After a stretch of the season where supplies of lettuce from California could not keep up with demand, the market has shifted the other way and prices have dropped significantly since January. A lot of product came on at the same time, and prices are not expected to rise again until a lot of that product clears out.Demand exceeded supply up until mid-January, noted one grower, and now growers are walking past acres and leaving lettuce in the field because there's too much out there. He saw prices get up around $35.00 per carton on some varieties when the market peaked, and now prices have taken a big drop since then.
On March 3, prices for a carton of iceberg lettuce from the Imperial Valley were between $6.00 and $8.85. That's in sharp contrast to the $25.00 to $30.00 per carton spread that was around during mid-January. Likewise, on March 3, prices for a carton of Boston lettuce from the Imperial Valley were between $6.50 and $8.95, while prices for that same carton were between $14.95 and $18.95 on January 15.
Volume is expected to decrease next week, and if demand gets better along with that dip in supply, then the market could see some improvement.