Market Update

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not yet reporting prices for Florida vegetables. Following are prices on selected commodities from other locations:

Zucchini squash, Georgia, ½ and 5/9 bushel cartons, small, mostly $5.35-5.85; medium, $3.35-4.85.

Yellow crookneck squash, Georgia, ¾ bushel, small, mostly $8.35-8.95; medium, $4.35-5.85.

Yellow straightneck squash, Georgia, ½ and 5/9 bushel, small, $5.35-6.85; medium, $3.35-4.85.

Eggplant, Georgia, 1 1/9 bushel carton, medium, $8.35-10.25; large, $7.35-8.85.

Tomatoes, North Carolina, 25-pound cartons, vine-ripes, jumbo, $10.35; extra-large and large, mostly $9.95.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Sept. 30.

The Shipping Scene

It will be a month or so before Florida's fall vegetable deal starts picking up steam, but a few items already are turning up, and growers anticipate a strong season once shipping gets under way.

Sept. 30 was the first time this fall that Lloyd Rosen, vice president and marketing director at William Manis Marketing Co. in Plant City, actually woke up to a cool morning.

"All the heat and humidity was out of the air," he said.

As he was driving to work, he saw workers harvesting some of the season's first squash, and he said some pickles are around, too.

"It looks like it's going to be a very promising fall deal," he said.

Growers will start harvesting in earnest as the weather cools down, and Rosen expected consistent supplies of many fall vegetables to be shipping out of Florida by the end of October.

The zucchini and yellow squash that growers already are harvesting is showing good quality as a result of "perfect growing weather," with warm days and ample rainfall.

The company's fall pickle crop is a small one and a short one - only three- to four-weeks long.

"They won't last very long," Rosen said.

Sweet corn, radishes, leafy vegetables, beans and eggplant should start shipping in late October or early November, and Rosen expected plentiful supplies of all the state's fall vegetables by Thanksgiving.

Chuck Hollenkamp, vice president of sales and marketing at Wishnatzki Farms, Plant City, also expected a good season once cooler weather settles in.

This week, the company was shipping only pickles, which started harvesting about two weeks ago.

Quality and color are very good, considering the summer's warm weather, he said, adding, "The cool-off now will help us a lot."

The company should have pickles for two months and also will have squash and 100 acres of bell peppers.

Many growers have smaller vegetable deals in the fall than in the spring so that they can use their acreage for strawberries, he said.

Things were not looking too bright for the early tomato crop, however.

"We had an extensive amount of rainfall combined with humid weather, which has led to a flare up of bacteria and virus in the fields," said Bob Spencer, vice president at West Coast Tomatoes Inc., Palmetto.

"We are expecting to have below-average crop volume and below-average packouts," he said.

Some light harvesting is under way in the Quincy area, he said, and the harvest in north Florida should start in about three weeks. Picking in the Manatee-Palmetto-Ruskin area should begin around the first of November.

He described the early product out of Quincy as "very rough," and said prices were a very low $7-8 per box.

Spencer said the early plantings, lasting from two to five weeks, might only be 70% of normal, but he was hopeful that conditions would improve as the season progresses.

Often, early problems in the field dissipate as cool weather arrives and "the plants revive and look a lot better," he said. "But they have really taken a beating with the rain this fall."

The Florida Tomato Committee in Maitland will send out merchandising teams throughout the season to help set up retail promotions, said Samantha Winters, director of education and promotion.

The committee also plans to conduct some category management research in the Northeast and Southeast and has other programs in the works to help re-energize the category, she said. Florida tomatoes are available from Oct. 10 through June 15.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

October 2, 2009

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