Western Fruit and Veg continues its trek up. Shipping costs are down slightly from out west but it does not appear to be helping the cost come down. Weather issues have continued to plague California and it is showing. Lettuces are still generally coming from Salinas with variable quality across the board. These quality problems are translating into higher prices. Iceberg has gone up day after day making it very hard to quote a steady price. Romaine is following suit with Hearts going the same direction. Citrus is really tough. Some vendors at the market have been sold out all week on lemons. Active Markets along with very light supplies have really put the price in astronomical territory. The California Desert Lemons have not come on line fully and San Juaquin Valley has not started production yet. Chile is about done and Mexico is still having packing difficulties. Prices are crazy and are going to remain so for the short term. My main Lemon Vendor is telling me that they will be next to impossible next week. We will keep our fingers crossed. The Navel Orange market is shaping up to be ok out west. The Fall crop should start in a bit. In the meantime Valencias will start to wind up bringing on quality issues. We will continue to stay on top of it. Again be prepared for prices to go up until new crops come on. The Baking Potato market is still falling. Shippers are steady packing and putting the crops in storage. This is good for prices until they get a real handle on what they will have in storage. New Crop Potatoes may have a high moisture content which can lead to rot and disease. Keep that in mind when storing your potatoes. Onions are remaining steady and cheap, both red and Yellow varieties. Eastern Veg is remaining reasonable. The southern Fall crop is starting and should come on line fully in the next couple weeks. Michigan and New York are winding down. Hopefully there will not be a gap between the Northeast Veg and Southeast Veg. Prices are steady and quality is generally good. With the exception of the cold snap last week there has been nothing eventful on the East Coast. The fall tomato crop is in full swing. Prices have fallen accordingly among most varieties. Small Tomatoes have fallen the fastest. Quality is good. Aside from the Lemon crop, the other big issue pertains to Blueberries. There is a gap between crops and we will not see Argentinian Blueberries come on for another 2 weeks. So most the blueberries on the market are storage Berries, and unlike Potatoes and Onions, berries don’t store well for long. In the past week we have had to reject 80 percent of all the blueberries we have received. AVOID THEM. They will not hold up and the price is CRAZY HIGH. If you have any questions please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. Thank you so much. Robbie Lister Owner Other Side Produce, LLC PO Box 1506 Seaford, DE 19973 Phone: (443)786-4889 Fax: (866)491-7412 [email protected]
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 04:10:03 +0000
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