Hurricane Debby made landfall early Monday morning as a Category 1 storm. The storm brought 6-10 feet of storm surge, heavy rain, and hurricane-force winds to the Big Bend of Florida’s Eastern Coast.
After blowing through Northern Florida, Debby is forecasted to travel slowly northward along the East Coast. The storm could bring historic flooding (up to 20 inches) to growing areas throughout the Southeast. Commodities such as tomatoes, mixed berries, watermelon, cucumbers, and bell peppers are in the cone of uncertainty.
On the West Coast, extreme heat continues to plague beleaguered commodities like grapes, squash, bell peppers, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Even if things miraculously cool off in the next couple of weeks, the prolonged nature of the heat wave will likely direct Western produce markets through August.
ProduceIQ Index: $1.09/pound, up +5 percentover prior week
Week #31, ending August 2nd
Blue Book has teamed with ProduceIQ BB #:368175 to bring the ProduceIQ Index to its readers. The index provides a produce industry price benchmark using 40 top commodities to provide data for decision making.
Round tomato prices explode off the starting block. Inconsistent supply is the arch nemesis of price stability, and arguably, no commodity feels that more acutely than round tomato markets. Prices are up +12 percent over the previous week and will likely climb higher as Debby throws a wrench in Southeast growers’ plans to stabilize supply, and heat maintains its fiery grip on Western growers.
California Valencia oranges are taking the TikTok term, “hot girl summer,” to a new temperature. Prices are unsurprisingly at a ten-year high by a significant margin due to low supply. Prolonged heat exposure causes regreening and reduces harvesting hours. Fortunately for heat-weary buyers, a cool breeze is coming via Chilean navels.
Hass avocado markets accelerate in response to a sudden gap in supply. Avocado production in Peru and California is waning, and Mexican growers are transitioning from the Negra to the Loca crop. The new Loca crop out of Mexico is stretched due to low dry matter in the fruit. Markets will take a few weeks before there is enough supply to take the metaphorical foot off the price gas.
Green onion markets struggle to hold off volatility. Spurred on by the Western heat wave, green onion markets barely clinch a ten-year high for week #31. Expect prices to rise rapidly over the next few weeks as markets enter a seasonal period of explosiveness.
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ProduceIQ Index
The ProduceIQ Index is the fresh produce industry’s only shipping point price index. It represents the industry-wide price per pound at the location of packing for domestic produce and at the port of U.S. entry for imported produce.
ProduceIQ uses 40 top commodities to represent the industry. The Index weights each commodity dynamically, by season, as a function of the weekly 5-year rolling average Sales. Sales are calculated using the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service for movement and price data. The Index serves as a fair benchmark for industry price performance.
