MARKET REPORT - SEPT. 23RD, 2016

Goodbye summer!Cool and/or wet conditions are slowing local vegetable production especially for cucumber, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, cilantro and other heat lovers, although seasonal temperatures will keep us in most greens from at least the Fraser Valley well into early November, depending on first hard frost dates. Even sub-freezing temperatures don’t affect a few items like Brussels Sprouts, Collards and Kale, but there is a point where producers have to shut off the tap simply because there isn’t good enough reason to keep people employed, or their seasonal workers have ended their stint in Canada. Looking at current pricing out of California on the veg we will be going south for soon, expect quite a price jump on cukes, zucchini, even tomatoes.  Despite the fact that organic acreage in the U.S. jumped an astounding 17% over the past year, that extra volume is going to get sucked dry with our ever-growing market, and high pricing on the commodities mentioned are based on supply-side issues despite perfect growing weather.  Speaking of zucchini – a few pallets just arrived from Grassroots Growers in Delta, (the warmest area of the Fraser Valley this time of year) and it is awfully damn nice!  Just as lovely is the big supply we’re still seeing from Forstbauer Farm out in Chilliwack.  And we thank both those growers on taking their chances and putting in a very late planting in hope they would be rewarded with a great late crop.We’re not seeing any issues on basic root selection, with good storage volumes on potatoes and beets.  With an over-all uptick on organic sales, we’re not as sure about carrots or even hard squash at this point.  There is also some great crop estimates coming in on Canadian onions and potatoes, with a perfect growing season in Eastern Canada, and those crops are available much later than B.C.  Why?  I asked that of Dwayne Coffin at Pure Organics, our always reliable PEI Organic supplier, because I have always been surprised how we’ve been able to ship high quality PEI spuds well into June.His explanation was pretty simple – we have 2 large potato providers in B.C. – Across the Creek in Pemberton and Fraserland in Delta.  Pemberton can have hard freezes in early October, so Bruce grows to harvest in August and early September.  Fraserland doesn’t worry about freezing, but about soggy fields, because they are at sea level, and a few inches of rain can turn fields to mud and there isn’t any place for that water to go, so they also finish their harvest by early September.  What I didn’t know was that PEI now sees their first hard frosts in early November, so they do multiple plantings with last harvests 2-3 months later than our local producers.  When we were back there visiting a few weeks ago I was surprised to see fields that had already been top-killed waiting for harvest, and other fields where potatoes were still in flower – that’s a gap of up to 70 days between plantings, something that just can’t be done in B.C.  And that’s why we aren’t too worried about potatoes again this year.  We are expecting BC carrots to wind up much earlier this year because harvests were a lot lower over-all, which wasn’t weather related, just total available harvests from a combination of many producers.  We’re also expecting garlic supply to dry up in December, not the mid-February we’ve seen in the past, partly because one large producer had a much lower yield, and partly because we’ve all done such a great job marketing BC garlic that supply is still, after 10 years of pushing this line, still not meeting demand.Many garlic growers continue to expand, but to do so they have to hold back quite a bit of your crop to increase your seed supply, so instead of, say 25% hold back for next season plantings, some growers are holding 50% or more.In other news:  California fig season is starting to wind down, with inevitable 10-15% price increases this week.  We’re also listing gooseberries.  They are actually big currants and we rarely see organic ones.  They are awful to pick, having cactus-like thorns, but they are very easily infected with worms for which there is no organic cure – so always nice to see someone pony up and plant some hard-to-grow thing!  Gooseberries make great jam, jelly, wine and have their own delicious flavour.  They are similar size and colour to a kiwi berry.  Some people just love them – try them out!Lemons down!  Grapefruit up!  Yes, lemon pricing is not in free-fall, but it is certainly moving in a good direction after months of limited supply and very high prices.  But it is cooler nights that bring on juice and colour.  On the other hand grapefruit is done in most locations except coastal California, so prices are up.  We’ve been able to keep our Fairtrade program at lower price points and not chase the market because we have rock solid production in Michoacan and we need to keep moving volumes for Pragor Coop.  Even have one size on special for the upcoming week.A delightfully late mango season continues to churn along in Sonora.  Baja is wrapped up, and California’s small harvest is also finishing, but we expect to stretch mangos into early October.  The push is always on for this to be a year-round deal while avoiding shipping from Columbia and Brazil by air before the first Ecuador fruit hits our shores.Melon season is slowing with icebox and larger field melons wrapped up in California. However, some of the nicest melons come out of eastern Oregon and Washington this time of year.  You may remember these Jade Stars – we have sold them for over 10 years – uniformly dark green and a reasonable size.BC Stonefruit is now in its last dying gasp, with very little volume behind peach and plum numbers – we should be wrapped up by mid-week.  We haven’t had issues with too much fruit in the supply chain, with excess all going to the booming cider industry.