Market Report-July 17th 2015

SEASON FOR CREAMY WHITE BUTTERY FRESH-DUG POTATOES

The local dessert apples have been charging out the door, but the volumes and size are quite small.  Supply is still strong on all imports, although the S. Hemisphere Gala availability may disappear before our local new crop comes on in a few weeks.  We’re listing the first harvest of the new shiny bright green avocado crop as well as a few sizes of conditioned larger sized fruit, with the expectation that those will be sold through early in the week. We’re back into Cerro Azul bananas for the next couple of months, having to move in and out of Coliman Mexican fruit because of shipping schedules.  Oh, it would be so nice if we could just pick-up the phone and order exactly what we need from importers in L.A. and truck them north, but we chose this path of working directly with small producers in 2009 and we have to suffer with the problems of direct import, be they scheduling, port strikes, shortage of space or containers on north-bound ships, reefer breakdowns and any other possible factor.  Apologies for this week’s issues and we’re keeping fingers crossed we will have a good run for the next couple of months at least, with lots of fruit in, on the water and confirmed departures.You will see some additional price increases this week – you can blame anyone you want – mercury in retrograde, the Bank of Canada, a world-wide oil glut, Obama, Iran, Greece are a few selections, but the Canadian dollar has now lost close to 8% this month alone and down 19% this year.  You don’t need to worry too much about your customers pulling their hair out – this is all over the news, and the media has really focused on ever-increasing food prices because it has such an impact on poor and middle income folks.  And if you are using this list for grocery purchases, expect revised pricing starting next Wednesday as well.The Mexican grape season is all but over, and Divine Flavor wound up the Fairtrade grape season after a great run with some stunning new varieties.  We have just a few left from the last harvests.  We expect to have a good run of large California fruit through October, and a great splash of BC Coronations in September.After a 1 week respite lemons are on the rise again, and with the added currency values are now peaking at historical levels.  You can tell by the multitude of listings that we are begging at everyone’s door and getting prorated.  Here’s a total surprise – Ataulfo mangos from Sinaloa.  With continuous growth in Ataulfo sales, several growers in the areas around Mazatlan have been busily converting orchards to yellow fruit which gives us a broader mango selection much later in the season.  Growers in these more northerly growing regions (Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja Sur) are now in USDA approved fruit fly programs, so as the season progresses you will also see more mangos available that haven’t been bathed in very hot water (no dip fruit).  Melon season is waning with Mexico done and California passed its peak as earlier plantings are done.  There is still awesome supply of smaller melons and many varieties.Although we had a few “normal” days of temperatures during the week, the previous 2 weeks of very hot weather has created havoc for many local green vegetables – look for supply shortages on Asian greens including bok and baby bok, cilantro, butter lettuce and others – we’ve had to go back south to cool coastal California for back-up.  On the other hand, that heat brought on an abundance of BC sub-tropicals.  This is a season to be celebrated – used to be that it was just a short-lived 6 week run of local tomatoes, peppers, cukes and eggplant.  Growers used to traditionally start producing in early August, and strip fields in mid-September before that first “full moon frost” of September – but now we are going to see an 8 or 10 week season of this field-fresh range of ground crops.  Enjoy!Green onions is an interesting one.  This is the most labour intensive crop I know of with the difference in labour costs, they nearly all come from Mexico.  But this time of year it is so blazing hot in Mexicali, where there are usually 3-4,000 acres in production at any given time that costs go up – when it’s in the high 40C’s crews are harder to put together and wages go up to keep people working in that heat. Although, when it’s really baking hot they are harvesting under flood-lights starting around 2AM when temperatures start to drop.The root department is up to speed now that Parsnips are back – but the big deal is Bruce Miller’s White Cascade potatoes – this is the season for creamy white buttery fresh-dug potatoes.  And if you were wondering why Schramm’s Vodka from Pemberton wins awards?  Yup – made from Bruce’s White Cascades!