Buyer's Notes - July 21, 2021
Buyer’s Notes - July 21, 2021
Stefan Misse, Carter Selmes-Blythe, Brody Irvine, Jon Maheswaran - Discovery Organics
From Randy: You’ll see some common themes here. There are still substantial labour shortages throughout the US and BC especially in the stonefruit end. The other is that you may remember that it was over 40C across much of BC just 10 days ago, and that has had a huge impact on field vegetables. They were either field fried, or multiple plantings of more tolerant models all sized up at the same time. So for some of the cooler weather crops, supply is limited to non existent, and for hot weather crops, there is an abundance. Expect quite a bit of turbulence on pricing and supply, and on a few things, weak inventory to support the listing – hence for a few items you will see additional American product from coastal California, where it was cooler.
From Stefan:
I’m on holiday!
From Carter:
Asparagus – 11# pack available from Hippie Organics… Gourmet Trading arriving Sunday to Vancouver.
Beans – new arrival of BC beans arriving Saturday. Fava bean in house from Snow Farms.
Brussels Sprouts – California now in production – expect pricing to firm with Mexico crops finishing off.
Eggplant – BC eggs have just rolled in from Sundance Farm.
Field Cucumbers – lots of local from Delta and the Okanagan.
Pickling Cukes – time to pull out the family recipes – and if 20# is daunting – these are splittable!
Garlic – BC garlic has arrived! Beautiful aroma - expect most garlic to be BC until January with a smaller volume of California to hit price points.
Mushrooms – Chanterelles anyone? Please talk with our sales team.
Hot Peppers – limited amount of BC Jalapenos arriving Wednesday.
Potatoes – Warba nuggets & 70ct rolling along nicely. Fraserland is digging a new field over the weekend.
Hard Shell Squash – new crop CA Tutti Frutti Spaghetti/Acorn next week… butternut, delicata, red kuri , carnival, kabocha, tetsukabuto, black futsu August 1st. The days of cheap butternut from Rico and others in Mexico to dry up quickly.
Grape Tomatoes – A&A/Master’s Touch in house. New arrival of Ready Cycle rainbow cherry inbound Wednesday.
Roma Tomatoes – slowly moving to BC – Hope Farms seems to be first off the mark. Same on Heirlooms.
TOV’s – Limited for next week from OriginO.
Zucchini – Lots of BC supply to go around (too much actually). Talk to our sales team for promotional pricing.
From Brody:
Apples – import season from Washington is going strong but winding down on Ambrosia and Honeycrisp. Local early apple season should start within the next week or so on low pressure dessert apples. Sunrise – usually the mid-season about 3 weeks out
Apricots – local season is nearly wrapped up. Short and sweet, so get what you can asap.
Beets – we are into the gorgeous local buncher season now and oh boy… it is nice.
Bok Choy – local supply will be very limited next week as the upcoming crops have been burnt out by the heat wave. This is a cold weather crop so it makes sense.
Broccoli – our local broccoli grower – Snow Farms – has come into a glut of product due to the heat wave causing multiple succession planting to all mature at the same time. Please ask our Sales Team for promotional opportunities and pallet deals.
Cabbage – very promotable opportunities here from our local growers! We have all the cabbage. Consider us the cabbage champions.
Carrots – local bunched carrots are ready to roll now.
Cauliflower – we’re also getting into some beauty local cauliflower! Along with very promotable import product = it is time for a cauliflower themed party.
Celery – Two EEs is coming through with their beautiful local celery pack. AND they do have juice grade cases available upon special order so check in with the Sales Team if you’re interested in featuring a local organic #2 juice pack.
Cherries – the last of the early red cherries are in house… we are about 10-14 days away from the amazing red Skeena crop from Just-A-Mere Farm in Creston. AND we are getting this legendary Rainier cherries from JAM around Wednesday next week. These are the best cherries and worth every penny!
Cilantro – very, very limited this upcoming week. This crop was heavily affected by the heat wave and succession plantings have burnt out. We’ll do our best and will be importing some as well.
Kales – keep those orders coming! The quality is outstanding J
Lemons – we are kickin’ it with these import lemons from SA. The California crop is still just putting along and very expensive, but we’ll have some arrivals of those ready to go as well.
Lettuce – getting some great specialty lettuces in from Close to Home Organics, and our usual offerings are dynamite as well. Check out the red romaine from Longview!
Mango – only a few more weeks of availability for the Ataulfo mango so get them while you can! Volume will shift quickly to the Sinaloa Tommy Crop for the next 6 weeks.
Nectarines – still a couple of weeks away from the local scene here. We’ll be rolling with the amazing stuff from Farmers Favorite until then.
Onion Green – local local local. Big ol’ green tops and healthy bunches of scallions. Yum!
Peaches – we did it! A near perfect transition to local BC peaches. The early season PF1s are trending on the smaller size due to the heat wave… but the flavour! OMG the flavour is amazing. Some of the best PF1s we’ve ever tasted.
Pears – by mid-week next week we’ll have new crop California green bartletts in house. They are coming!
Radish – local availability is also challenged right now but new plantings are coming on.
Spinach – all the local fields have burnt out so we may gap for a bit while we source some import spinach.
From Jon:
Grapes - California red/green/black grapes are in full swing! Mexico is all but finished harvests.
Cantaloupes - California cantaloupes are looking great, strong numbers here
Honeydew - lots of supply here too.
Yumi Bins - sold extremely well this week! Will be gapping for a week or two after our next shipment.
Thompson Bins - strong numbers here!
Mini watermelons - we’ll have loads of 11ct melons next week.
Yams - Murasaki will be in low supply for the next few weeks.