For several reasons, trucks have been tight the past few weeks, and look to be even TIGHTER in the coming weeks. A combination of tighter emission standards making it more expensive to run trucks, and the fact that the economy is still slow. We are also seeing increased demand for rigs to haul the tree fruit, grapes, and melons, which we see this time of year. Business from East to West is slow, and there just aren’t many trucks hauling various items, such as furniture, paper goods, dairy products, machine parts, you name it, and the business just isn’t there. Truckers are “dead heading” their rigs from as far East as the Midwest to California to pick up freight. This means that the truck is coming EMPTY to pick up high-priced produce loads. Also, truckers are coming empty from Oregon and Washington to California, due to the lack of freight in those areas, as well. Because of this, Florida, for instance is charging as much as $4500 to the Eastern seaboard for produce loads. It’s no wonder why quotes as high as $8000-8500 for loads to the East coast from California are becoming commonplace. Add that to FOB prices, and you’ve got expensive delivered prices, regardless of the FOB.
Long range weather show more warmer, seasonal temperatures for Western fruits and vegetables, FINALLY. This will help bring on more product. As mentioned, continuing higher freights as we get into the summer mode. We should see rates peak out by 4th of July.
LETTUCE–still tight supplies and prices strong at $14-16.00 FOB, loading in the Salinas and Santa Maria areas. Now that our weather is warming up, we should see better supplies coming on, and the market drop, possibly as early as this weekend.
BROCCOLI–fields still trying to get caught up, after the past several weeks of below normal temperatures. As mentioned with lettuce, we should see supplies start to increase, and prices come down. Right now, bunch 14s and 18s are strong at $11-13.00 FOB, and crowns $2.00/box, or so, higher. The crown market may stay strong, as it takes a bit longer for those fields to get back to normal.
CAULIFLOWER–with the high retail prices throughout the country, demand has dropped off considerably, and it shows in the market. 12s are priced in the $8-10.00 range, with 9s and 16s a dollar lower. We don’t see much change in the market this week.
LEAF ITEMS–still quite a spread in price between green leaf and red leaf, with green demanding nearly double the $7-8.00 FOB that red is, currently. Romaine is still fairly flat, at $6.00-7.00 FOB, but with the high freight rates, it still gets up to $14-16.00 delivered to the East coast. We see the leaf market remaining steady this week.
CELERY–the high freight rates appear to be finally catching up with the high celery market. If you are paying, say, $8000 for a load of celery to the East, and you only get about 680 boxes on a load, that is a freight cost of close to $12.00/box!! That is why the FOB market is softening up, even though the shippers don’t want to admit it. We see it coming.
STRAWBERRIES–now that Memorial Day is over, and our weather out West is finally warming up, we will start to see better berry supplies and the market start to soften. Also, more stores are looking to advertise seasonal fruits, such as peaches, plums, nectarines, melons, and grapes, which means less space on the shelves for berries. Today and tomorrow there will still be decent action, but we see demand slowing by this weekend. Even Driscoll will be looking for business by this time next week.
Ed Brem
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.