The Source - May 4, 2015

New York continues to pack Red Delicious, Red Romes and McIntosh. They have a few Empires left but are selling off of inventory. Most varieties are still peaking on 100's and larger. The quality has been good. They expect top pack until approximately mid June.
Michigan continues to pack Empires, Ida-reds, Jonagolds, Jonathans, McIntosh, Red Delicious, and Red Romes. The Red Romes, Red Delicious, and Jonagolds continue to peak on 88's and larger. The Empires, Jonathans, Ida-reds have better availability on 100's and smaller. Availability is getting light for most varieties. The quality has been good.
Washington Red Delicious are steady. Most packers are peaking on 88's and larger in the premium and Washington extra #1 grades. Small reds remain relatively short. Golden Delicious are steady on all sizes. The Goldens remain fairly evenly sized but 125's and 138's are somewhat shorter than the rest. Granny-Smith continue to peak on 64/72's and have limited availability of 100's and smaller. The Fujis are steady to higher and are peaking on the larger sizes. Small Fujis remain limited. Galas are also steady to higher and ARE still peaking on 88/100's. The Galas have better availability in the smaller sizes than most other varieties. Honeycrisp are still available but supplies are very light and the market is high and strong. Opals, Jazz, Jonagolds, Pink Lady's, and a few other varietals are still available as well.

This market is steady. Mexican production has begun the week moderate in production. Standard and large sizing are the main packs available on eleven pound cases. Salinas and Mexico continue to be the main growing regions for this commodity. Peruvian product has picked up in availability, and loading out of Miami will be a sharper price. Jumbo packs are available. Twenty-eight pound cases are not being packed at this time.

California growers are harvesting good volume. They are peaking on 60's and smaller. Will see crop fill in with a broader range of sizing as we move through the month. Overall volume of this years California crop looks to be lighter than first projected do to the drought. Quality and flavor are both very good.

Mexico is over 70% harvested for their season. Good supplies continue to come in, and still heavy to 60's and smaller. 48's and larger remain tight, but are showing some improvement. Quality and flavor are at their peak.

Central Mexico volume will continue to decline for the next several weeks. Some quality issues are showing up in the packs as well with soft berries, red cell and mold. CA fruit has started in a light way out of Santa Maria; we'll see this volume increase by mid-May. Quality has been good on this fruit.

Volumes are increasing as domestic fruit regions continue to come on. CA central valley, Georgia and Florida are all in production with areas of MX still going as well. Fruit quality has been good consistently. Sizing is varying by regions. Larger packs are most common with the good volumes of fruit being harvested, few small 4.4 oz clams being packed.

All growing areas continue to increase in production with Central MX expected to peak in the upcoming week. Very light availability starting out of Salinas/Watsonville and Santa Maria and will continue to increase throughout May. Quality is good, some darker berries showing up in the packs. This is a seasonal color profile by variety and needs to be distinguished against overripe fruit.

DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY. Market is holding steady. We are in a seasonal supply gap period after Oxnard ended most major production for fresh market about 3 weeks earlier than normal and the Santa Maria and Salinas/Watsonville districts are not putting out enough volume yet to cover the loss of the southern region with the high demand for fresh strawberries. Shippers are quoting oversold/sold out each day. Orders are being pushed into the following date and/or fill-rated from shippers as well. Expect volume to be limited through Mother's Day pull and lower volumes overall than in recent years. Bruising, water damage, decay, green tip and white shoulders are all common defects showing up in the packs. As far as counts are concerned, most 1 pound clams continue ranging from 13 to 21 in Santa Maria and Salinas/Watsonville areas and 22 to 26 in the Oxnard area for the few shippers still shipping down there.

Alerts:
STRAWBERRIES:
Demand exceeds supply, this will continue throughout Mother's Day pull.

This market is softer to start the week. The problems with knuckling and branching continue with bunched product. Broccoli crowns are in better supplies in the marketplace. Expect quality defects mentioned earlier on bunched product throughout the week. Santa Maria has light to moderate supplies. Production in Mexico is light to moderate as well.

California desert crop is going well. Size is only fair coming out of the fields. Jumbo size remains snug.

This market is firm to start the week. Quality issues include irregular size heads and slight discoloration seen upon arrival. Escalated pricing continues to be in effect. Supplies are expected to be on the light side for the entire week with all shippers. Demand exceeds supply. Salinas and Santa Maria production is gapping for another week at a minimum.

