Quandt’s Foodservice Distributors

Market Update – March 15, 2010

Fresh Produce - Bob Sardelli Ext. 1914

CUCUMBERS: Western Cucumber: Mainland Mexico production is improving slowly. New fields have started with others coming on over the next 2 to 3 weeks. There a few cucumbers starting to come out of Baja.
Eastern Cucumbers: The Florida cucumber market is reacting to the loss of business over the past several weeks by dropping prices. There is some increased availability because of the lack of demand but the quality is still not quite all the way there. As demand continues for Nogales product, this market should continue to trend downward.
GRAPES: The grape market has leveled out at very high levels. Several shippers on the west coast are waiting for product that will not be released until the end of the week as one of the main vessels that was supposed to be in over the weekend is late. The east coast also has very limited supplies on all seedless grapes. Crimsons are just starting to come in, flames will be finishing up over the next couple of weeks. The greens, Sugarones and Thompsons, will be the most prevalent but they are also in short supply at this point. Black seedless are in short supply and the only thing that seems to have any availability are the seeded red globes.
CANTALOUPE: Product continues to be limited. Honduran and Guatemalan product are both coming into the US. Unfortunately Guatemala has struggled with white fly and have started out very slow. Honduras product is still not prevalent enough to cover demand either. Florida product is coming into both Pompano and Manatee. There is product on the West Coast out of the LA area and some fruit coming into New Jersey as well.
HONEYDEW: Demand continues to exceed supply. Offshore fruit is still arriving into Florida, California and New Jersey with volume supplies still mainly in 5’s and 6’s. Product quality is fair as we are seeing a lot of sugar netting on the skin of the fruit but the meat quality is not affected and the fruit is eating well. Nogales is getting Mexican fruit in with good availability and fair quality as well.
STRAWBERRIES: California Strawberry growing areas received light to moderate rain fall over the weekend. This again will hurt the quality of the fruit being harvested this week; quality will be problematic with white shoulder, bruise, pin rot, mold and water damage likely to be prevalent in the packs. Markets are slightly stronger the start of this week. Once Mother Nature will give us a break, quality and volumes will pick up quickly out of California. Florida strawberry market is steady to slightly weaker. If the weather stays warm for most of this week we could see a flush of fruit coming on out of this area. Quality is fair to good

ONIONS: Northwest yellows & reds are up again. Storage supplies are getting lower and are so short that most shippers are managing their remaining onions to cover contracts and regular customers only. The northwest sizing is still heavy to jumbos and larger while mediums are very short. The northwest quality has been holding nicely. Mexico continues to consume most of its own yellow and white onion crop instead of sending it to the U.S. and until they have enough to satisfy their own demand that will continue. Domestic whites are very limited and in a demand exceeds supplies situation. A few whites & yellows had crossed from Mexico but they got some rain over the weekend so expect those numbers to be low for at least the next few days. The Texas crop is going to start in April but expect them to be late due to cool weather and rain.

Beef, Poultry, and Dairy - Neil Sheehy Ext.1924

BEEF: Cattle weights have been trending well below year ago levels due in part to the cold winter. With warming temperatures next week cattle feedlots could get especially muddy which may further slow weight gain. Lighter cattle weights are bearish for beef production. Buyers are starting to visit beef middle meat supplies for the upcoming grill season. Thus, beef ribeye, strip and top butt price increases may be forthcoming. The percentage of cattle grading choice for the second week of February was a record high.

POULTRY: The February broiler- feed price ratio was the highest in twenty six months suggesting improved profitability for chicken producers. The January broiler type chick hatch was .4% smaller than a year ago indicating that chicken output should trend very close to 2009 levels in the coming weeks. Still, due to improve margins, chicken producers as of late have modestly increased broiler egg sets which suggests that chicken output gains down the road could be larger. Any chicken production expansion is likely to only be modest though as the broiler hatchery flock should remain well below year ago levels into the summer. The wing markets are tracking slightly upward for next week.

DAIRY: The cheese markets continue to trend lower.  Current CME cheese price levels are the lowest since the summer of last year.  Charts suggest that the downside risk in the cheese markets may only be nominal from here.  Further, cheese buying has picked up in recent days adding fuel to speculation that the cheese market bottom is near.  Cheese buyers may want to visit cheese/milk contracts.  The butter market is edging upward.  The CME spot butter market has not traded appreciably above $1.50 since the fall of 2008.  Milk output declines could intensify in the coming months.

Seafood- Rick Knapp Ext.1935

HADDOCK: The recent good weather has allowed many draggers in the Northeast and Canada time to fish, those boats that have remaining DAYS AT SEA or Quota have landed a good supply of fish in the past couple of days. Prices have remained very strong, and will probably stay high because of high demand during Lent.

SALMON: Production of Farmed Salmon from Canadian and Maine producers has dropped off recently as they introduce new fish into pens and clean out the older mature fish. Consequently some smaller sizes have had spot shortages and some dealers are offering large fish for the same price as smaller fish. This is a temporary problem and should level off in the next few weeks. There has been good supply of Norwegian Farmed Salmon and some Scottish fish.

HALIBUT: The West Coast season is officially underway, but with bad weather landings are down and the shore prices very high for opening bids. I expect prices to stay very high the first couple of weeks and then as the weather improves and landings increase prices should moderate. The quota has been reduced by 3.5 million pounds this year and with virtually zero frozen inventories I expect Halibut prices to be higher than last year all season long.

Quandts fresh seafood program- If you are looking for a special seafood item and you need it right away,ask your Quandts sales representative about our 1:00 pm cut off for next day delivery. We allow you more time to plan for your seafood needs.