Buyer's Notes - October 1, 2021

Buyer’s Notes - October 1, 2021

Stefan Misse, Carter Selmes-Blythe, Brody Irvine, Jon Maheswaran, Randy Hooper - Discovery Organics

Ahhhh – Thanksgiving – one of the few non-religious holidays of the year – unless food is your religion, like ours!

If there was ever a year to give thanks to all our grower vendors, this would be the one.  Scorching heat right when fall transplants were going in.  A huge rainfall deficit from April to August, and then record-breaking downpours, rain days, thunderstorms that turned fields to mud through September.  Labour shortages across all our fruit growers in BC, with some fruit just left on the tree, as well as apples, cherries and stonefruit that were scorched in 50C heat.  Then thick forest fire smoke smothering the Interior, cutting UV light by up to 80% - slowing ripening for every crop, ground or tree fruit.

And for growers across the West, both in the US and Canada, trucker shortages, spiking fuel costs, and lumber shortages that turned into pallet shortages.  And our poor grower partners in California, with water supplies cut by 90-95%, forcing 2,000,000 acres to go dormant. As well as a baking hot summer, followed by cold, cold nights that have left markets in upheaval – with some crops so over-abundant there is no market, yet others suffered so greatly from pin rot and aphid pressure they are getting tilled in -you’ll see that on today’s broccoli pricing, which is, weirdly so, 15% lower than conventional pricing at this time of writing.

So for whatever you are giving thanks for next weekend, you could add every farmer in there as well.

We are starting the slow transition from BC and coastal California out to the desert regions of southern California – and after record-breaking heat, with highs closing in on 50C when first plantings should have been going in, and were delayed, not one desert grower is happy looking at this October temp forecast.  You will see the impacts of this showing up in Buyers notes through the fall with expected supply gaps right through the transition.

From Stefan: 

A good stable fruit supply right now – nothing new, nothing old EXCEPT for the nearly complete gap on California oranges.  We are expecting a few pallets in later in the week and like everyone else anticipating the early Mexican Sweet Valencia deal, but it could be a few more weeks away.

From Carter:

Asparagus – new arrival of Devine inbound next Wednesday as well as Gourmet Trading - look for the market to stay strong going into the next few weeks with some supply shifts.

Beans – with the hurricanes and the loss of conventional crop in multiple growing areas, organic beans continue to be extremely limited overall in the market. Lucky we have Coke Farm on our side! Fresh pallet in today with more on the road. Light production from Crisp is underway and will arrive to Discovery on Monday – really warm nights are keeping bean plants alive, but beans need pollinators and bees don’t fly when it’s cold or raining, keeping production slim.

Carrots -  we have Ontario grown carrots in house from Pfenning’s Organics. Fountainview carrots looking to start 3rd week of October.  Kern not back in the mix till mid-October after excess heat and water issues knocked their production back by 6 weeks.

Eggplant – Sundance/Secrest. Aztlan eggs starting in 2 weeks.

Garlic – Skimmerhorn (Creston, BC) and Bessette Creek (Lumby, BC) coming soon. We may not see BC garlic last into February like last year.  Production down overall.

Field Cucumbers – potentially our last drop of local cucumbers on Sunday from Forstbauer. Import in house.

Mushrooms – Lobster and Chicken of the woods are officially done for the season. Chanterelles and Cauliflower both wide open!   Expect to see some price hikes on Mushrooms starting Sunday – most local growers have had to increase pricing with higher labour costs, pallet costs, fuel costs and especially cardboard costs.  (Who knew the price of cardboard has risen nearly 30% in the last year!)

Bell Peppers MX - markets are steady with supplies slowly increasing on all colours.

Potatoes – Fraserland is officially wrapped up on harvesting. Great year for yields… storages are overflowing! We have you covered on all your potato needs going into Thanksgiving.

Hard Shell Squash – Acorn/Buttercup/Futsu/Butternut/Delicata/Hubbard/G.Kabocha/R.Kbocha/R.Kuri/Spaghetti/Sugar Pumpkin/Sugarloaf. We got’em all!  Nothing says October more than a great hard squash display. We do have mixed bins available! Just ask about those.

Grape Tomatoes – new arrival today from Master’s Touch in today.

Zucchini – could be our last arrival of local zucchini on Sunday from Forstbauer. Get them while you can! Well stocked on all your import needs.

From Brody:

We are LOADED UP – everything green looking sharp from a wide variety of growers, and as much local as can get – nearly all our local farms have dried out and with really warm nights, late crops are starting to size up again – most growers are talking about going well into October if Mother Nature cooperates.

From Jon:

Grapes - California red and green are in strong supply. BC Venus clams, concorde clams, and black bulk grapes arriving on the weekend.

Pomegranates - 90# (180-225ct) are here! Getting more in mid-week. These wooden crates are a great display.

Kiwi - Argentinian 20x1# bags are looking great.

Kiwi Berries - incoming later in the week – first pallet sold out very quickly and we’ve had a delayed arrival due to freight issues on the second shipment.

Yams - lots and lots of yams on hand… ready for the Thanksgiving rush.

Melons - cantaloupes 12ct and 15ct in strong supply. Mini watermelons are incoming on Thursday.