Land of giants

Has anyone noticed that it is hard to find smaller sized apples this year? It seems I can't find small sized fruit this year at the local supermarkets- even in bags. We picked up a bag of Fuji's from Sam's the other day and the apples were gargantuan. The Pro Act market report from Jan. 30 tells foodservice customers that the shortage of smaller fruit will continue.

Here is the Pro Act commodity alert summary:

Apples: Small sized, foodservice apples in ALL varieties remain limited and will be throughout the entire season!
Berries - Strawberries: California has heavy damage in their strawberry fields from the rains last week. This will make the Valentine’s Day pull for a very challenging one. Stem strawberries where the hardest hit. Product is going to be short for the next three weeks mainly due to cool wet weather.
Carrots: Rainbow Carrots will not be available until the end of February or early March 2008 due to a gap in supplies caused by the lack of seed germination.
Green Onion: The poor quality is still a major problem with green onions. Slime and yellowing are the problem in many lots. This is not allowing supplies to pack enough iceless green onions to supply demand. Supplies are better on iced packs and tight on iceless packs.
Lemons: We will remain in a DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLIES situation on 115’s - 200’s through January and into February. The 200’s and 165’s are in an extreme shortage.
Lettuce - Iceberg and Leaf: We will continue to see Epidermal Peel and Blister in most lettuce and leaf packs. Most packs are showing these quality defects 4 to 6 leaves deep.


TK: Chart below shows the balanced pricing structure compared to a couple of years ago. Small sized fruit are trading at higher f.o.b. levels because the packout, particularly in the Northwest, tended toward bigger fruit this year.