“Prices are fairly reasonable,” says General’s Linda Luka. “It’s winter and customers expect to have strawberries year-round. For winter strawberries, our supplies are steady because we source from multiple shippers,” says Luka.
Stems are a different story
That said, Luka says the market looks a little thin on stem strawberries in particular. “We’re moving into Valentine’s Day and we’ve had customers who’ve pre-booked stem berries and they been very light at the start of the year,” she says. “The supply isn’t readily available due to cold, rainy California weather, so it’s a very tight market. Even though we pre-book them with our shippers, there is no guarantee that the product will be there.”
Demand lighter than usual
For now, fresh produce demand isn’t as strong as usual and Luka echoes what some growers are saying coming out of Christmas: that demand for these types of commodities isn’t high. “We’re only speculating but because of the freeze across the country, people are going back to a different way of eating right now,” says Luka. “Until the Superbowl gets here, there won’t be any real food holidays, except for Lunar New Year. Consumers are still working on January healthy resolutions, so soups, salads and citrus seem to fit that kind of eating.”
For more information:
Linda Luka
General Produce Company
Tel: +1 916 441 6431
[email protected]
https://www.generalproduce.com/
