Tomatoes remain extremely tight with wet weather in Mexico causing big time shortages. Florida is harvesting light supplies right now and there’s just not enough to go around and fill demand. Romas, however are becoming more abundant and pricing is better this week.
The apple crop is harvested and in storage now. The overall Washington apple crop is large with estimates coming in around 138 million bushels, an increase of over 16% versus last year’s crop. Last year, Washington had one of their smaller crops in the last 5 years, totaling only 117 million cases, which negatively affected markets and pricing. This year’s crop is looking like a high-quality crop but has produced a smaller sized apple than last year and therefore will have much less of the tray fruit in the 64 to 72-count range this season. But with that said, there will still be plenty of this larger tray fruit at attractive prices all season long. The biggest value and opportunity this season will be on the smaller fruit where there will be great opportunities with very attractive prices through the spring of 2020.
Due to the cooler weather and limited availability on the west coast, it has sent much of the demand to the East Coast Peruvian market. This has caused the pricing to increase drastically, and availability to be more limited. The expectation is that the markets will remain this way for the next several weeks until the Caborca, Mexico, regional production begins in a few weeks.
Egg markets continue to fall off with the heavy holiday demand past us. Every year they go up right before Thanksgiving and every year they go back down right after Christmas. Just like clockwork and this year is playing out textbook.
Supplies of California lettuces have been limited over the last week and are expected to remain tight over the next few weeks. The colder weather has slowed growth and the heavy rains in December had a negative impact on yield in the growing areas. There have been multiple days with lettuce ice over the last few weeks that has caused quality issues that they’re trying to work through. Quality reports are reflecting the impact of the freeze damage.
We’re harvesting beautiful Chard, Tuscan Kale, and baby lettuces out of our organic greenhouse. Give it a try and support sustainable, local, organic agriculture!
As we approach the Super Bowl, avocado markets will strengthen for the biggest pull of the year. An awful lot of guacamole is made every year for Super Sunday and it definitely affects the market.
Q: What did the drummer name his twin daughters?
A: Anna 1 Anna 2
Q: Why do you never see hippos hiding in trees?
A: Because they’re really good at it.
