With U.S. Thanksgiving just over two weeks away, the market is bouncing up on some holiday-related commodities including celery. “The market has been depressed for the last month and it’s been in the $10-$12 range. Pricing this week has already jumped some and some quotes are as high as $20 today on celery,” says Russ Widerburg of Valley Produce West.
Right now supply is coming from three California regions--Salinas is still in production with celery and it’s expected to go through Thanksgiving. In addition, Santa Maria is also underway and Oxnard began harvesting last week.
Photo: Grower-Shipper Association of Central California
The supply that is in the market is normal. “As those in Oxnard start, they’ll begin to taper off in Salinas--some will overlap a little bit. Up until today, there’s been extra volume but now it’s starting to get back to normal levels so that’s why you’re seeing the balance in the market, as well as an increase in demand,” says Widerburg.
Holiday pull
Part of that price jump is due to demand coming in the next few weeks ahead of Thanksgiving. “Break-even pricing on celery is upwards of the $16 range so any kind of ad pricing for the Thanksgiving pull will probably be upwards of the $18-$20 range,” he says. “Demand already sounds good because the retailers always promote celery for Thanksgiving. However, you won’t really know until about a week before Thanksgiving if the open-market product makes it to the ad prices--that will help pull it through. Then it just depends on what happens with the weather.”
He notes that the weather in the near future looks to be going down from the highs in the 80s/lows in the 60s to highs in the high 60s/lows in the high 40s. “That will slow everything down here,” adds Widerburg.
Looking ahead, he notes that the market will be active given customers are trying to get ahead of the holiday pull and get orders on the books because they know supply is supposed to tighten up.
For more information:
Russ Widerburg
Valley Produce
[email protected]