MARKET REPORT – AUG. 26TH, 2015

GAY-lee-ah, or GAH-lia, or Ga-LEE-ah – we will know what you mean.

Honeycrisp – what you should know.  Honeycrisps are not round – well, they’re round, but not smooth round – more like an old discotheque mirror ball over the dance floor – 1000 sides.  But they will get smoother on the shelf.  That’s the only flaw with this sweet crispy apple – it goes weird on the packing line.  Just in case you were wondering why they’re like that.  Should be a good crop, although usually not for long – production isn’t that high and they are not a ‘keeper’ – just a great summertime treat for 5-8 weeks.  Supply of mid-season Sunrise is just about done – a very short 3-4 week run, but that’s OK now that we have Gala, Macs and others.  Avocado supply and quality are excellent – and with the holidays over in 10 days except volumes to increase.  Take advantage of special pricing on 18’s as we juggle our inventory balance out.  Another load is loading tomorrow, and if we’re lucky there will be the first of the Fairtrade Grapefruit program on board!  Grapes, melons and peaches continue to dominate fruit sales – both local and California.  Mangos are moving quickly – especially those beautiful California gems (inside and out.)    What’s a Galia Melon?  Well, you take a cantaloupe, make sure it’s a big one, then scoop out all the flesh and replace it with green honeydew flesh that tastes like the best Cantaloupe you’ve ever eaten.  Then wait until it is absolutely right for the picking.  That’s what a Galia melon is – and you can pronounce it GAY-lee-ah, or GAH-lia, or Ga-LEE-ah – we will know what you mean.  Plums and pears are also excellent categories to make room for with most of the early pears now in harvest.  All mid and late season varieties of plums are listed, but expect a couple of ‘models’ to drop off the list every week from here on in.On the veg front, tons of local of everything, but those few things that we don’t really produce a lot of here – broccoli, broccolini and cauli continue to ride strong markets with tight production.  Growers like certain seeds and on those commodities there are certain seeds for certain humidities and certain temperatures, and when the climate changes, things go in the wrong direction, and that’s what’s happening in California – hotter and damper than normal are causing production gaps and maintaining high prices.Now, speaking of high prices, expect some more corrections on pricing for next week as the Canadian dollar continues to nose-dive.  When you think about it, it’s all quite stupid that we (and I use “we” lightly) have developed a resource based economy based on selling crappy quality oil to countries that need less and less of it, and minerals to growing economies like China that just quit growing.  The stupid thing is that those two major sectors only account for 6% of our entire economy, but their rise and demise has forced the Canadian dollar down 26% in just one year – and although great for Bombardier selling jet planes in US dollars and other large Canadian manufacturers who can make more profit, the downside is that everything that we buy, or have to buy, in the US ends up costing consumers far more.  And I still haven’t figured out why, if the price of oil is 1/3 of what it was a year ago (at the production end), our trucking costs are going up, not down.  If anyone has an answer to these questions or concerns, don’t call me – call you-know-who in Ottawa!