US (CA): Leafy green supplies looking tight
“Right now, it’s a transitional supply,” says Dan Andrews of Bakersfield, Ca.-based Dan Andrews Farms LLC. “The southern areas of California have less supply because some shippers have finished and moved to central California for their spring crop. And there’s a slow start to the new crop. The new area hasn’t taken off in normal strides yet so overall volume is slightly below normal.”
Andrews notes that California’s Imperial Valley growing region is about 95 percent wrapped up. The Valley did finish on time despite the fact that they had an early start to the season. “But in Arizona, some shippers stayed down there another month for the spring crop. They’ve started that crop now and are running into early April,” adds Andrews. In terms of competing markets, some lettuce is also still coming in from Mexico.
Demand even
Meanwhile demand for lettuce has been relatively flat. “There’s still not a lot of demand,” says Andrews. “When the east coast had some late snow in the last few weeks, it limited their distribution. But even though supplies were light, demand has also been fairly light. It’s also not a big promotable item for Easter.”
This combination has put a bit of pressure on prices. “Prices were higher about a week ago when there’s was a frost in delaying the start of the harvest every morning,” says Andrews. “Now that there’s no frost, prices have corrected a little.” He estimates this week prices have dropped some 10-15 percent. “They’re still above average but not on the high side like they were a few weeks ago.” That said, they aren’t likely to reach last year’s record prices which occurred thanks to delayed plantings in the rainy December weather.
“I think the pricing is going to hold for about a week because there’s more bad weather coming,” says Andrews. “There’s a lot of rain forecast for the next three days so we’ll see.”
For more information:
Dan Andrews
Dan Andrews Farms LLC
Tel: +1-661-832-1100
dan@danandrewsfarms.com
www.danandrewsfarms.com