MARKET REPORT SEPT 22TH 2015

Stunning grapefruits and large avocados

A few more apple varieties listed this week – it nearly becomes overwhelming at times, especially this time of year when harvest is full-on, and some varieties have a short sales window because the volumes are small.  New this week is the Sansa, which was trialed for over 20 years before its release to growers – and it’s a great idea – take the high pressure snappy red round Akane and cross-pollinate it with the softer but sweeter Gala, and what we end up with is a spectacularly good apple –a bright red striped blush over a green background, nice and crisp, but exceptionally sweet and juicy.  Avocado sales continue to grow as we move into the Fall – never really understood why sales are slowest during the summer when we should all be living on guacamole, but it is what it is.  There is an expectation that there will be another 25% increase in avocado sales across Canada and the US this year over last, as the fastest growing fruit category year after year.  This year’s harvest is huge – not just the tree cover, but the weight – average sizing is peaking at 14’s on current harvests, and Pragor is having a hard time just finding anything small to ship.  They only harvest and pack for us on any given day, and we get what they harvest, and this year, what they are getting is mountains of 12 and 14’s.  That’s why they are priced cheaper than the scarce 20/22/24’s.  With so much enthusiasm for avocados we’re hoping we will all just list, buy and eat bigger ones.  The same story for some reason on grapefruit – sizing on the current Michoacan grapefruit crop is also tending large, with lots of 36 and 40 counts – once again we’ve flipped and priced the larger ones cheaper – and these are stunning fruit by the way! Grapes is a great category right now – between the great selection of 3 BC varieties (which, of course are awesome) plus 3 from California – it’s not only a nice spread, but the later in the season we get, better flavour and sugar result – nice cool nights in the California and BC desert growing areas really bring it on.   Don’t forget kiwi berries – we have good supply but the very short season will wind down soon.Hope and Morning Star Farms are sending us another shipment of their tasty root veg, bunch carrots and beets, as well as the Heirloom Petrowski Gold Turnips and some high colour rutabaga.Greens are beautiful and plentiful, but we are seeing a cooling trend and expect to be transitioning to California on the more cold-sensitive items over the next few weeks. Strong supply on chards and kales, Myers lettuces are coming in full size and very clean, red and green butter are back!  Siri spinach and bunch carrots look great, we should have these for the next few weeks. Two EE’s cilantro bunches are deep green, no frosty tops yet.Squash. Need we say more?Field tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are slowing down, though these are all great picks for flavor right now. BC Grape toms will continue as they are in greenhouse production, and Origino cukes, peppers and tomatoes will stay with us for several more weeks.