Produce Update-January 9 2015

There are critical supply issues on a wide range of commodities right now, however things are improving quickly, and there’s a procession of trucks aimed north.  Several factors have stacked up against us over the last couple of weeks.  The weather in the southern deserts was abnormally warm through the fall, so crops came on faster than expected – some rotations were up to 3 weeks early, which had us aiming for a 3 week period of tight supply starting about now.  Then we had this major freeze last week, which damaged or destroyed a substantial amount of green leafy vegetables.  We not only have to wait for recovery on many varieties, the next rotations are now behind schedule – this situation will not change for several weeks.  Then, to top it off, all the growing areas in the south east US – Georgia, Louisiana and 2/3 of Florida had hard frosts for 3 nights earlier this week – which means that eastern wholesalers have shifted their buying to Mexico on beans, tomatoes etc. that are normally grown in the SE States.The freeze in Imperial and Yuma also affected green veg crops grown on the other side of the border, so expect tight supply on green onions, salad and other product grown on the Mexican side.  And finally, temperatures farther south on the Mexican coast, from Guaymas to north of Mazatlan dropped close to freezing for 3 days, which knocked back production of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, etc.And of course it was a ridiculous week for shipping, with 36 hour closures on Highway 1 to the Prairies.  The worst of the delay was that avalanche control was suspended for a long time – they drop explosives from helicopters to trigger slides, and heavy freezing rain kept the choppers on the ground.  Of course, when trucks are stuck, it’s in both directions, so for the last couple of days there has been a shortage of trucks on the BC side of the Rockies, delaying Eastbound loads further.So It’s been an interesting week, but we’ve patch-worked together an excellent selection for next week.  We do have a load leaving central Mexico every 4-5 days of celery, broccoli, kale and lettuce – quality is excellent, but Ecocampos is a small operation contracting for us – we wish we could get more but we’re already pushing them hard.  And if you aren’t buying their Brussels Sprouts you are missing out – they are stunning.Other updates.  BC Gala apples will be done soon – we’re already into Washington for bagged Gala.   This is the time of year when some varieties of BC apples drop off the list, but Washington had a massive crop so it will be many months before we look to South America.  The pear selection is huge with some house-cleaning going on here and in Washington.  Another shot of Capa pineapples arrives Saturday from Costa Rica.  This is prime season for the Central American season.  The rest of the selection this week is very stable – good supply of all roots, spuds, yams, and no shocking price increases on a wide variety of fresh veg that wasn’t affected by cold weather.