3/7/11
It’s hard to believe, but the desert only has another 3 weeks, or so to go, and Huron will start in 2 weeks. Salinas is only a month away! In the meantime, we continue to deal with shortage of lettuce, leaf, romaine, broccoli crowns, endive, escarole, and various other items. We have said in previous bulletins that these markets will be strong for the remainder of the desert deal, and we continue to feel that way. In fact, it will probably carry over to Huron with head lettuce, romaine, and leaf.
Long range weather shows the desert climbing into the mid to high 80s during the day, lows in the 50s at night. No rain. All good.
Trucks plentiful, however the truckers are trying to push rates up a bit, due to the increased diesel costs.

LETTUCE–this market has definitely peaked out at $30-35 FOB, and may even drop off a bit this week. Retails are set WAY high, and most of the lettuce is small and light weight, which is pushing consumers to bag salad, or no salad at all. When this market DOES start to come down, it won’t be 50 cents or a dollar at a time. Quality-wise, continue to expect small, light weight product that rattles around in the box, and still some freeze-effected issues.

BROCCOLI–bunch 14s and 18s are available at reasonable pricing, while crowns are still $5-8.00//box MORE than bunch! It shows you that there just isn’t much in the way of crown material, which require a larger head, something we haven’t seen much of due to the cold temperatures the past month.

CAULIFLOWER–better supplies coming on, and we see this market dropping by the end of this week. Still not a lot of 9s out there, but should be more 12s.

LEAF ITEMS–still MAJOR problems with romaine. This market has stayed in the $40-45.00 FOB range for weeks now, and could continue for another 2 weeks. Still some feathering, peel, and blister issues, as workers continue to trim off freeze-effected problems. Green(at $13-16.00 fob) is the LEAST expensive of all the leafy greens. Red and boston are both in the upper $20s fob. Again, expect another 2 weeks of this, and possibly longer.

CELERY–desert starting to wind down in supplies, while Oxnard is actually picking up more volume. Prices rebounded last week, but there are signs of lower pricing this week. A little heads up, but we could see some seeder problems next month, which will keep prices STRONG.

ASPARAGUS–the warm weather in the desert is certainly helping to bring on supplies of 28/1# standard and large grass. There could be some deals coming up during the next 1-2 weeks. Right now, we are looking for ANY ad opportunities!

STRAWBERRIES–supplies picking up in Oxnard, but with Florida still going strong, demand is still light out West. Keep in mind that California berries are big, hard, and HIGH sugar. This is typically some of the BEST fruit of the year in California. On the horizon, Florida only looks to be a factor another 2-3 weeks, which will shift demand for California fruit.

Ed Brem
ed@producewest.com