Despite the blizzard warnings in effect for many places in the U.S. this week, we still have a little more time until the first official day of winter. Overall, produce prices are softening as heavy-weight commodities, such as berries, decrease in price.
For the first time in what feels like eons, strawberry prices are down over the previous week. Strawberries fell -16 percent after reaching record highs.
Don’t hold your breath. More unseasonable weather is forecasted for the West early this week. It may prove threatening to the hopes of buyers looking to score some reasonably priced strawberries in time for Christmas.
ProduceIQ Index: $1.24 /pound, down -4.6 percent over prior week Week #49, ending December 9th
Blue Book has teamed with ProduceIQ BB #:368175 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.
Celery markets are tightening up drastically. Salinas, CA, is finishing production, and Oxnard, CA, is producing lower-than-expected volumes. Prices are up a shocking +38 percent to $43, a ten-year high. Mexico is still a few weeks out; demand and prices will likely increase through Christmas.
Celery prices continue to rise post-Thanksgiving
Volatility isn’t uncommon for tomato prices this time of year; however, sustained elevated prices are. To put this in perspective, this week last year, our discussion of tomatoes centered around the infamous Tomato Suspension Agreement’s price floor.
This week, round prices are declining for the first time in ten weeks. Grape-type tomato supply is showing significant improvement, but the dramatic declines in tomato prices customary during the year’s final weeks may take longer than usual to kick in.
Grape tomatoes are steady before the holiday pull; prices often rise through New Year as labor shortages limit harvest.
Sweet-corn prices are soaring, up +33 percent over the previous week. Hurricane Ian may seem like a million news cycles ago, but the aftermath is still all too fresh for Florida growers. Sweet-corn growers are experiencing a lighter-than-usual crop for week #39 due to a planting hiatus they were forced to take when the storm struck.
Supplies should begin to recoup in a couple of weeks, but until then, supplies in the East and West should be very limited.
Sweet corn is volatile leading into the winter season.
We thought cucumber markets were tired of the spotlight. It turns out, we were wrong. Cooler weather in the Western growing regions and light volume out of the East is tightening supply and pressuring prices back upwards. If this week’s cold front doesn’t wreak too much havoc, supply will increase, and prices should ease as soon as next week.
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.
Despite the blizzard warnings in effect for many places in the U.S. this week, we still have a little more time until the first official day of winter. Overall, produce prices are softening as heavy-weight commodities, such as berries, decrease in price.
For the first time in what feels like eons, strawberry prices are down over the previous week. Strawberries fell -16 percent after reaching record highs.
Don’t hold your breath. More unseasonable weather is forecasted for the West early this week. It may prove threatening to the hopes of buyers looking to score some reasonably priced strawberries in time for Christmas.
ProduceIQ Index: $1.24 /pound, down -4.6 percent over prior week Week #49, ending December 9th
Blue Book has teamed with ProduceIQ BB #:368175 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.
Celery markets are tightening up drastically. Salinas, CA, is finishing production, and Oxnard, CA, is producing lower-than-expected volumes. Prices are up a shocking +38 percent to $43, a ten-year high. Mexico is still a few weeks out; demand and prices will likely increase through Christmas.
Celery prices continue to rise post-Thanksgiving
Volatility isn’t uncommon for tomato prices this time of year; however, sustained elevated prices are. To put this in perspective, this week last year, our discussion of tomatoes centered around the infamous Tomato Suspension Agreement’s price floor.
This week, round prices are declining for the first time in ten weeks. Grape-type tomato supply is showing significant improvement, but the dramatic declines in tomato prices customary during the year’s final weeks may take longer than usual to kick in.
Grape tomatoes are steady before the holiday pull; prices often rise through New Year as labor shortages limit harvest.
Sweet-corn prices are soaring, up +33 percent over the previous week. Hurricane Ian may seem like a million news cycles ago, but the aftermath is still all too fresh for Florida growers. Sweet-corn growers are experiencing a lighter-than-usual crop for week #39 due to a planting hiatus they were forced to take when the storm struck.
Supplies should begin to recoup in a couple of weeks, but until then, supplies in the East and West should be very limited.
Sweet corn is volatile leading into the winter season.
We thought cucumber markets were tired of the spotlight. It turns out, we were wrong. Cooler weather in the Western growing regions and light volume out of the East is tightening supply and pressuring prices back upwards. If this week’s cold front doesn’t wreak too much havoc, supply will increase, and prices should ease as soon as next week.
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.
Mark Campbell was introduced to the fresh produce industry as a lender for Farm Credit. After earning his MBA from Columbia Business School, he spent seven years as CFO for J&J Family of Farms and later served as CFO advisor to several produce growers, shippers and distributors. In this role, Mark saw the impediments that prevent produce growers and buyers to trade with greater access and efficiency. This led him to cofound ProduceIQ.
