California celery supply into Canada has been unique so far this winter. "We had volume available all throughout the winter," says Jonathan Morano of Stronach & Sons (2020) Inc., adding that last season it dealt with two different shippers of celery. One supported its primary label for premium celery and the other had a lower price point supplementing inventory. "This year with the volume being so high, we just stayed with our premium label that could service our entire customer base at these prices."
With that lower pricing, celery has been moving steadily and at higher levels than this time last year.
Along with Oxnard California and earlier Yuma, Arizona, there are also supplies available from Mexico, Texas, and Florida. "Two weeks ago we were loading out of Yuma and right now we're only buying out of Oxnard though eventually, they will also have production in Salinas. There are also other shippers in Santa Maria," says Morano.
With this plentiful supply, winter has regularly seen promotions to help move the product. "It never got down to .99 cents/each specials for example but there were two for $5 specials regularly," he adds.
Canadian celery ahead
Demand for California celery, which has recently strengthened as it often does around Easter, could still face some interesting challenges ahead. "In the summer, Ontario and Quebec have local celery available and with the tariffs and consumers interested in buying local and being apprehensive to buy American-grown products, it will be interesting to see how this develops," says Morano, adding that celery is currently not on the reciprocal tariffs list with the U.S that would be able to keep imported celery prices high. "If production remains at these high levels from California and distribution is needed into Canada, how cheap might they make the product available to encourage importers to continue offering it year-round?"
For example, even with the recent strengthened demand for Easter, FOB prices were less than half of FOB pricing last Easter.
While Stronach & Sons doesn't necessarily offer a local celery program, it has in the past sourced celery from Quebec–something it's considering should Canadian consumers continue to push for Canadian product.
For more information:
Jonathan Morano
Stronach & Sons (2020) Inc.
Tel: +1 (416) 259-5009
https://stronachandsons.ca/