MARKET REPORT - NOV. 23RD, 2018

Far too much to talk about today besides lettuce so limiting this to the highlights.Avocados:  After 18 days of blockades in and out of Michoacan, it’s back to business as usual.  We’ve had to wait 5 days to get fruit into a packing shed – our small volume doesn’t ever give us priority – so a load is on the road expected sometime during the week.  Holiday crossings from Mexico into the US are a hazard when the US border closes for trucks for 3 days as well, so timing was tricky, but fruit is on its way.Blueberries:  With massive hail damage across 2/3 of Chile a couple of weeks ago, a lot of early blueberry harvests were lost, making Argentina fruit much more popular.  We’ve had weeks of good arrivals and clean sell-through.  Our little band of merry blueberry growers in Chile are into a fresh flush of blues so expect to start harvesting later next week, so expect that – the beginning of what should be a 3 month run of sensational fruit.Citrus: It’s the beginning of the annual explosion.  From the dregs of a poor Valencia season in California just a few weeks ago, we are now deluged in new crop Desert Sweets from Mexico, new crop Navel, Clementine, Satsuma, Mandarin, and that’s just the beginning.  I dare anyone to name every variety of orange we will see over the next few months.  Cara Cara, Blood, Daisy, Minneola…………………….etc.Strawberries:  Here’s a picture you wouldn’t expect from California today.  Growers are pretty well finished getting all their plants into new beds for the 2019 season.  Strawberry beds are really high – 2 feet high – makes for easy picking – and a good thing with a foot of water in the aisles from yesterday’s storms.And to veg:  As mentioned several times, this is transition time, when large growers move production from the central Coast of California out to the desert.  Well, couple that with Thanksgiving, and then a substantial cold snap that extended as far as Mexico City, so you can guess what the triple whammy is when you look at pricing on leafy greens today, most notably kale, chard, cauliflower as well as the entire tomato category.  Pretty well everything was affected by the cold, and coupled with no one really wanting to work on the 4 day Thanksgiving break in the U.S. and heavy rains across California for the last 2 days, sheesh……. Give us a break!Final word on Romaine – we are listing Romaine for shipping starting Monday when it arrives.  First come, first served. This is our first cut of the season from Ecocampos.  That Romaine is not implicated in this current public health warning cycle.  Gustavo only grows Romaine for Discovery.  Period.  Neither Ecocampos nor Discovery have shipped his Romaine since late May, and we don’t distribute in the U.S. or Eastern Canada.  Here is a display card stating that information to print if you are planning on selling our Romaine:RETAIL SELL CARD FOR ECOCAMPOS ROMAINE