MARKET REPORT, NOV 18TH 2015

With so many factors in play, is to watch your retails

California weather becomes much more important this time of year as we transition south for most crops, so we won’t talk much about local conditions except to say that the season is winding down very quickly, with marginal amounts of field clean-up left, and after days and days of winter-like deluges, fields are beyond muddy.  Unfortunately, the same is true in California, with disintegrating farm conditions throughout the Central Valley and coastal California.  Windstorms, power outages, snow close to the deck just north of L.A., even a couple of tornados, and with those conditions, harvests are severely interrupted.  To add to that, the transition on many crops will be ugly – not for all, and not all at once, but the combination of crappy (although much needed) weather, and the huge Thanksgiving draw down are impacting both supply and pricing.Fruit isn’t affected, and with a burst of orange varieties about to hit, good volumes on pomegranates, and a few grapes left, things are fairly seasonal, but on the veg front, times are going to be lean.  We also had rain delays in Mexico, as well as a holiday this weekend, so our next Agrofresco load won’t arrive until the weekend.So the message for the next 2 weeks, with so many factors in play, is to watch your retails.  Prices on broccoli are up 60-80% going forward, and expect higher pricing on lettuce, tough going on spinach, and romaine hearts as well.Roots are all stable.  You will see a few price adjustments on apples as we transition on some varieties south to Washington and local supply prices wander up and down as fruit runs thin.