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March
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2008 News

STRAWBERRY ALERT:
March 30, 2009

WEATHER:

Bad weather in California early last week is causing a tight supply and quality issues. The color of strawberries maybe a little lighter for about a week to ten days.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Thanks,

Premier Produce

MARKET NEWS:
March 4, 2009

WEATHER:

Growing regions of Arizona will be experiencing dry weather with mostly sunny skies and a warming trend of record or near record high temperatures. Highs are expected to climb into the upper 80s to around 90 degrees in the desert areas. While the Central Coast of California will be experiencing an even heavier band of rain overnight. Gusting winds will remain through early tomorrow. Florida seems to be getting a little reprieve from the cold weather although Northern Florida and Georgia could be looking at a hard freeze tonight. Keep up date on current weather throughout the US as it will affect crops into early spring.

BERRIES:

Strawberries: California strawberry production is starting this week with lower than expected production. There is anticipation of some rain to fall in the Oxnard growing area but it looks not to be too heavy. Most shippers are expressing that they will not be too badly affected and should have decent production toward the middle to the end of the week (weather pending). Florida production is starting off low due to cooler temps over the weekend but shippers are anticipating better volume towards the end of this week (weather pending).

TOMATOES:

Western: Mexican growers have pulled back a bit on production to get themselves out of the low market they have been in for a month. There is still plenty of fruit to go around but we are seeing a bit higher fobs for round tomatoes. Roma tomatoes started to react a bit but have come right back to minimum prices.

Eastern: Tomato production in Florida is lower than Mexico but demand is keeping the playing field level.

ONIONS:

Quality on storage onions continues to be good with the exception of translucency that typically starts showing up at this time in the season. If this is just in the first few layers of the onion it can be rectified with lots of air flow though the onions to help dry them out. There are still good supplies of all colors and sizes of onions in Idaho and Washington. Idaho will have product available through the end of April.

CELERY:

The market continues to get softer on this commodity. Good supplies of celery currently exist in Oxnard and Yuma. Business continues to be slow in the industry. Rain is expected over the next few days so things could change towards the end of the week.

BELL PEPPERS:

Cool, windy weather in Florida’s growing region and tighter prices in the West should keep the market at the higher levels.

March 1st - DROUGHT OUTLOOK

Dear Customer:
Date: March 1st, 2009

California and the West in general are currently in a wet cycle with intermittent storm systems forecast to impact California into next week. This rain and snow is greatly needed in the state however California remains well below average due to an exceptionally dry December and January. California is currently at 60% of average precipitation for this time of year as of February 20th and 40% of average snow pack as of February 1st. Updated snow pack measurements will be available in early March 10th with recent storms increasing snow pack levels. State wide reservoir storage sits at 60% of average with runoff much lower at 35% of average. This is due to 3 dry years and accumulated soil moisture deficits reducing runoff. The California Department of Water Resources (DWP) states “despite the recent storms and more rain expected this month, water conditions remain severe. This year’s water allocation will remain at 15% of the State Water Project (SWP) contractor requests”. DWP delivery allocations have only been lower than 15% on 2 other occasions (1991 and 1993) since the department began in 1968. Consecutive years of below average rainfall along with court ordered restrictions due to protected fish species (more on this in Future updates) will drastically reduce water availability in the San Joaquin Valley this summer and fall. As we look forward this lack of water supply will likely impact future plantings of lettuces, melons, onions, tomatoes along with many other crops throughout Central and Southern California.

We will be closely watching this drought situation and keep you up to date as we gather more information.

BERRIES:

Strawberries: California strawberry production continues this week with low production due to recent rain. Growers had to strip plants of poor quality rain damaged berries, slowing production. After stripping, the plants need 7 to 10 days to reproduce fruit. We are now seeing plants loaded up with various stages of fruit, flowers, green, salmon, and almost ripe. Next week will be a different situation with more shippers and better California production. Florida continues inconsistent with production and will be for a remainder of the month. Some shippers have expressed that March will have much better production.

LETTUCE:

The lettuce market continues to be stable. Supplies seem to be average but some shippers are coming into the next day sold out. Strong winds left debris and dirt on a number of the lots of lettuce. Also there will be epidermal peel due to the lettuce ice from last week. Supplies will be light to average with most suppliers throughout the week.