Product Shortage

All of a sudden in Salinas, where most of the vegetable items are coming from, there are shortages of broccoli, cauliflower, romaine, green leaf, strawberries, and other mixed items. The reasons for these shortages vary from, rain and humidity over the weekend causing quality problems, record heat for 4 days two weeks ago, to cold and strong winds in mid April causing problems. Add all of these issues up, and that is where we are. Needless to say, the shippers are pushing their markets up as high and as fast as they can. With lousy weather in the East, demand is only fair for most items, so these market increases may hit a wall.
Long range weather in the growing areas of central California show a chance of rain through tomorrow, then clearing and warmer as the week progresses. The central valley of California, where the tree fruit and grapes are coming from, is slowly warming up, which will help bring on the Summer fruit season.
Trucks are available for all areas of the country, and truckers are looking to push their prices up just as fast as they can. It will still be a few weeks before the tree fruit supply and demand pick up, so rates should be slow to climb until then.

LETTUCE–light supplies and firm market. Prices were higher last week, and look about the same going into this week. Shippers don’t indicate that their volume will pick up anytime soon, so we expect steady to strong markets for lettuce. The heat 2 weeks ago really nailed the young lettuce, and we will see effects from that heat for many weeks to come.

BROCCOLI–after 3-4 weeks of heavy supplies of bunch and crowns, fields have dried up, and now there isn’t much broccoli around. So, as you can expect, the shippers are pushing prices up as fast as they can. We expect prices to get stronger as the week goes.

CAULIFLOWER–very light supplies, and very active market. Fields got hurt by the heat spell, and much volume was lost.  We anticipate a strong to stronger market this week.

LEAF ITEMS–continued light supplies of green leaf, red leaf, boston, and now, romaine. Again, a combination of the heat, wind, cold, and now rain is making the leaf business a real struggle. This small shot of rain we got, combined with some humidity, is causing some decay and mildew problems, which is hurting production, as well. ALL leaf item markets are active, and looking so all week.

CELERY–stronger market here, too. Supplies are coming out of Oxnard, and prices are going up on all sizes. Shippers are also transferring celery to Salinas to load with the mixer loads, and are adding an additional $2.00//box to get that done.

STRAWBERRIES–a real mess out here. Fortunately, the East coast got most of their Mother’s Day needs out last week, while this week it is a few Midwest orders and West coast business to finish up with. With the bad weather in the East, Mother’s Day may not be all that is anticipated for, but there are FEW berries on the road now due to the rain over the weekend.

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