Vegetable and Melon Outlook- Feb. 20

The Feb. 20 USDA Vegetable and Melon Outlook can be found here. You can find some insightful analysis of the painful status of grower prices for storage onions. Here is the ERS overview on commodity groups:

Fresh vegetables: The value of production for fresh-market vegetables totaled a ecord-high $10.9 billion in 2007, up 2 percent from a year earlier. Head lettuce replaced tomatoes (due to lower tomato prices) as the top fresh vegetable at $1.4 billion—up 31 percent from a year ago. Increases for garlic (up 43 percent), squash (up 2 percent), and snap beans (up 22 percent) outweighed declines for tomatoes (down 21 percent), onions (down 21 percent), and leaf lettuce (down 17 percent). Fresh-market revenue increased 5 percent to $5.9 billion in California, which accounted for 54 percent of the national value of fresh-market vegetables, compared with 52 percent a year earlier. Production of fresh vegetables generated $1.3 billion
in crop value in Florida—up 4 percent from 2006 as aggregate production rose.
Melons: The value of melon production totaled $871 million in 2007—down 1 percent from 2006. Watermelon production squeezed past the 1996 record high while good demand pulled average prices up, leaving crop value up 9 percent to $476 million. Meanwhile, the value of both the honeydew melon (down 7 percent) and cantaloup (down 11 percent) crops declined due mostly to weaker prices.
Potatoes: According to preliminary estimates, the value of U.S. potato production fell 1 percent to $3.2 billion in 2007/08. With the season-average farm price declining 3 percent to 7.12 cents per pound, revenue fell in most states, with the most notable exceptions being Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. With both production and price higher, production value surged 23 percent in Oregon and 9 percent in Washington—two states heavily dependant on processing.
Sweet potatoes: The estimated farm value of the 2007 U.S. sweet potato crop jumped 27 percent to $374 million—well above both a year earlier and the 2003 record-high crop value. Although production was up 14 percent, marketing year prices were expected to rise 12 percent. Although the crop was slightly higher than a year earlier, stronger prices boosted the value of the North Carolina crop 30 percent to $148 million—the highest on record.
Mushrooms: The value of the 2006/07 mushroom crop was estimated to be up 7 percent to $956 million, reflecting a 10 percent increase in average prices to $1.16 per pound. Reflecting higher production costs and reduced volume, prices for both agaricus mushrooms (up 10 percent to $1.12 per pound) and specialty mushrooms (up 5 percent to $3.16 per pound) increased in 2006/07.

On trade:
In 2007, the value of fresh vegetable (excluding melons and potatoes) imports rose 10 percent to $4.0 billion, with the majority of the increase reflecting rising import volume for crops such as fresh dry-bulb onions (up 40 percent), greenhouse tomatoes (up 15 percent), and garlic and chile peppers (each up 11 percent). Mexico and Canada remain the top two foreign suppliers of fresh-market vegetables to the U.S. market. In 2007, Mexico accounted for 70 percent of U.S. fresh-market vegetable import value, while Canada garnered 16 percent of the import market. Rounding out the top five import sources in 2007 were Peru (5 percent), China (2 percent), and Costa Rica (1 percent). On the outgoing side of trade, with higher prices outweighing reduced export volume in 2007, the value of fresh vegetable (excluding melons and potatoes) exports rose 7 percent from a year earlier to $1.6 billion. Canada remained the leading foreign destination for U.S. fresh-market vegetable and melon exports, with 80 percent of total value, followed distantly by Mexico (7 percent), and Japan (4 percent). At $276 million, leaf/romaine lettuce was the leading fresh export vegetable by value in 2007, followed by tomatoes ($160 million), onions ($136 million), head lettuce ($134 million), and broccoli ($131 million).