Good Grief!

The Market Report is a weekly column written by Ken Klein of Klein’s Supermarket in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood. He writes the column for the Art Museum Area News and kindly allows me to post it here.

The report is a fascinating look at the forces that drive the quality and price of our food; if you haven’t read it before, check it out!

Executive summary:

• The tomato situation is improving
• Cold weather on the US West coast is impacting the cauliflower, broccoli, and strawberry supply.
• Chili finally got its act together. We not how Chilean blueberries, grapes, peaches, plums, and nectarines.

Read on for the entire report.

The Market Report, by Ken Klein
Klein’s Supermarket, 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue, Philadelphia
Our Hours: M-F 8 AM to 8 PM; Sat. 8 AM to 8 PM; Sunday 9 AM to 1 PM
Closed on Christmas and New Years
Closing at 6 PM on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve

Greetings food lovers! Life in produce land has taken a wonderful turn. This past week some prices came down! Events look promising.

The inside tomato story
Tomatoes are now affordable. In pure economic terms, the past several weeks reflected the greed of shippers, who successfully took advantage of a low supply to hold prices at high levels. However, shippers tried to hold the tomato market at big money for too long, and it is now catching up with them. We in the business have been expecting a drop in prices, and it has arrived! Look for lower prices on your “regular” tomatoes.

Produce talk

• Tomatoes coming from Florida look good. Plum tomatoes will remain high for several more weeks. As we approach Christmas, the incoming Mexican product will slow because demand in Mexico will be extremely strong. The grape tomato market is finally at normal levels, with excellent volume and quality. Look for summer prices in the next weeks. Tomatoes on the vine, however, shot way up.
• Green peppers and cucumbers arriving from Florida are top-notch quality. Prices are low. Time to add them to your salad bowl.
• Lettuce is one item you might think twice about this week. All lettuce is being harvested in the Yuma, Arizona region, which saw freezing temperatures this past week. If you’ve been paying attention to my weekly updates, you know what’s coming: growers have been working half days as they are forced to wait for the lettuce to dry, the product has epidermal peel and blistering, and prices have gone up due to short supply. Think about $2 a head for green leaf lettuce (wholesale)—a large price to pay for such a small item!
• Because of cold West Coast weather, Cauliflower went from plentiful to tight as the week began. There is plenty of product in the fields just waiting to grow.
• Broccoli has gone way up in price, again because of cold weather in California.
• Strawberries from California have been hampered by the cold weather. Don’t expect great product until February.
• Blueberries are now arriving from Chile. Quality is fantastic, and considering the long voyage, the fruit tastes pretty good.
• Clementines are now arriving in large numbers from Spain. The prices have come down so much that I can’t understand how anybody in the supply and shipping end is making a profit.
• This week, the first of the Chilean fruit has arrived: grapes, peaches, plums, and nectarines. Prices will be extremely high for the first weeks. The stone fruit will have great color, but I am not sure of the taste—I normally avoid the first of the season.
• Craving a nice cantaloupe or honeydew? Domestic production has ended, and arrivals now come from Central America. Weather has caused a decline in Honduran cantaloupe production. There was not enough product to fill the boat last weekend, so it remained in dock until they had enough fruit to ship it North. In the meantime, prices have hit the roof.

Have a fruitful week!