As we head into the heart of May, there are plenty of vegetable items to go around. Salinas now has close to the full menu, with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf, strawberries, romaine, along with the “oddball” items such as bok choy, napa, spinach, green onions, parsley, etc. The only main item that is not available yet is celery, which is still going in Oxnard and Santa Maria. That deal looks to start in June.
Trucks definitely tightening up, and rates continue to climb. East coast mixers are in the $7000-7500 range, which is up about $2000 from a month ago. We will continue to see rates climb the next several weeks, and could easily see $8000 for Memorial Day business. Keep that in mind when figuring your ads and delivered prices.
Long range weather for Central California shows warm days in the 70s and 80s, and mild nights in the 50s. The Fresno area, where the tree fruit deals are kicking off, are slowly creeping into the 90s. No rain anywhere. All typical for this time of year.

LETTUCE–plenty of lettuce around, and prices have been slipping. May is the largest producing month of the year, and typically has the best quality. We are definitely seeing to volume come on, and quality is definitely improving, after the rain issues that were prevalent the past month.

BROCCOLI–wide range in price on bunch and crowns. Interestingly, some shippers are quoting MORE on bunch 14s and 18s than crowns. This is due to the “local” broccoli crown deals that are starting along the eastern seaboard, and they supply much of those areas. They price to SELL.

CAULIFLOWER–in its typical roller coaster ride, there has been a gap in supplies the past week, and the market spiked up. Now, we can already see better supplies coming on, and the market will start to drift downward. We see that because currently there is a fairly wide range in price, but overall trending lower. There could/should be some deals available this weekend, certainly by next week.

LEAF ITEMS–good deals around on romaine, while red and green have been trending to the higher priced side. There is already talk of east coast local deals kicking off, so the bloom could be off the rose for California leaf very soon. Quality is also improving, after several weeks of rain-effected product.

CELERY–stronger market on ALL sizes. We don’t see how the celery market can go much higher because of freight.  For example, a $7500 truck that hold 700 celery works out to be over  $10/box FREIGHT. This puts delivered prices easily $20 and higher to the east coast. Tough to put a decent retail.

STRAWBERRIES–Mother’s Day business is still going strong with west coast deliveries. Normally you would see the berry market start sliding the Wednesday before Mother’s Day, but we don’t think so this time. Shippers indicate they have solid business for the balance of this week. Supplies should start to pick up next week, and the market drift downward. Quality is finally improving, after getting out from under the rain effected product. Weather is ideal right for berries.

Ed Brem
ed@producewest.com