MARKET UPDATE WEEK # 1 2020

Good Afternoon and Happy New Year-

Another week in the books and with it, the turn of a decade and start of 2020! We are incredibly thankful to welcome the New Year with such great support. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and look forward to a strong year ahead!

ASPARAGUS volumes have been tight for a little over a week now. The theme of COOL weather applies to most commodities this week, especially ASPARAGUS. We are working with LATE SEASON volumes out of PERU and MEXICO. Once the upcoming growing regions start to pick up volume, we will see some relief on pricing.

GREEN BELL PEPPERS are getting tight out of Florida. Shippers have product, but not ample volumes. A few rainy, cold weeks in December set us up for delays. RED PEPPERS are also in light supply. Quality has been poor out of California, pushing additional buyers into MEXICO. YELLOW and ORANGE are in decent supply partially due to a weaker demand.

It's that time of year where the STRAWBERRY MARKET turns on a dime! Supplies are catching up on the West Coast and FLORIDA is adding tons of volume. Earlier in the season, there were too many days of unseasonably cold, rainy weather. Today the sun is out, and FLORIDA STRAWBERRIES are ready to go!

BROCCOLI markets are up. Production was incredibly slow this week with wet weather and holiday labor schedules. Now that we are through the holidays, we should see larger harvest crews, but the product can only grow with the appropriate amount of sunlight. We should see market pricing continue to rise this week.

Since the sun has come out in Florida, shippers have a bit more volume on CELERY. Production in YUMA is also getting going so we should see some immediate relief.

ARUGULA crops have been damaged by heavy rains. Shippers are prorating for at least another two weeks. Pricing and availability will be volatile.

LETTUCE and LEAF are dealing with the same issues as Broccoli, wet, cold and a lack of labor. ICEBERG is higher priced with shorter supply while ROMAINE is still holding on to average supplies and moderate pricing. We will see how supplies improve this week with labor close to full force but cold weather lingering.

STONE FRUIT volumes out of Chile are improving weekly!

GRAPES continue to be in transition. Import volumes are picking up weekly and domestic fruit is basically finished.

More as it happens,
Parker Tannehill