Market Update

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not reporting prices on fall vegetables out of Florida. Following are prices on selected similar items from other locations:

Beans: 5-pound cartons, French, from Guatemala, $6-8.

Eggplant: 1 1/9 bushel from South Georgia, $14-14.35.

Squash: ¾ bushel, yellow crookneck from South Carolina, small, $19; medium, $10.

Sweet corn: 4 dozen from Central California, $14.65.

Tomatoes: Two-layer cartons, vine-ripe from California and Mexico, 4 x 4, $5.96-6.95; 5 x 6, $5.95; grape, 12 1-pint containers, $8.95; cherry, 12 1-pint containers, $6.95; roma, 25-pound cartons, extra-large, $8.95; medium, $5.95-6.95.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Oct. 1 and 2.

The Shipping Scene

Florida's fall vegetable season is just getting under way, with some companies already shipping certain items, and others gearing up for what they hope will be a productive deal.

The dill pickle program at Wishnatzki Farms in Plant City has been under way for about a week, said Chuck Hollenkamp, sales manager.

"We're off to a real good start," he said. "This window is working very well for us."

The company also has begun shipping crookneck squash and is enjoying a very good market on that item as well, Hollenkamp said.

"The quality has been very good, and the weather is favorable - not too much rain or wind," he said.

Wishnatzki Farms has 90 acres of bell peppers that should be ready for harvesting around Nov. 1. They should be available through December with sizes mostly in the extra-large to jumbo range.

Hollenkamp said he expects a good market for Florida peppers because picking in other states in the South won't start until later.

"We will have a chance to get out of the ground before they start down there," he said.

The company's cherry tomato, grape tomato and roma tomato harvests should start within the next two weeks and continue until freezing temperatures set in, perhaps as late as January.

Grape tomatoes from other regions didn't bring in strong returns this summer, Hollenkamp said, perhaps because too many were available.

"That's all turning around now," he said, and he was hoping for double-digit markets by the time production starts in Florida on grape and cherry tomatoes. Markets already are strong on romas, he said.

Overall, Hollenkamp said, volume should be up on most commodities at Wishnatzki Farms, and growing conditions have been good.

"All indications for this fall are favorable," he said.

Ben Litowich & Son, Coconut Creek, expected to start shipping cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash out of the Immokalee area by the end of October, said Tom Nicholson, produce buyer.

Beans should start by mid-November, and shipments should get under way out of the Homestead area by the end of November.

Availability from some states hit by storms has been limited, so Nicholson was hopeful for good quality and decent sizes out of Florida, which has had plenty of rain but no recent tropical storms.

There were "a lot less people growing things," especially in the Homestead area, he said, which could result in strong prices for Florida growers on most commodities.

Chapman Fruit Co. Inc. in Wauchula will start shipping cucumbers, squash and eggplant Oct. 20 with acreage about the same as last year, said Danny Rosbough, sales manager.

The company's peppers will be about two weeks late this year because rains delayed field preparations for the crop. Other commodities should start on time, and Rosbough expected quality to be good.

Beans, squash, sweet corn, tomatoes and eggplant are among the major fall vegetables grown in Florida, said Lisa Lockridge, director of public affairs for the Maitland-based Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.

She was hopeful that growers would have a good season on tomatoes after a salmonella scare earlier this year.

"They were going to have a banner year before the (Food & Drug Administration) wrongly accused tomatoes of being the source of the (salmonella) outbreak," she said.

Florida's tomato growers will reintroduce Florida field-grown tomatoes to consumers during a 15-market tomato art contest and tour in the eastern U.S. this fall, according to a news release from the Maitland-based Florida Tomato Committee.

The committee is hosting the Florida Tomato Culinary Art Tour that will take a tomato art exhibit and mini tomato festival to major food retailers and foodservice operators, the release said.

(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.)

Resources