Lime supply is good right now. "Mexican fruit has come in pretty heavy in the last two to three weeks," says Dax Cooke, head of sales for Farm Direct Partners.
Colombia is seeing good volume, though shipments largely depend on when it makes sense to send fruit to U.S. markets. Right now, Colombian fruit pricing isn't competitive with Mexican pricing.
Peru though is seeing some challenges this season. "Irrigation systems and water regulations are going to be a persistent issue with Peruvian fruit," he says, adding that many northern Peruvian areas are being regulated on their water usage due to drought conditions. "There's not as much rain as normal in their reservoir systems so we're not expecting as much volume in the near term as we normally would from Peru," Cooke says.
As for demand, it is on the lower side–not unusual given it normally softens around this time of year. Demand is expected to strengthen closer to Thanksgiving.
Sizing notes
Retail is also pulling more small sizes on average. "On Mexican fruit, the expectation in the short term was that there was going to be a shortage of smaller fruit but that's not the case. Smaller fruit is starting to come out once again as new areas are going into new crop cycles," he says. This follows a few weeks of more larger fruit than smaller fruit.
Where does all of this leave pricing? "It will remain steady for the next few weeks," says Cooke, adding that it differs somewhat on the East Coast versus the West Coast.
Looking ahead, in Colombia in particular, has seen a drier-than-normal growing season which is good for a country that generally sees more water than less. "So the quality is very good. We're seeing fewer issues than we normally would at this time of year and a good disbursement of fruit on the trees. The cycle going into winter should be good," says Cooke.
Meanwhile with Peru expected to ship less fruit this season, that will put pressure on supply from Colombia and Mexico. The latter already saw a drought-driven period in May and June that caused issues with the cycles that came out two to three months later. After that, hurricane activity brought greater amounts of rain and that brought about tree-related concerns. Those concerns won't show up on the next crop cycle, but the one after that. "I think Mexican fruit has the potential to be very expensive because of the short supply during winter months, mid-January-February going into the normal season in April. We're expecting a more volatile year out of Mexico in the winter," says Cooke.
For more information:
Dax Cooke
Farm Direct Partners
[email protected]
Jackie Carrillo
[email protected]
https://www.farmdirectfruit.com/