Cauliflower will be wrapping up in Maine by the end of this week; afterwards it will gap on the east coast until Florida production starts the first week of December. “It has been strong and steady since July,” says Tara Smith-Vighetti. Normally Florida’s season would begin sooner, however like many other programs in the state affected by the severe weather they were behind in planting.
Smith’s Farms is now in its third year of growing both cauliflower and broccoli in Florida. “It’s still relatively new in the southeast,” she says. “We’re continuing to work to close gaps in the east cost production especially with cauliflower.” Even with the major weather events, she notes that they’re still actually able to start earlier this year than they did last year and she expects the season to run to around mid April. “Which is a little longer than we went last year. We hope for our season to be longer than normal.”
Cauliflower has been fairly level price-wise, though she says the beginning of November remains to be seen. The northeast comes out at the same time as Florida’s growing season – particularly in Maine and Canada, according to Smith-Vighetti, which are in production now. “The month of November may be low market depending on availability (from) Mexico and other parts of east coast where they’re trying to fill in. I think by winter things will stabilize and with level supply and good demand.”
Managing transitions through November, Smith-Vighetti says, is always a challenge. “There’s a lot of movement on the east and west coast as far as growing area goes so keeping supply level for our customers is our number one goal, especially on our commitments to make sure there are no lapses.” The weather in Florida continues to be quite warm still, she says.
While broccoli and cauliflower have traditionally been a western vegetable, she sees more strength in eastern production, and more cropping up. “Retailers are looing for some diversification in their supply – especially eastern retailers.” Smith Farms does operate out of California when they don’t have eastern production but she views it as becoming a collective partnership “to make sure retailers are able to have stability over a 12 month period.”
Tara Smith-Vighetti
Smith Packing, Inc.
Ph: 904-315-1445