Produce Update-January 21 2015

Stefan: Bell peppers are strong and abundant this week. This looks to be a strong item for the next few weeks as well. Zucchini is available but pricey and field cucumbers are limited and very pricey so look for 12ct English cucumbers as back up there. Most tomatoes are now into good production including 1 layer and 2 layers. Romas continue to be a strong seller with quality quite solid. We have lots of green beans from Natures Nectar and Green Wave here and they’re looking good.Annie: Mid-winter crops are slowly recovering from the frost of a few weeks ago, so we are still seeing a few gaps on spinach, salad mixes and green onions, and high seasonal pricing, but the worst is certainly behind us. Good quality leafy greens are arriving daily, bunch carrots are good sizing and sweet! A few Brussels on the stalk arriving Thursday, pineapple is steady, beautiful dandies and fennel from Something Good live up to their brand name. Cauli packouts are prefect, clean white heads and good weight. Baja asparagus arriving today, it was delayed by the cold weather, but should be steady now, and likely we will see better pricing in the next week or so.Randy: Our avocado load that just arrived came in very heavy on small sizes.  With an expected increase in sales next week because of Super Bowl Sunday, please consider running an avo ad - we will be very generous on 20's and smaller, and have put a discount price on the list for today.The Canadian dollar has slid 4% against the US dollar in just the last 2 trading sessions - and 8% this month alone.  While most pricing is market-based, we have set pricing on some commodities and we cannot suck up a good chunk of margin.  We will be raising prices on salad mix and bananas starting on Friday's list for Sunday.  We can't go back to our FT banana suppliers and ask for a price break, and our landed cost prices have risen 13% in the last year.Jodi:  You know all those stresses we talk about in the produce world? Lots of those are happening right now. We’re currently battling with a dropping Canadian dollar, freezes in the South, and real bad labour issues at the Westcoast US Ports, and potentially striking at the Vancouver port (AGAIN.). So what have I got to help with that? Limes - for your beer, or your guac, whatever ails that stress. Blood oranges are arriving next week from Sundance, and all kinds of tangerines/tangelos are in house. Potato listings aren’t as varying as they were, as we move to PEI this week for supplies. Unfortunately we’re pretty well down to Russets, reds and yellows. Yams and sweet potato supplies are fantastic, and we’re still getting local carrots from Similkameen River Organics and Destiny Lane as well as LOTS of local beets for your juicing/roasting/steaming/souping/natural dying needs.