The cucumber market is seeing a combination of a lack of demand, elevated price points and issues with profitability at the growing level. "All of this is creating a market that is really depressed," says Neil Mazal of East Coast Farms & Vegetables.
Honduras: Honduran growers planted less this year compared to the past few years–a move that was driven by poor returns on the market in the past and competition from Mexican production. "So the market was elevated but demand was still lacking for cucumbers," he says.
Florida: Florida's freeze in late January impacted early fall cucumber supply. That is volume that's normally available prior to the height of winter. "There was almost no volume of Florida cucumbers behind the freeze and that also drove prices up dramatically," says Mazal.
Meanwhile the spring crop has been slow to start in Florida with minimal supply just starting to be harvested this week. "It usually improves by the third week of the month," he notes.
Florida is also still seeing a hangover of sorts from last year's recall on cucumbers due to salmonella contamination. That means at least one less grower is producing cucumbers this season and other suppliers could cut back on volume too.
"I think overall Florida and north Florida will have a little less supply. They got in late because of the bad weather," says Mazal.
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Georgia: Georgia is also late planting this season, also due to the recent cold snaps. There are also other issues with vegetable planting in the region–East Coast greenhouses for example start plants indoors and then move them outdoors to finish the growing process and that is later this year. There are also concerns on the part of Georgia growers over profitability of growing cucumbers, though ultimately, Mazal says the state will see decent supply this season.
Mexico: While supply continues to come from Mexico, where most of the production is pole-grown cucumbers over field-grown, the transition there from the southern growing areas to the northern growing areas has been a little bit slow.
California: "California production reacts to the supply line from Mexico and the East Coast. There's decent production of Western cucumbers but you don't see a whole lot of that coming east of the Mississippi because of transportation costs," says Mazal, adding that California cucumbers are also largely pole and shade-grown.
Greenhouse: Supply of English greenhouse-grown cucumbers also continues to be steady. "Many people have subbed in these cucumbers because they're wrapped in plastic while field cucumbers are waxed. That plastic protects from handling contamination," says Mazal. "This market is also creating an advantage for European cucumber growers, but their prices are also going up because of demand going up."
So what is going on with the lack of demand for cucumbers? While economic concerns on the part of consumers could be one factor, the recent cold and snowy weather across large parts of the U.S. kept shoppers indoors and diners as well.
"There is also a change in the dynamics of the family and how they eat," Mazal says. "People aren't preparing a from scratch salad like years ago. Value added is a driving force for the vegetable business with major produce companies getting more and more involved with items that are ready to eat/prepare/cook in convenience packs."
The recent recalls on field cucumbers is still also somewhat impacting demand.
As for pricing, with less supply from key growing regions such as Honduras and Florida, retail pricing is up. "It's dramatically higher than normal. Coming from Mexico, crossing into McAllen and into Nogales, large cucumbers are $45/case. $10 out of Nogales; $7-$8 from McAllen to Florida," he says.
Plain or #2 cucumbers are $34 with small cucumbers are $36. Once the full price is calculated, that's leading to a $2 cucumber for consumers. "So people are just not buying them and then demand falls off," says Mazal.
Improvement is ahead though, starting with demand possibly picking up as the weather improves. "The cucumber market will remain elevated in the near term but get less expensive getting into spring," says Mazal.
For more information:
Neil Mazal
East Coast Farms & Vegetables
Tel.: +1 (561) 561 286.0286
[email protected]
https://www.eastcoastfarms.us/
