It's been a tough year for broccoli growers. "Overall the volumes have been dramatically lower than last year," says Mark Sato of Fortune Growers, a Mexican-based grower with packing partners in California and the East Coast. "However, because of the economic environment this year, demand hasn't been strong."
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Mexico: There are definitely some challenges on product from Mexico currently. "We're seeing pretty low volumes and we're expecting lower volumes than normal as we get into the main part of our season for the end of the year," he says, noting that the year has been particularly tough for Mexican growers. "The market spiked recently, but that's only when Mexico didn't really have product. Earlier in the year the markets were so bad that it caused many growers to rethink their strategy, especially in the short term."
Earlier in the summer also saw plentiful rains and that's continued in a lot of the growing regions. That's left some quality issues in those regions. In Guanajuato, the main growing region, some growers and shippers with early crops have begun harvesting there though Fortune Growers won't begin for a few more weeks. That region has also seen a significant amount of rain and will continue to see that for a couple of weeks more.
That is happening in Michoacán as well where the company started its season a few weeks ago. Production slowed due to the level of water content in the product being harvested at the time.
Puebla also had a number of growing issues. "We're seeing some pin rot and insect pressure out of there," says Sato.
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California: Production generally in California has been tapering off over the years. Salinas has some issues at the moment. "Until recently, they had a lot of insect pressure such as Diamondback moth pressure," he says. "The plantings in Santa Maria also haven't been voluminous. It's just been enough to keep things going. We're not seeing a big spike in volume for the rest of the year."
East Coast: Maine has had a lot of colder weather this season so that's kept production largely destined for programs and not much extra.
Other regions: Last week, Indiana started up with production again so limited volumes are coming from there while New York had seen good volumes recently. "New York doesn't have a huge program so while they're not flooding the market with product, though there is some coming out of there," says Sato.
Overall, depending on the growing region, this has left markets between the mid to high teens–markets that are considered decent in a challenging year.
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Looking ahead in the next few weeks, Guanajuato will begin harvesting in the middle to the end of October that also coincides when the rains start to subside. "Hopefully as we get out of that rainy season, we'll start to see the legs lengthen on that product and alleviate any pin rot issues that have been present so far so our volume will pick up," says Sato.
He's also anticipating markets to be decent as 2025 closes out. "Overall the market has adjusted over the year to the current level of demand," he says. "There was a ton of product earlier in the year that wasn't ready for that downshift in demand. Hopefully we'll see some regular markets and decent prices to make the markets sustainable for the growers who've had a pretty rough year, particularly those out of Mexico."
For more information:
Mark Sato
Fortune Growers
Tel: +1 (805) 481-1055
https://www.fortunegrowers.com/