Supply of cabbage is steady right now and demand will likely pick up for the vegetable soon. “It seems like Texas is down in acreage because we’ve been under a severe drought this season,” says Tony Martinez of Primo Trading Services LLC of the Texas Rio Grande Valley region and the Texas Winter Garden region. In turn, the drought meant the plantings took longer to produce and the season started about a month late. “However despite that, the other regions seem to have cabbage. The entire Eastern veg seems to have cabbage and it looks like California also has good supply.”
“It seems like Texas is down in acreage because we’ve been under a severe drought this season,” says Martinez.
The movement of cabbage seems to be slower compared to last season. Last year saw a gap in the supply from the West Coast and there was also a slight gap in East Coast supply. “Last season we moved a lot of cabbage to the West but this season it looks like those gaps were filled and the pipeline was pretty steady,” says Martinez, adding that California is believed to be back to having its normal level of supply this season.
As for demand, it seems to be stronger for red cabbage over green. “Green seems to be in good supply out of all regions but red does have a shortage out of the West, the East and in Texas,” Martinez says. “Typically there’s much less red planted compared to green.”
Softer pricing
All of this is leaving pricing weaker compared to last season. Currently, a carton of green cabbage is between $11.50-$12.50 while a carton of red is as high as $22.50. Comparably, in the summer Mexican cabbage season, carton green was priced between $18.50-$22.50 while carton red was $22.50-$24.50.
The Primo Trading Services LLC team.
That said, there is light at the end of the tunnel. “We are already getting a lot of ad requests for the end of the month. We’re starting to get customers from the Midwest, even the West Coast asking for cabbage for the weeks ahead,” says Martinez. “When you start getting those ad requests three weeks ahead of time, that’s great.”
Movement is also anticipated to be good with the Super Bowl ahead. “Even though cabbage isn’t a big item for Super Bowl, it just increases consumption in general,” he says. Then in March is Saint Patrick’s Day, a big ad event for cabbage. “We have retailers and foodservice processors already asking about Saint Patrick’s Day deliveries and pricing and we make such a headway into March and post Saint Patrick’s Day that our Texas cabbage season is pretty much done by April 15.”
For more information:
Tony Martinez
Primo Trading Services LLC
Tel: +1 (956) 800-4343
tony.martinez@primotradingservices.com
https://www.primotradingservices.com/