The Hatch chile season has arrived and many retailers featured the popular peppers in multiple regions of the country. Specials on grilling and roasting items like sweet onions, tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, pineapple, corn, and bell peppers were tied in with Hatch chile promotions. Sales were abundant on summer fruit like red and Rainier cherries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots and watermelons. Significant ad space was devoted to back to school items, from healthy snacks like apples and baby carrots to supplies like backpacks and notebooks.
Total ad numbers this week were 287,368, an 8% decrease from last week's total of 310,966. The total for the same week last year was 9% higher than for this year. The total number of ads broken out by commodity groups: fruit 160,435 (56% of all ads), onions and potatoes 12,527 (4%), vegetables 108,142 (38%), herbs 789, ornamentals 2,715, and hemp 2,760. The number of ads for organic produce was 40,074, 14% of total ads.
The following are the prices of major advertised items (3,000 plus ads) this week, compared to the same week last year. Significant increases in price for fruit this week included organic strawberries (1 lb.) at 13% and yellow peaches at 11%. Significant decreases included red cherries at 25%, interspecific plums at 17%, mangos at 14%, and black seedless grapes at 13%. There were no significant changes in price for onions and potatoes this week. Significant increases in price for vegetables this week included only long seedless cucumbers at 12%. The sole significant decrease was for packaged salad (5-9 oz.) at 13%.
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Source: mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov