Market Report - Aug. 21st, 2015
Keitt mangos are in from California – stunning as always.
Here’s your weekly news update: With Gala’s and Gravensteins coming off, expect to see Gold Delicious and a few more varieties over the next couple of weeks. We’ve added Macintosh and Honeycrisps to this week’s list already We still have a couple of hundred Braeburns in stock more than we would like to. They are beautiful apples, so we’re enticing you with even lower pricing. Thanks for helping! We’ve got Macs listed as orchard run – what the heck is that? Typically in orchard run you will get about 75% fancy, mixed sizing, and 25% domestic or commercial grade – (Cee). They don’t actually run through the orchard, they are run over the line, just not size or quality graded – except you won’t find really ugly ones with bird peck holes or anything like that – they usually don’t get harvested anyhow - but it’s a great price advantage – ½ the cost of producing apples is in grading, tray-packing, cardboard, inserts etc. – that adds up to $15 a case – that’s why bins are way cheaper! Never take what I say as gospel truth – after announcing the end of the blueberry crop, Formosa is still picking small volumes of very late fruit so blues are back on the list for at least another week. The biggest fruit news of the week is the first major picks of BC Grapes – Green Himrods and Black Coronations – and this run should go well into September on both these specialty varieties – weather has been awful for fires, but sensational for grapes! California is peaking on grapes as well, on traditional Thompsons and Flames. Sloppy markets are bringing California pricing down, down and down. Lemons continue tight – even the tiny amount grown in Mexico are fetching hefty dollars. Expect to see a lot more yellow lemon production coming out of Mexico, which can only be grown in a few places with a climate that mirrors California – dry, hot, but very cool nights.
Keitt mangos are in from California – stunning as always. The last of the northern Baja / Sonora Kents have moved up in price to mirror California.We are seeing one interesting trend, and that’s a noticeable uptick on any vegetable that could possibly be grilled with a positive outcome – which leads to the conclusion that people are just cooking outside a lot more. With little chance apparently of having family BBQ’s rained out in most areas, I guess that makes sense. Except Calgary of course, where weather is a nearly impossible to predict, and winter can rear its ugly head any day of the year! (Just for fun here’s Calgary’s forecast today from Environment Canada: Rain except snow over higher terrain. 20 – 30 mm rain. Wind north 40. High 7. Tonight rain or snow ending. Low plus 3 with risk of frost.)Yes, that is the actual forecast for August 21st!Absolutely nothing else has changed on the vegetable front, so instead, will finish this report with this sad story coming out of California this week:TULARE COUNTY, Calif. --The drought continues to hurt the Central Valley citrus industry as more groves are being bulldozed. It's easy to spot the impacts of the drought on citrus. The California Citrus Mutual estimates up to 15,000 acres will be bulldozed this year. Across the Valley, growers are ripping out trees and planting new ones -- hoping to save water. Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, explains new trees require less water. The technique allows for more water for older trees. But some growers are done. "It's kind of sad to see young blocks, mature blocks of good varieties of oranges and lemons being put on the market for sale," said Nelsen.More and more "for sale" signs are popping up in front of groves. Nelsen says this is the first time they're seeing that happen.