It is a simple case of demand exceeds supply, according to members of the California grower-shipper community.

“We have a very, very, very active market across the board,” said Matt Seeley, vice president of marketing for The Nunes Co., based in Salinas, CA. “We were ahead of schedule on just about everything, which has finally created gaps. As such, prices are very, very strong.”

Seeley said a quick look at the company’s sales board shows that just about every vegetable crop with a market in the high teens, the $20s, and even some crops are in the $30s.

“How long is it going to last? You tell me,” he said.  “What’s the weather going to do in the next few weeks?”

As is almost always the case, the current marketing situation is being caused by weather. The warmer-than-usual weather earlier in the year and the lack of rain during the same time frame combined to create the crop shortages that are now being experienced.  The low amount of precipitation created virtually no gaps in planting or disruption in the growing of the crops. The great warm weather in January, February and March brought the crops on quicker than expected. This situation has been going on for several months.

The end result is that growers were constantly cutting ahead of schedule to fill orders. Younger, less mature fields don’t yield quite as much, and “catching up” has proven to be elusive.

Then some colder-than-usual weather came along in April resulting in what one shipper called a “true produce gap.”

Bob Polovneff, senior sales manager for Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, CA, said that a gap was inevitable and they were just waiting to see when it would happen. He explained that many of the fields that were scheduled to fill this late April-early May time slot have already been harvested. The cool April weather slowed down the next set of fields creating the gap.

“It’s a true gap,” he repeated, “and it will take at least two or three weeks to get back to our normal harvesting situation.”

The Ocean Mist executive said it is a situation that is occurring up and down the Salinas Valley, putting every grower and shipper in the same boat.

In its regular supply forecast for the industry published April 27, Tanimura & Antle, another Salinas vegetable heavyweight, explained it this way: “We had cool, cloudy weather all last week, with a chance of rain Saturday. This week is supposed to be normal, but several items will gap. In fact we have been dealt a royal flush. Demand exceeds supplies on all our major items.”

And it appears that the supply situation will get worse before it gets better.

T&A expected its lettuce harvest to be close to normal for the last week of April (week 17 in their planting schedule), but then be short for three weeks after that.  “[We] will be holding everyone to six-week averages, as week 18, 19 and 20 will be very short. Quality is excellent. Expect higher markets.”

By mid-week (April 29), Iceberg lettuce was in the $20 range and moving higher.

Seeley of Nunes said the mixed leaf items — especially butter lettuce, green leaf and red leaf — are in very short supply as April comes to a close.

“Those items are in the $30s,” he said.

T&A is actually prorating green and red leaf for the next few weeks because of lack of supplies.  

If there are any value items out there in the lettuces, it might be Romaine and Romaine hearts. According to U.S. Market News Service, Romaine was still at only about $15 at mid-week, with some shippers stating that supplies of that lettuce variety were not off as much as the others.

Celery and broccoli also had strong prices in the $12-15 range, though volume was near normal.  Cauliflower, on the other hand, was in short supply with the market $20 per carton. T&A expects cauliflower to remain short for the coming weeks.

Polovneff said Ocean Mist’s signature artichoke crop is in the same gap situation as the other items with the market being $30 to $40 as April slides into May.  Artichoke production is typically very good in March and April, with the heirloom varieties hitting their peak. At this point, those varieties produced two weeks ahead of schedule, while the upcoming Globe variety is lagging behind.

“We are still at least two weeks behind schedule with the Globes,” he said.

The Ocean Mist executive said growers are enjoying the strong markets, but it is difficult on the retail community as there isn’t anything out there to promote, and it is difficult to fill orders.

For the most part, the home-grown deals have not kicked in yet and retailers still get the vast majority of their vegetable supplies from the West Coast.