With Fall in full swing, it is time to look towards Thanksgiving and anticipate what will be in store for our industry.  This weekend will be the official start of the Thanksgiving pull and things will heat up from there on.  Product is still available in Salinas, but growing regions for lettuce have moved to Huron.  This results in more pickups for the trucks, and fewer on time arrivals.  Needless to say it can be a stressful time of year.

Truck rates have been falling over the past few weeks but will most likely flatten out towards the end of this week as thanksgiving business picks up, and even climb a bit.

Long range weather shows a warming trend for Salinas Valley and San Joaquin Valley this week with temperatures creeping into the 80s.  It is common in early November to have a few warm days as we finish the last of the Indian summer.  No rain in the forecast until next Monday. Hopefully we can get through the Thanksgiving demand before major rains hit.

LETTUCE — With Huron product in full production quality has been surprising satisfactory with few serious problems to report.  Because the past few months have been mild in the central valley, product was less stressed than previous years; however the adverse affect of the cool weather was smaller head sizes and lighter weights.  Because the market has not been extremely active, harvesters are able to pass up poor product and only put high quality in the box. The market is very strong, with delivered prices $22-25.00 on the East coast.

BROCCOLI — Pretty quiet this week, but demand is expected to pick up later this week.  Quality is nice.  Crown material is in lighter supply and we can expect that market to improve as we get closer to the holiday pull.

CAULIFLOWER — Market is still flat, not much to report here.  We expect cauliflower to start to follow the trend of the other items later this week,  the market has been flat for too long now and it is about time for conditions to change, which should come starting this weekend.  Quality is good.

LEAF ITEMS — Plenty of red and green leaf at competitive prices. Romaine has been slightly more active, nearly doubling red and green prices. Quality is good, no major issues to report.  Romaine market has already made a move and we expect red and green to follow the suit later this week.

CELERY — Plenty of product going into the holiday.  Growers planted heavy this year and demand has not met expectations up to this point.  Oxnard is starting and product is readily available.  Normally they aren’t a factor until the 2nd week of Thanksgiving business. This could be a sign that the market may not go crazy, like it did last year. Quality is fine and we are seeing good volume on all sizes.  Demand is expected to pick up next week.

STRAWBERRIES — With the Salinas growing season over, our focus is exclusively on Santa Maria and Oxnard areas.  Quality is marginal at best, with most shippers not wanting to send them too far east.  Demand has backed off as it normally does this time of year and as long as we don’t get too much rain in the south, supply and condition will improve.  Driscoll pushed their price $6.00/box over last week, hoping to kill the demand. For the most part, they succeeded.

Ed Brem

www.producewest.com