The Brussels sprouts market is looking very different right now than it did a year ago. “Then, it was a tight market. Now it seems to be plentiful and there’s plenty of availability of conventional Brussels sprouts. Organic Brussels are a little bit tighter,” says Alejandro Madrigal of Covilli Brand Organics Inc.
Leading to the more plentiful supplies is last year’s good market on the vegetable. “This year we had growers expand their programs a bit to capture that market high,” he says. “We also had a couple of new growers come into the marketplace.”
Currently, Brussels are coming from Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico as well as Bajío on the Mexican plateau in west-central Mexico. Production will stay in these regions generally until May, though some may finish sooner depending on the heat and insect pressure. “If weather permits and it stays this nice, we should have plentiful supplies for the next month to month and a half,” adds Madrigal.
Supply meeting demand
As for demand, it’s steady, even given the increased acreage and volume. “We’re at our peak season now with both organic and conventional and they’re moving steadily without backups. Supply is meeting demand just barely--some weeks demand exceeds supply. As a whole, it’s as even as I’ve ever seen it,” says Madrigal.
Looking ahead, Brussels do often see a small bump in demand at Easter, this year April 9th, though not as much of a pick up as other vegetables like green beans see for the holiday. “We don’t have them during Thanksgiving and in some years, we hit the Christmas window and some years we don’t. If we do, we have increased consumer demand for them,” he says.
As for pricing, it is on the low end. However, it’s just enough where there are returns to the grower and supply and demand are meeting in the middle. This is even with increased production costs, though Madrigal notes that just recently Covilli started to see relief on those costs--notably a slight softening in cardboard prices.
For more information:
Iris Madrigal
Covilli Brand Organics Inc.
Tel: +1 (520) 377-2202
iris@covilli.com
www.covilli.com