Following a summer of favorable weather, supplies of winter squash are stable right now out of Sonora, Mexico. “Supply is about the same as last year,” said Raquel Espinoza of Produce House “It’s usually very consistent with what we put in the ground. So it’s just steady volume year after year.”
Production of winter squash, which includes acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash, began last month and will stay there until January, after which it shifts to Sinaloa, Mexico. This year, Produce House is also shipping more Kabocha squash. “It’s a hard shell squash we haven’t had as consistently in years past. Last year we started with new production out of Sinaloa and I’m really excited about it,” says Espinoza. “It’s a new partner that came to Produce House and we’ll have Kabocha available starting in January until May.”
The Produce House team. L-R: Diego Tabanico, quality control; Nemrod Vasquez, sales coordinator; Emma Hobbs, sales; Esteban Paz, sales and food safety manager
Evening demand amongst varieties
As for demand, it is coming into a higher consumption season for winter squash and demand is similar to last year at this time. “Around this time having winter squash is extremely favorable because a lot of people are cooking with it. While all of the varieties are in high demand, butternut is always the number one seller,” says Espinoza. She notes that this year though, buyers are more focused on moving all three core varieties and movement is very consistent amongst the three of them.
Meanwhile, pricing is slightly higher this year due to inflation in grower input costs. “I would have called a normal hard shell or winter squash market between the $12 to $14 range,” she says. “This year the pricing is around the same but maybe a dollar higher.”
For more information:
Raquel Espinoza
Produce House LLC
Tel.: +1 (520) 281-8943
[email protected]
https://produce.house/