Bondi Produce Market Report September 5th 2023

We are working with our Southeastern growers to assess damages by Hurricane Idalia this week in South Georgia and North Florida. We are still weeks away from pulling products from these areas, but will be assessing the commodities that could be impacted which include squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, hot pepper, and bell pepper. In general, the markets are strong on cucumbers. Transitions and light supply in the west due to the losses from Hurricane Hilary are pushing FOB prices higher at all shipping points. The hot pepper and tomatillo market remains very active between weather related pressure, late starts and supply gaps. We hope to see markets improve over the next several weeks out of Mexico which should bring some relief to the market.

Grape tomatoes are extremely short, but we expect to see some improvement over the next few weeks. Cantaloupe and honeydew production were interrupted slightly by Hurricane Hilary. Pineapple remains short and we expect this to continue through October. Next week will be a wild card week for avocados coming out of Labor Day. Promotional activity appears to be on the lighter side as other summertime fruits are taking center stage. The current week’s harvest is tracking higher than last week’s, but this is volume that will be available after Labor Day. If there’s another build-up of excess inventories, we can expect to see the pricing gap between the 48s and 60s to continue narrowing. On the other hand, if pulls through the holiday are strong, we could see pricing increase again. The bottom line is, we can expect continued market ups & downs through September. Mid-October, when most are transitioned back to Mexico & the Aventajada crop is in full swing, the market should settle down for a smoother Q4.