After almost two weeks of cold weather, cloudy days and foggy mornings, supply of Florida squash is looking limited. “That said, it was substantially tighter last year,” says Steve Veneziano of Naples, Fl.-based Oakes Farms Inc. “They had the hurricane last year. There was product in Florida but it was just as tight and the markets were triple what they are now. Yellow squash last year was as high as $42 and this year we’re selling mostly for $12-$14 and that’s tight. It’s been lower than that prior to this week.” Christmas challenges
That includes the holiday season. “Christmas was terrible,” says Veneziano. “The markets were really poor. Squash markets were terrible—it was really a tough time. We’re losing a ton of money right now for sure.” That said, Veneziano looks ahead and believes the next two weeks will remain tight for supplies. “I’m not sure what will happen from there. It may depend on what the volume from out west will dictate,” he says. “I don’t think there’ll be a tremendous amount of volume over here.”
Flooded market
This adds to an already challenging market for Florida squash. “ The challenge really is so much over market saturation from Mexican product and Dominican and Honduras,” says Veneziano. “There are so many regions funnelling their product here and it’s creating an over abundance of supply.
For more information:
Steve Veneziano
Oakes Farms Inc.
Tel: 239-658-0924