Melon, Grapes, Vegetables, Berries, Tomatoes Market Report

Produce Market Report 6/29/09

Tomatoes: California mature greens are now hitting the packing houses and helping to ease this market. Repackers will be blowing these out locally as quality is rough and not shippable to the east coast. Mexican vines are still superior quality. Hopefully this warm weather will help to bring on the Oxnard vine ripe crop. Look for prices to back off over the next few weeks. Romas will be tight for a week or so as we are hitting a small gap. Cherry and grape tomatoes have both come off from last week. Quality is improving.
Melons: Central California melons are starting to trickle in, causing split markets. San Joaquin honeydews are demanding more money than their Mexican counterpart, as are northern cantaloupes. This high heat will cause most melon shippers in the desert to pack up their tents for the season. This year’s desert season had been extended a few weeks due to all the cool weather we had over the last month. So as heat brings on new crops, it will most likely kill off the old crops. Look for a week or two of really good prices as the desert shippers blow out all remaining melons. Mexican watermelons are finishing up. California seedless are showing light pink color and average brix. Hopefully a week of hot weather will bring about better color and sugar.
Citrus: Lemons shippers are raising the scale every week by a minimum of $2. Most fancy grade lemons are going to export and choice remains here for domestic use. Demand is far surpassing supply and this market looks to go even higher over the next month. Valencia oranges continue heavy to the choice grade and smaller sizes. Sugars remain good with minimal exterior scarring.Limes look to get off the floor this week. Look for higher prices on the larger sizes.
Onions & potatoes: Yellow onions continue to climb. Smaller sizing and uncured onions are driving the jumbo yellow market higher. Hopefully warmer weather will help to bring about the sizing and curing the onions need. Red onions are stable with good supplies. Red potatoes have become very scarce as Arizona finished up. Bakersfield has very light offerings and color has been roughly a 2 or 3 on the red chart. Stockton and northern California are starting this week.Quality should be much better but prices will be up.
Berries: Strawberries are starting to hit a small gap. Cool weather over much of the month has slowed down crop cycles and with good demand the shippers are staring to run out of size and color. Raspberries have cleaned up and are now on the short list. Prices have doubled in the last 2 weeks. Quality is still very good. California blackberries are showing excellent quality. Prices are stable. California blues are finishing up and we have started with Oregon fruit. Quality is much improved.
Vegetables: Italian and yellow squashes are best buys again this week. Quality is excellent and prices are very good. Blue lakes are also peaking this week. Green bells have started in Salinas and Gilroy. A little more warm weather should really help to bring them on strong. Look for prices to drop by the weekend.

Tags: Produce Reports