This week is starting out much different from last week.  Weather has improved tremendously over the past week and a half, with days in the upper 70s expected all week in the desert.  Product is still trying to recover from the damage done in early January, but supply has improved on many of the items.  East coast is still getting buried in winter storms, keeping demand lower than normal and contributing to the flat overall market.  Valentines Day is approaching and it is time to start thinking about berries.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather stays warm with little or no rain.

Long range weather shows continually warm temperatures in the desert and very little freeze.  Oxnard temperatures will be cool to mild and no rain is in the forecast for the next 10 days.

Trucks are plentiful and rates are sliding down to the upper 4000 range to the east coast.  Fuel prices are still high but truck demand is down.

LETTUCE — Market prices are nearly half of what they were at the start of last week.  At the harvest level we are seeing lessened degrees of blister peel and quality seems to be getting back to normal for late January and early February.  The air borne version of scholerotinia continues to affect lettuce fields keeping yields lower than normal.  On a positive note, the warmer weather is lessening the disease and head weights are improving as well.

BROCCOLI — Night and day difference this week compared to last week.   Just as we stated in last weeks newsletter, Florida product put pressure on west coast to lower prices, and our warmer weather improved yields.  Good supply and quality now available and shippers are looking to move product.  There should be plenty of supply into the next few weeks.

CAULIFLOWER– Much like broccoli, cauliflower dropped in price as volume increased last week.  Product is very nice and was much less affected by the extreme cold conditions last month.  Demand is just not there and we don’t expect prices to substantially rise any time soon.

LEAF ITEMS — Romaine is one of the few items that had been hit exceptionally hard by desert cold and disease.  Harvesters are still leaving 20 – 30% of product in the field due to cosmetic defects.  Product that is being shipped has some problems, however these problem are industry wide and everyone is in the same boat.  Retails remain high this week as volume slowly recovers.  We may see improvements in supply toward the end of this week.

CELERY — still a very active market.  Larger sized celery is harder to come by.  Most of this has been brought about by colder weather in the Oxnard areas.  High amounts of rain over the past few weeks have caused the celery to crack due to the plants taking in too much water and swelling.  The cool weather is keeping product from sizing up, although conditions are improving daily.

STRAWBERRIES — even though we had rain in Oxnard over the weekend, there is so much cheap product coming out of Florida that the market has been virtually unaffected by west coast rain.  Prices coming out of Florida are half of what we are seeing out west which has taken a bite out of west coast demand.  As we near Valentines Day we are hoping that the weather remains desirable.

Ed Brem

www.producewest.com