The Daily Buzz: 7/01/19 - 7/07/19
July 1st:
Mexico Fruits
As of last week, there has been very little to no harvest in Mexico. Inventories of Mexican fruit are depleted as the industry is limited on options. Demand exceeds supply and fruit is holding at a premium. Suppliers have been scrambling to cover orders by sending California fruit down to Texas, trying to cover orders. That will be short lived due to an already short California season. Peruvian fruit has played a key roll in bridging the gap on the shortage of Mexican fruit in the pipeline. Peruvian arrivals in the US have peaked and are well up over last year (Just shy of a 200% increase). Despite the solid flow from California and Peru, it is not nearly enough to offset the decline in Mexican production. Orders calling for Mexican fruit, have flex on sizing and country of origin.
New crop “Flora Loca” fruit will be a slow ramp up as the industry awaits. Growers are anticipating this new crop to be heavy on #1 grade fruit and small fruit. There are concerns of the fruit not meeting the required dry matter/oil content. For the month of July, the ideal dry matter percentage on Mexican fruit should range between 22%-25%. Early season fruit tends to have very low dry matter, stays green externally when ripe and, takes 10-12 days to ripen. With the 4th of July just a few days out, it will delay crossings this week on new crop fruit.
The industry will see very strong market conditions for the month of July and could very well continue into the month of August.
July 2nd:
Oranges:
Late season navels are at the tail end of the season peaking on 88’s and larger, only a few shippers have a week or two left . Valencia supplies are coming on strong, the small size structure 140’s - smaller continue to improve weekly. Quality has been solid. Lemons:
Domestic small size fruit 140’s – 235’s will remain limited through July and most of the summer. Current markets are expected to stay strong all of July. Quality remains fair and improving out of the District 2 (Coastal Region).
Offshore lemons have started on the east coast with limited supplies to start, more inbounds are expected by mid July. On the west coast some shippers have started imports, but a majority of them are looking to start by the 2nd/3rd of July. With Imports coming in it’ll help stabilize the lemon markets on both coasts to help offset domestic product.
Domestic Meyer lemons are available in the Central Valley & Ventura County, supplies are looking to be consistent. Seedless lemons are done for the season.
Grapefruit:
Good supplies, quality is outstanding. Currently shipping Star Ruby fruit. Peaking on 32ct – 40ct. Available all June – August.
Bloods:
Supplies will go through mid July depending on how the quality holds up.
Mandarins /Tangerines
Sunkist Delites – Light supplies on imports have started on both coasts.
Gold Nuggets – A few week left markets remain steady.
July 3rd:
We received reports from our pineapple suppliers of a strike in Costa Rica, where a majority of our pineapples are sourced from. We are still waiting for more information from growers and shipping lines to determine the reaching effects of the protests and strikes in Costa Rica that begun the end of last week. Truckers set up blockades on major roads throughout Costa Rica protesting a new value added tax which went into effect yesterday. Complicating matters further, students throughout the country added additional blockades to protest new policies implemented by the Education Ministry which further clogged the roads and highways completely impeding traffic. These blockades and protests have yet to be disbanded. Without any immediate resolution and containers blocked from entering the ports, shipping lines were forced to leave Costa Rica without loading their containers. We hope to have more information regarding possible resolutions as the day and week progresses but the strike and blockades could continue for several days.
Most of our suppliers mentioned we’ll be okay on supplies this week and the week of the 8th. If the protest and road blockage continues it’ll affect supplies for the week of July 15th. Our suppliers will attempt to cover weekly allotments as best they can.