Our retail store visits were earlier this week, where we tour of the local market to get a sense of what is happening with various product and where they are originating from. It is safe to say, summer has hit the produce aisles. Here’s what we found out, and what the market is saying:

Stone Fruit Dominance – an abundance of peaches, nectarines, and plum varietals were present in each retail outlet. Most product is coming out of California, with experts noting that production is going strong out of the state. Peaches are in excellent quality, large sizes, and with good sugar content. The nectarine market is strong and fruit is also large with great quality. Black and red plums both show good availability, and fruit also looks large.

Local Produce Presence – local field grown and hothouse product is taking over, and little is coming in out of Mexico. Hothouse tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers are all coming from Canadian greenhouses/fields in the area.

Cherries have started – many experts see this as one of the best years for cherries, in terms of volume and quality. This can be attributed to near-perfect growing conditions in the Northwest. Production is just entered peak volume, so the retail outlets should start to see more and more product. Many of the stores had product in, but not yet quite at the volume of stone fruit. Cherries that were present were mostly bagged “local” or from Washington, and quality looked great. Many growers are seeing July 4^th as great timing and an opportunity for promotions.

Brazil Limes – while most of the limes we typically see in the stores originates from Mexico, this season, adverse conditions in the MX growing regions has limited availability and driven up prices. Shortages were attributed to winter storms along the Gulf Coast, poor bloom, and citrus greening. While prices seem to be becoming more reasonable, it appears the market is also being filled with Brazilian product.  Experts note that a record number of exports of Brazilian limes has entered Canada this growing season, in order to avoid the high FOB price of limes from Mexico.

Retail visits occur monthly, and are a market research tool that we use to determine changes in buying patterns & seasonality and allow us to better assist our customers with their operations. Contact us today to discuss further and check back soon for more data!