Sugar snap supply has already begun winding down out of Guatemala. "The volumes coming out of Guatemala are very low. It's been like this for the last five weeks and this is supposed to be the Guatemalan season," says Dan Wahl, president and CEO of Growers Are Us. "It's been a rough year for Guatemala on sugar snaps and snow peas."
This is an earlier end to the season from Guatemala, which would normally finish in March-April. "They didn't plant as much on these items in Guatemala," says David Fernandez, category manager for the company, noting that snow peas saw better plantings than sugar snap peas. "They also had two freezes so far which hurt the crop–one in January and one in February, so there's been lower volume in general from Guatemala."
© Shanshan533 | Dreamstime
Peru ahead with supply
In turn, that's leaving a gap on supply between Guatemala and Peru. There are hopes Peru will begin its season April-May. "It does seem like Peru's trying to come in earlier and every year, trying to be in the market longer. Peru supply is growing and Guatemala has shrunk a little," says Fernandez.
Meanwhile, the demand for sugar snap peas is strong. "These new varieties coming out are quite sweet and tasty," says Wahl. "They're also stringless or as close to stringless as you're going to get and the quality is very good. So demand for them has gone up tremendously."
As for pricing, markets are high with pricing reaching $30.
For more information:
Dan Wahl
Growers Are Us
[email protected]
David Fernandez
Growers Are Us
[email protected]
https://growersareus.com/
