Produce Update-March 6 2015

Expect the apple market to be a little wonky with many varieties now coming out of Washington.  Some BC packers are shutting down in the next 10 days with all fruit sold through.  Washington growers are balancing inventory and sales to stretch the season so don’t expect any deals south of the border just yet.  Spring hasn’t shown up on our calendars, but certainly has across BC.        The huge high pressure ridge that has turned California brown and stayed in place for 2 years has stretched north, giving southern BC the driest and warmest February on record.Fruit trees in the Okanagan, and berry bushes in the Fraser Valley are budding and blooming, and there is substantial fear that a late winter cold blast could have a substantial impact on fruit supply this year.  Will keep our fingers crossed!  Two weeks ago we announced the sad news that the USDA had approved the release of the first GM apple – the non-browning Arctic variety.  Yesterday, Okanagan Specialty Fruits was snapped up by Intrexon, a huge US company, for $45 million.  Intrexon’s corporate slogan is “better DNA”.  Follow the money they say!Bananas have continued to be a pain in the ass this week.  Continued production problems related to El Nino conditions and rampant disease have changed the timing of how fast fruit is being harvested in Peru and Ecuador, and it seems every load ripens differently.  Later next week we will be introducing a new line of FLO Fairtrade certified bananas out of Mexico.  The Tecoman region south of Manzanillo is booming as a production area.  (We visited there last week while the Colima volcano was erupting – which was fun to watch.) This area has seen the occasional bout of cold weather over the winter months in the past, but climate change seems to have eradicated that risk over the past few years, and with short and reliable transit times north, and far fewer issues with weather and disease – well, we just had to move some of our program to this region.  When we first started importing our own bananas back in 2007, this region is where we started. BOS in Peru is no longer able to supply us – production from many coops in that region, where we have been buying for many years have been decimated by weather and disease issues, with production down in some areas of Peru by over 50%.   So apologies for being short a couple of days this week, but our intention is to be able to fill any gaps with a grower now 6 days away.The Chilean blueberry season is winding down faster than normal, and prices will start to rise as smaller volumes arrive by air.  Some regions in the south, which would normally be harvesting, are now sending all fruit to the freezer.  It is having to be washed because a wide swath of those regions is now covered in a layer of volcanic dust after a major volcanic eruption this week, and washed berries does not travel.  The early spring has brought on the Watsonville berry crop a few weeks early, and our first berries from Esteban Martinez are in house.  And this year, we are pleased to offer them with the Martinez label, which many of you may recognize from several years ago.We are just about to enter the volatile transition from desert growing areas north to Salinas.  They are way ahead of schedule in both areas.  Average temperatures in the Imperial/Yuma the last few weeks have been extreme, with both highs and lows average 6C above normal.  Overnight temperatures are rarely falling below 20C when they should be in the 12-14C range.  It is exactly the same story for Watsonville and Salinas, where night and daytime temperatures are also hovering 6C degrees above average every day.  This is absolutely not usual at all, and most growers along the Central Coast are going to be stressed out as succession plantings are not going to cooperate – which, for us, means 2 months of peaks and valleys and substantial price volatility with supply gaps and gluts.  However, while the desert is cleaning up, as they say, prices on most greens are certainly within range.Much farther south, the massive Brazilian drought is only worsening with water being rationed at increasingly slim levels.  With millions of residents trying to store water wherever possible, mosquitoes are breeding very happily, which in turn has created an outbreak of Dengue fever which has hit epidemic proportions in some suburbs.  One blogger noted that the Government is to blame for poor water management in a changing climate, but that he can’t protest because his mouth is too dry to yell.Our mango program is off to a fabulous start, and with our pricing mirroring conventional, let’s keep them moving.  You are currently seeing 5 days until they break, so if you want to do a promotion, please ask to have an upcoming order triggered for you at room temperature here so you receive fruit that is ready to eat – and watch impulse sales increase substantially.