Corn supply from California is decreasing. "It's dropping overall but that's basically by design," says Daren Van Dyke of Five Crowns Marketing, noting that once customers move past Labor Day, retail sets change over and move into fall items such as apples and squash. "So a lot of people who do carry bulk corn, switch to value-added packaged corn."
That coincides with softer demand for the item come fall, so the drop in supply matches up with the demand at that time. Along with California, the East Coast is also still seeing good production of corn.
As for pricing, now that supply has dropped, prices have firmed up somewhat.
© Five Crowns
Fall moving away from bulk
That said, Van Dyke says he feels demand for packaged corn continues to increase generally. "People still like to have it but what you don't see are the big promotions where people are getting three ears for a dollar or something like that. In turn, that drops your demand," he says.
Looking ahead, corn supply and demand are expected to continue to equalize. "If anything, there are some local deals that are still hanging on a bit," says Van Dyke. There's also been some heat pressure in California which has affected the supply. "So you could see a spike on white corn because in certain areas of California, customers only want white corn while a lot of other areas are heavy on bicolor. So you might see a demand exceeding supply specifically in that situation."
Van Dyke also says demand is strengthening generally for organic corn and it's solidified a bit more volume on organic corn for the winter season of December through April out of Mexico.
Five Crowns Marketing will be talking corn and more at the upcoming Global Produce & Floral Show at booth #1848.
For more information:
Daren Van Dyke
Five Crowns Marketing
Tel: +1 (760) 344-1930
www.FiveCrowns.com
