices are now higher, it is anticipated that they will decrease over the next few weeks. The supply of lobster in the North Atlantic is still decreasing, and prices are rising. Due to increased supply, warm water lobster prices have remained stable and have not grown as anticipated.
- Unfavorable weather conditions, drought, and prolonged El Nino/La Nina effects persist, leading to reduced production and increased market prices for various commodities. The elevated market prices are anticipated to persist for the next several weeks. The transition from Yuma to Salinas in California and Arizona is nearly finalized, with Yuma operations wrapping up by the conclusion of the upcoming week. Beginning the week of 4/22, all wet veg products will be shipped from the Salinas Valley, while a small number of shippers will continue to operate from Huron for the subsequent two weeks. Supply and quality are on the rise, resulting in stable to slightly lower prices for lettuce and romaine in the markets. However, we anticipate pricing to remain elevated throughout the transition period.
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Apples
Washington State Apples remain in good promotable volumes on most varieties. Quality has been very good and is expected to remain good for the foreseeable future. Sizing is trending toward smaller sizes, 100s and smaller. Gala apples are seeing roughly one million fewer packages than last year. -
Artichokes
Lighter supplies out of Oxnard the next two weeks. Demand has been strong during the Easter pull with higher pricing; quality has improved. -
Asparagus
Asparagus production continues to decrease from Mexico due to seasonality. Peru has started with light production and markets have begun to react due to the anticipated lower volume at the end of next week. Due to seasonality and shed maintenance, white asparagus will remain very limited from Peru until mid-June. -
Bananas
We are seeing some delays at the ports, but we are not anticipating any supply issues. In some rare cases fruit may be a color stage behind in ripening. Overall fruit is showing great overall quality. -
Blackberries
Quality is good, with sizing between the medium to large range, nice sheen, mostly black, and with good firmness. Due to high temps in the regions, we do see some regression in some ranches and some softer fruit as the days get hotter. -
Broccoli
Salinas broccoli volumes are increasing but still below normal. Market remains firm at higher prices and quality is very nice. -
Brussels Sprouts
Overall Supplies and Quality remain good as Mexico and the Oxnard growing regions are in full production. Demand is increasing. -
Cabbage, Red
Quality is good although supplies continue lighter. Market is steady. -
Carrots
Steady supplies continue with good quality. Shippers still have light volume on Jumbos out of California. -
Cauliflower
Supplies continue to improve with good quality. -
Celery
The market is trending higher as we head into next week with decreased supplies anticipated over the next few weeks. -
Cilantro
Cilantro supplies, and Quality continue to improve. -
Corn
Good supply available out of Florida and Mexico this week. Quality is good out of the southeast and South Georgia projected to start the 2nd week of May. -
Cucumber
Steady supply available out of McAllen, Nogales, and Florida. South Georgia is projected to scratch on new crop at the end of April. -
Grapes, Green/Red
Grape availability remains at record lows on all varieties, and we expect this to continue through the month with elevated pricing on market business. There is more fruit on the water and scheduled to arrive and conditions are expected to slowly improve over the next 2 weeks. We do expect firm markets until the Mexican crop begins in approximately 4-5 weeks. Quality is fair and we are still asking for subs to black grape since they seem to have the best quality and legs over the red and greens. -
Herbs
Basil quality has improved this week. We are still seeing some quality issues with dill, mint, and oregano. Rain continues to affect supply and quality. Chervil production has improved. -
Lemons
We are seeing a significant size shift on Lemons. Small fruit is getting exceptionally short with reports that 70- 80% of the crop is running 95’s/115’s/140’s with no relief in sight until imports start in late June. -
Lettuce, Boston/Butter/Green/Red Leaf
Available supplies will vary for each growing region with a wide range in Quality as Salinas is starting and Yuma is finishing up for the season. The market is still trending lower into next week with the market on leaf items expected to be very volatile through the coming weeks during transition. -
Limes
The market continues to soften as overall demand has weakened. We continue to see increased availability on small sizes from new production harvests with large sizes continuing to be limited in supply. We are anticipating a slight increase in demand for Cinco de Mayo but anticipate market to continue to soften throughout Q2. -
Mushrooms
Stable supply and good quality available. -
Onions, Green
The market remains strong as growers are facing some quality issues in the growing areas of Mexico. Market is expected to continue strong through next week. -
Peppers, Green
Better supply this week across all sizes and quality is good. The desert is expected to start in May with South Georgia scratching late April. -
Peppers, Red
Excellent supply and good quality available on all sizes. -
Potatoes, Russet
The market continues to feel stable on all sizes and grades for the moment, with the exception of 40ct potatoes. While potatoes as a whole should remain plentiful, we do anticipate 40ct commanding a premium more often than not until the end of the crop. They have continued to be available for mixers, but we are not seeing very much straight load availability, or even availability in heavy volume. There will be some lots that are better than others throughout the season, but this does appear to be a theme moving forward. Because of this, we do anticipate that we may see a pretty big gap between 40ct/50ct and the rest of the sizes. -
Raspberry
Weather has been hot and sunny throughout all regions, with strong, windy days. I see temps at the low 90s (some areas in the 100s) and nights at the mid-50s. Next week is looking to be similarly hot. Generally, the fruit is a good red color, with some slighter in colors in the pack due to picking a bit early ahead of the heat. Sizes are mostly medium to large depending on the ranch from which they are picked. Counts are 40-48. We do see some overripe and crumbled fruit sporadically throughout the packs, but crews are doing their best to keep them out of the packs. -
Spinach
Supplies are good with very good quality. Market is steady. -
Squash, Yellow/Zucchini
Shipping out of Florida, McAllen, and Nogales. Good supply and Quality available in general. Best Quality continues to be on zucchini while yellow squash, with its tender skin far more vulnerable to imperfections, seems to remain very light in supply. -
Strawberries
The California season is slow to start due to rainfall and cooler temperatures. The quality is good with good sheen, color, and flavor, but all growers see misshapen fruit, burnt calyx, spongy tips, water damage, and pin rot. Rainfall is expected this weekend, which will continue to delay the start of the peak season. Production-wise, plants are looking to burst and are loaded with strawberries— once dryer weather and warmer temps come back to the area, we will see a huge jump in volume towards the end of the month. -
Tomatoes, Cherry
Crops out of Mexico are slowly improving and we are seeing a downward trend on price as the volume increases. Unfortunately, with the imbalance on the east coast due to less acreage planted and weather-related pressure, markets remain at record highs. We will see this continue until Florida can produce volume consistently. -
Tomatoes, Loose
Markets remain escalated as weather last week caused delays and yield loss in the older crops throughout Immokalee, which has put extra pressure on the market until growers can start packing the spring regions. We expect higher markets through the 3rd week of April when we expect to see more volume out of the newer areas. Quality will be hit and miss over the next week.
California Weather Alert
December 13, 2022 – The West Coast and San Joaquin Valley of California, has been receiving rainfall over the last few days, impacting all growing areas including Salinas, Santa Maria, Oxnard, into southern California and the Central Valley.
As a result, this has caused delays as fields are too muddy to harvest. Unfortunately, there has not been enough rain to reverse the major drought conditions they continue to experiencing, but is enough to affect harvesting for a few days.
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