It’s inevitable that the “Dog Days” hit us during the summer, and we are there. Local vegetables and fruits are coming on like gangbusters in the Midwest, South, Southeast, and the East, and this means that business for many items slow to a crawl. Long range weather for the next 10 days show hot and humid conditions will continue in the Midwest and East. Local growing regions in Fresno, where the tree fruits, grapes, and melons are coming from, show typical hot weather in the low 100’s, while the berry and lettuce regions in Salinas and Watsonville are cool and mild, also typical for this time of year. Trucks, while available for the most part, are still holding strong with their yearly high rates. In talking to various truckers, there just isn’t much westbound freight, which means there aren’t a lot of trucks available to load produce to go east. Along with that, heavy demand for the summer fruits are also keeping rates firm.

LETTUCE–still a firm market, with wrap holding at $15-17.00 fob, which adds up to the mid $20’s delivered. We should see demand stall and the market come down, possibly this weekend. Retails are set too high, and fruit salads are more popular than lettuce salads right now, so we feel demand should slow down. Quality is holding up nicely.

BROCCOLI–there is PLENTY of broccoli, either bunch or crowns, and prices are down. Eastern supplies are popping, so demand for Western broccoli has slowed considerably. Supplies are coming out of Salinas and Santa Maria.

CAULIFLOWER–still a fairly wide range in price, although the trend is for downward. Again, demand has slowed due to local supplies and just a general disinterest in cauliflower this time of year. Fob ranging from $6.50-10.00.

LEAF ITEMS–even though demand is light, supplies are down, so many shippers are raising their prices of red, green, and romaine. This rise shouldn’t last too long, again attributed to local supplies throughout the country. All leaf ranging from $8-10.00 fob, which add up to the mid to high teens on the East coast.

CELERY–Dole still leading the way, commanding $4-5.00/box MORE than the general market. Demand only so so for all sizes of celery, but freight costs of $10/box or more, add up to $20+ delivered costs to the East.

STRAWBERRIES–still strong prices for 8/1# clams, especially with Driscoll. They were down 25% last week, and will be another 30% less this week. They are pro rating orders and have raised their prices $2.00/box in the past 2 weeks. You try to tell them that there is no demand, but they don’t CARE. They do what they want. Quality is still hanging in there. Ed Brem

ed@producewest.com