“We have an excellent supply and quality of organic celery at this time,” says Joe Angelo with Castroville, Ca.-based Ocean Mist Farms, which grows both organic and conventional items. This year’s supply is up due to the better growing conditions seen this year compared to a rainier growing season last year.
For Ocean Mist Farms, its organic supply hails from the Coachella region in California as well as Mexico while competition is coming in from those regions as well as Yuma, Ariz.
Effect on pricing
The high level of supply, of course, is reflecting in current pricing. “With the current status of supply exceeding demand, prices are lower than last year,” says Angelo. “However, since the growing region conditions are perfect at the moment, and growing conditions last year were less than favorable, supply remains steady and we expect prices to reflect that.”
Demand continues to climb for organic produce. “However retailers are only buying what they need,” says Angelo. Of course, recognizing that increase in demand, growers such as Ocean Mist Farms are responding accordingly and increasing the acreage of organics.
Looking ahead, Angelo predicts that the next few weeks will continue to look the same in terms of supply and demand for Ocean Mist Organic brand celery.