Crop Report

Peru remains in the grip of El Niño conditions, with warmer-than-average sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific creating a more unsettled and unpredictable growing environment. For asparagus, this can slow and disrupt crop development, putting pressure on spear size, yield, quality and overall market availability. 

Some sea-freighted arrivals have shown increased quality defects, so we are using air freight where needed to reduce transit time, protect product condition and keep supply moving. Despite this additional support, availability across the wider market is expected to remain tight and challenging for the foreseeable future.

El Niño conditions are now established across the tropical Pacific and are expected to strengthen through the second half of the year. With Peru a key avocado source at this stage of the season, warmer and more unsettled weather can bring added pressure from rainfall, humidity and crop stress in some growing areas.

This has already contributed to some quality concerns and, although supply is satisfactory, quality is variable as the fruit’s condition continues to be influenced by the changing weather pattern.

We are monitoring inbound quality to help protect continuity and manage any customer impact where possible.

Red cabbage remains very limited as we move towards the end of the stored crop season. Existing concessions are helping to support availability, although supply is expected to remain challenging over the coming weeks.

The hot weather has led to an increase in pest activity. We are working hard to minimise the impact on customers by removing affected products as far as possible, but the challenges are likely to
remain in the short term.

While crop issues continue across Spain and Holland, following a period of sustained high temperatures, we are managing limited supply well.

However, we expect the market-wide challenges to continue over the next two weeks or so as crops recover and we are working closely with suppliers to minimise disruption and maintain customer supply wherever possible.

We are currently moving through the end of the stored crop season and into the new crop, which is creating some natural variability in carrot quality. We are working closely with suppliers to minimise customer impact, while imported product has been introduced to help support consistency of prepped carrots during the transition.

Colombian passion fruit remains tight, with lighter volumes continuing to place pressure on market availability. Demand remains steady, so to help protect continuity, we expect to lean on airfreighted arrivals over the coming weeks, giving us greater flexibility to react quickly and support customer requirements wherever possible.