California Weather – Multiple storms on the west coast have caused flooding and disruption in harvesting. We expect to see over the coming weeks delays and shortages in product availability.
Cabbage – Texas and Florida fields are starting to get some better volume right in time for St. Patrick’s Day pull. We expect pricing to stay pretty steady until after the holiday.
Melons – Honeydew and cantaloupes are widely available at all ports. Most of the production is currently arriving from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Demand is sluggish and importers are looking to make deals. Quality and sugar have been good.
Mixed Vegetables – Cold, wet weather in Florida and Mexico have shut down production on peppers, cucumbers, and squash. Supplies are extremely tight on many commodities right now and pricing is surging as buyers struggle to find product.
Lettuce – With most product coming from Arizona currently, the heavy rains in California have not had a negative impact on Iceberg, Romaine, and Green Leaf. Supplies are good and quality has been very nice.
Peppers – Pepper markets continue to be on fire! Florida is harvesting but yields have been a disappointment. We are seeing a high percentage of poor quality peppers being left in the fields. Mexico is bouncing back from last week’s shortage, but we are still in a deficit from previous years.
Potatoes – There are still plenty of potatoes in storage as Idaho is still trying to move a bumper crop. There are plenty of good deals baking potatoes out of Idaho as well as reds and golds out of other areas. We are 2-3 weeks from Florida starting with fresh-crop reds and golds. Erratic weather (rain, sporadic cold) over the past couple of months has disrupted the planting schedule and will impact the crop.
Strawberries – Light supplies due to limited harvesting caused by recent rain in Florida, California and Mexico. Product planned for the Valentine’s Day pull was impacted by the rains last week. There will be a slowing down of demand after the Valentine’s Day holiday.
Tomatoes – Have been EXTREMELY limited for the past couple of weeks, but we’re seeing some softening of the market, especially on romas. Many will choose romas instead of round tomatoes if they can, so the round tomato market soon will follow the romas.
A limbo competitor walked into a bar. He was disqualified.
