Produce Update-February 13 2015

Well, that was a *^%$##+^* week if there ever was one.   We try to do our best at this game, but having days without bananas, delayed mangos and limited avocado selection this week was a killer.  Of course, we could just buy everything from brokers in Los Angeles and it would be easy-peasy – but we decided many, many years ago to work directly with small producers in faraway places, which creates logistics nightmares.  Border Services decided to inspect dozens of containers on the boat that arrived with our bananas and mangos last Friday, but with the weekend and holiday, that took 6 days to complete, and then with rain and then light frost, avocado harvest was delayed for three days.  So, we can only apologize deeply for this triple whammy mess.  We now have bananas ripening, a full load of avocado arriving early Saturday, and mangos are in house and stunning!We walked away from buying mangos for the last few weeks.  If we buy in the US from importers, the fruit is hot water treated (at 50C) and the shelf life is shortened substantially, and with trucks taking up to 2 weeks to get containers off the ports in Los Angeles, arrivals were just not acceptable and we wanted to wait until we had awesome mangos to ship.We first met Agrovida in 2008 and have bought their mangos continuously every year – but we had to use a logistics company to arrange packing and export.  This year, we met with them twice in their little town of Pedregal Alto, and with the kind cooperation of Apromalpi Coop (our other mango coop who are close by, and have their own packing line,) Agrovida is now able to coordinate their own packing and shipping cooperatively with Apromalpi, and sell to us directly.In 2010, after the horrific flooding that devastated all the growers in that region of Peru, we donated (with your help) several thousand dollars to this group to re-build their local school, and thanks to James at Social Conscience Soccer Balls here in Vancouver, gave them a Fairtrade soccer ball as a gift.  That pristine soccer ball has, for 3 years, been locked in the little filing cabinet in their equally small office, but every 6 months it comes out for our Peru vs. Canada soccer game – now a tradition.  A year ago, we were soundly beaten, but a few months ago, the final was Canada 4 Peru 3.  Next re-match in April!In other news – all good in the berry department, and you can expect to see the strawberry price slowly drift down with better weather in coastal California districts.  This has been the crappiest start the strawberry season – weather has been completely un-co-operative this year.  In Zamora, the largest producing area in central Mexico it has been colder than Vancouver for the last few days, with low temps just above freezing.  California has lost 2 or 3 bloom periods – everything looks good and then a pineapple express drowns the fields, which has kept production way down, and prices way up.Those rainstorms last week in California also messed up harvesting for many greens and thrashed spinach from many growers, covering it in mud – and several of our suppliers have plowed it in.  Green Onions continue to also be very, very tight.  Nearly every brand (Onion King, Boskovich, Earthbound etc.) come from one valley in northern Mexico (Mexicali).  At any given time there are 3-5,000 acres in production.  It isn’t just farming, it’s an industry with thousands and thousands of workers.  One grower we met down there ships 2 full tractor trailer loads every day to LAX to fly to England – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  That area is still recovering from the big frost 4 weeks ago that killed new transplants, and it will likely take another 2 – 3 weeks for substantial recovery.And finally, you can stop and weep for a minute with today’s announcement that the USDA has approved the Arctic Apple – the invention of a Canadian company – and the first fully Genetically Modified apple approved in the world!  Despite the pleas of some of the biggest apple packers in BC and Washington, petitions, protests, letters from you etc. - it seems more important that we have an apple that doesn’t go brown when cut than risking the sanctity of yet another genus.  This is really important for the new craze of pre-sliced apples in Styrofoam tray-packs, because apparently we are all too dumb to hold a whole apple in our hand and munch away, or too clumsy to use a knife.  Don’t get all stressed out – there’s probably an even stupider innovation in the produce world coming soon!