Soft fruit suffers in Montreal’s heat wave

“We’re seeing crops move ahead faster than normal,” says Joe Lavorato of Fruits et Legumes Gaetan Bono Inc. in Montreal. “The crops that were behind have moved forward with this heat and some are even ahead of schedule.”

Soft fruit crops seem to be feeling the heat the most. “The fruit and berries are most affected—the raspberries, strawberries, blueberries,” says Lavorato. “Their production is coming in and they don’t have enough pickers for the fruit that’s ripe. And the fruit gets really small when the heat is like this.”

On the vegetable side, celery is also moving faster than usual and broccoli crops are turning up with some yellow spots on the product. Lettuces are also showing some tip burn and some product has to be left behind.

This brings up concerns for availability later in the summer. “We’re going to see gaps—really big gaps in availability in the first or second week of August,” Lavorato says. “Berries are at least 2.5 weeks ahead of their time so they’ll finish early. There’s been some product loss but there’ll also be gaps.”

This could mean an influence on pricing as well. “Prices aren’t changing now because the product is coming on way too strong. There’s too much product at the same time because the heat has brought crops on really quickly,” he says. “If anything, they’re being pressured down now because of all of that product available for demand. But I think this will turn around. Prices could spike eventually.”