This market is steady to begin the week. Demand is off. Shippers are willing to load out of Salinas but a higher cost is being tacked onto the fob price so please be aware. Smaller sizing, overall, is more readily available compared to past weeks, where this size was a little tighter.
Loading in Oxnard/Santa Maria continues to give the best fob price.
Florida continues to have light production.

The cherry market is coming into its own now with excellent quality and good supplies of fruit. We are still into the Brooks variety with the crop peaking on the 10.5 row. Most shippers are predicting a quick ramp up of supplies now through the end of May. Pricing is good but promotable as the harvest will now come off quickly; and is expected to overlap the Washington deal by the third week of May.

Size curve is switching, crop is peaking on 140's and smaller. Lack of size growth, is lightening the supplies on 115's and larger fruit. Demand is exceeding supplies on 165's and larger fruit. Very good springtime demand and drought conditions in growing areas are a major factor for the demand exceed conditions.

The lime market is coming down on the smaller sizes while the larger sizes are holding pretty steady. Supplies are increasing on smaller sizes and decreasing slightly on larger sizes for the next few weeks. The forecast of lower overall supplies from April through mid May will more than likely keep the market from tanking to the bottom although it will be a choppy ride. The overall quality is good on the new crop that is being harvested.

California Navel crop is beginning to drop off and peaking on 72's/56's. California Valencias have started and volume is increasing. Demand is exceeding supplies on smaller fruit 113's and 138's. Quality on Valencias is very good, color is nice and brix are 10.5-12.00 average.

Green seedless grapes are transitioning into the Mexican and Coachella deals and out of the Chilean deal. The storage Chilean fruit is only fair in quality and limited in volume. Mexico and Coachella are showing excellent quality on the first fruit in but are also limited in volume. This should change over the next 10 days as Mexico especially ramps up in volume. The market on green seedless has peaked and should begin to moderate as supplies improve.

Chilean red seedless grapes still dominate the market with abundant supplies of good quality fruit. Sizing on these is running mostly med / lg to large. The market on the Chilean fruit has dipped in response to the excellent quality and good early supplies coming in out of Mexico. Sizing, also, is better on the Mexican and Coachella Flames. We expect this market to moderate fairly rapidly as supplies out of Mexico look to increase steadily over the next 2 weeks.

This market is steady with most suppliers. Demand is on the light side on bunched product. Most of the production for this commodity is coming out of the Baja region of Mexico. Light supplies are being harvested in Salinas. Small and medium sizing continues to be the main packs available.

The market is steady, overall. Escalated pricing is in effect. Most supplies are being harvested in the Salinas Valley. The weights are ranging from 39-43 pounds. Issues include ribbing, insect damage and rusting has been seen upon arrival. Santa Maria will be very light in production all week.

The romaine market has remained unchanged from the previous week. Insect damage continues to be the biggest issue on romaine, as well as red and green leaf. Warm temperatures and lack of rain in the growing regions are the two key factors to the insect issues. Growers are attempting to spray as much as possible to alleviate the problem. Weights on romaine are ranging from 32-36 pounds. Green and red leaf continue to be very light in availability with all suppliers. Both of these commodities are on escalated pricing. Green leaf in particular is going to be extremely light in availability all this week as suppliers continue to gap in production. Demand exceeds supply.

Cantaloupe supplies are continuing to decrease regarding offshore melons. The desert crop started last week with supplies increasing each week. Nogales is shipping lopes from Mexico with the peak size being 12's. Cantaloupe sizing overall is lighter on small sizes and more plentiful on larger sizes. Arrivals of offshore melons on the west coast are arriving in very limited volumes with 9's being the peak size. Demand is starting off the week slightly less than last week ended causing the market to come down a little. Quality is good on all lopes with the domestic being the best.

Offshore honeydew supplies continue to remain lighter than previous weeks. Demand is less than last week so the market is steady to slightly lower. The peak size is 6's on both coasts. Supplies out of Mexico are increasing now with good volume on dew 8's which is going to help generate demand for loading in Nogales. The Mexican supplies are beginning to take up the lowering volume of offshore dews. The desert is going to start in the next few weeks with volumes coming on slowly. Quality has been good overall with the Mexican dews being very nice and having high sugar contents too. The dew 8 market is coming down while the dew 5 and 6 market is steady to lower.

