Unique events dominate the headlines this week, though fortunately having only a slight impact on prices.
ProduceIQ Index: $0.73 /pound, +2.8 percent over prior week
(Week #35, ending August 28th)
Temperatures in California growing regions have moderated after the extreme hot and dry conditions which contributed to unprecedented fires.
As the blazes are progressively contained, food safety experts are determining how best to manage the ash that has fallen onto produce on Salinas Valley, the major growing region for Leaf (Romaine has an open head), Broccoli and Cauliflower.
Given the level of fear surrounding supply disruptions, the Lettuce & Leaf sub-Index actually fell -6.1 percent during the past week. Iceberg remains a good buy at $0.18/pound and has overall better quality than Romaine.
Hurricane Laura struck the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph wind speeds. Yet, her devastating winds dropped quickly and left the produce industry relatively unscathed as it avoided major produce growing regions.
Blue Book has teamed with ProduceIQ to bring the ProduceIQ Index to its readers. The index provides a produce industry price benchmark using 40 top commodities to provide data for decision making.
Reefer Truck availability is tight, and rates are generally elevated.
Apples, specifically Honeycrisp, are leading the rise in the Index. As apples comprise 10.8 percent of the Index, apples are an important commodity with significant weekly sales, averaging $70 million per week (versus $77 million during the same four weeks in 2019).
In the Berry category, buy and promote Blueberries. At $1.71/pound, Blueberries are near pricing lows, and have greater availability.
Bell Peppers typically go through a slump in prices during August and September, and this year is no different.
Excluded from this generalization, Green Peppers had an uptick in prices, +23 percent from the prior week. At $0.43/pound on good quality, Peppers remain a “buy.”
Peppers bounce off the floor, though remain a seasonal opportunity to promote.
Blueberries are still a buy, before we approach the seasonal time for higher prices.
ProduceIQ Index
The ProduceIQ Index is the fresh produce industry’s only shipping point price index. It represents the industry-wide price per pound at the location of packing for domestic produce, and at the port of U.S. entry for imported produce.
ProduceIQ uses 40 top commodities to represent the industry. The Index weights each commodity dynamically, by season, as a function of the weekly 5-year rolling average Sales. Sales are calculated using the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service for movement and price data. The Index serves as a fair benchmark for industry price performance.