Idaho - This will be the last week that the shippers will be packing Onions out of this area. Quality is still good for these onions being in storages for 8 months. Market is steady,
Washington - Shippers out of this area will finish for the season in the next two weeks on Yellow onions. Red onions are done for the season. A few shippers are bringing some reds in from other growing areas to go with their yellows. Quality is still good. Market is steady on Yellows but firming on Reds.
California - Demand is very good on all colors and sizes which has this market firming. The demand is coming from everyone leaving Idaho. Again, keep in mind the new-crop onions don't have the skin that the northwest onions have. They also tend to be topped shaped and are generally uglier than storage onions.
Mexico - Supplies moderate on Yellow and Reds coming out of Mexico. They have about a week and half left before they finish for the season. Good availability of White onions both mediums and jumbo's. Market is trying to firm but with light to moderate demand is keeping it steady for now. Quality is good.
Texas- Supplies will improve as this week moves on, as more shipper start harvesting. Quality is hit and miss due to weather a few weeks ago. Be careful on who you are loading with as there are some issues due to this weather. Demand is moderate with a steady market.

Washington is still shipping D'anjou pears and red pears. The D'anjous are peaking on US#1 80-100's now and fancy grade supplies are light. The red pears will be available through May but supplies are light.
We are limited to Chilean pears only, the Argentinean fruit has cleaned up. Chilean Packhams are steady on all sizes. They are of good quality and have all sizes available with the exception of 150's.

Idaho - The supply situation out of Idaho looks to continue to get tighter on large cartons as this season moves on. This was brought about from weather issues during the growing season late in the summer. The Idaho's crop normally averages around 55% size, which generates average amount of count cartons from 40 count to 120 count. This season they are averaging around 25% to 35%. Of that percent it breaks out with most of that size being in the 7-8oz range with very few potatoes reaching 10oz or Larger. Quality of the storage crop that is left is fair at best which is causing heavy shrink, adding to the shortage of cartons. Please allow extra time to cover orders with large size cartons. All shippers are sold out 4 to 5 days in advance for the larger counts. Quality is still good. Demand is moderate with a steady market. Look for the market to firm up as week get into summer.
Washington - Is the only major potato producing state with large cartons (40-60 count). Demand is good on 40-70 count potatoes with a firm market. 80 count and smaller are steady. Quality is good. Colorado/Wisconsin - The supply situation out of these two growing areas is similar to Idaho's with light supplies of large cartons. They are also having issues with heavy shrink in their late storages, which is not helping. Market is firm. Quality is good.

Bakersfield, California continues to pack reds, golds, and whites. The golds and whites are still smaller and both have better availability of B-size while the reds heavier to A-size. All have limited availability of Premium & Baker size. The quality has been good.
South Florida is still packing all colors but the availability is light as they are approaching the end of the season. Golds and whites are very short. The golds and whites are still peaking on B's while the reds are heavier to A's.
Northern Florida (Hastings) has started packing all colors but the gold and white supplies are limited. The market for all colors is steady and the size-profile is similar to South Florida.
Phoenix, Arizona continues to pack reds. They have A, B, and C cartons available with very few #2's. The quality has been good.
North Dakota is still shipping light volume of reds and golds but the end of the season is close.

Peaches and nectarines (yellow and white) are now readily available. Many shippers are showing heavier supplies of peaches versus nectarines and the market pricing reflects this. Sizing is still running heavily towards the smaller fruit. The apricot market is strong with excellent quality fruit available. Sizing on these also favors the smaller size profile. Plums are about two to three weeks off from harvest for the very early varieties.

Round tomato production is steady out of new fields with prices low for this time of year. With most growers into crown picks, smaller fruit is running short. Romas and Rounds are steady with demand picking up as we head into May. Cherry and Grape tomatoes continue to carry the market from Florida with little coming out of Mexico. There is not much change in price and availability from past weeks also being harvested in larger sizes. Rain in the forecast may bring a slow to production sending price up by next week.

Rounds are in good supply with larger fruit available in greater volumes as growers pick from new plants. Roma production is also increasing following the trend of Florida growers with picks trending toward larger size. Quality and availability is good and increasing weekly. Baja has started shipping grape and cherry tomatoes in light numbers. With Demand low, Grape tomatoes available however cherries are much harder to source.