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Wednesday 24th July - Wednesday 31st July
Get the insights you need to plan more effectively and manage your menus with our latest report from the field, brought to you by our expert produce team.
Citrus – Oranges, lemons and easy peelers
There has been some torrential rain across the Western Cape of South Africa, which has caused significant flooding in the key citrus-growing region of Citrusdal. This has prevented harvesting as access to the area has been cut off.
This will have an impact on available crops from late August into September. Oranges are the most at risk produce. However, as we source from other areas as well, we are not expecting major supply issues and will be working with our growers to try to cover any anticipated gaps.
In addition to the challenges to harvesting, the weather is also causing problems to shipping, which could add to the supply issues.
Granny Smith apples
As we have been reporting, there are some market-wide issues with availability of Granny Smith’s apples, which have been impacted by an early finish to the Northern Hemisphere season, which has been compounded by low volumes from South Africa and other Southern Hemisphere growing regions.
This has now been further complicated by some significant delays to transportation from South Africa. We have some concessions in place to try to reduce the impact on customers, however, we are anticipating some challenges for the next week or so while we await the delivery of the delayed shipment. Once that arrives, there should be sufficient stock to take us to the new season in September.
In the meantime, Golden Delicious apples are readily available should customers wish to use an alternative.
Berries
After a very challenging couple of weeks, we are starting to see a slight improvement in growing conditions. The brighter conditions, along with warmer weather, is helping to increase the availability of strawberries, with a good flush of crops on the way.
It will remain more challenging for raspberries, which will take several more weeks to recover. While we are not expecting any major shortages, pressure on availability will remain.
Washed Roquette
We are still experiencing some residual issues with Italian crops, due to the high temperatures that were experienced across the region. This was exaggerated in the tunnels where the product is grown, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees generally, but more than 53 in the tunnels.
Product arriving from Italy has minimal defects, but is dehydrated, so when washed it is deteriorating. We are working with the supplier to add extra checks and processes, including removing the top layer of dehydrated leaves pre-wash.
We expect the situation to improve over the following week.
Green beans
The poor UK weather has led to some problems with the yield of green beans, caused by excessive heat followed by too much rain. This has led to the crop curling and touching the ground.
We are sourcing additional produce from Italy and the Netherlands to cover, so are not anticipating any supply issues.
Melons
While we are not expecting any availability issues, the excessive heat in Murcia over the past week has the potential to create some internal quality issues with melons.
We will move into the La Mancha region next week, where conditions are cooler, which should resolve any outstanding issues.
Potatoes
We are expecting the main new season crop for potatoes in around six weeks’ time, which should bring with it an improvement in availability.
While this should bring some temporary relief to the supply situation, we are expecting to see a repeat of many of the issues that we’ve seen this year as the season progresses. However, we hope that it will not be quite as bad as this year.
Asparagus
While there are some challenges with produce from Peru caused by the Senasa strike (the DEFRA equivalent in Peru), there has been a slight improvement in availability.
There are no quality concerns, and we are not expecting any major supply problems.
Cavolo Nero
The crop is beginning to improve as growers start to harvest from new fields, with availability expected to return to normal shortly.
Cabbage
New season cabbage is now beginning to become more plentiful. As it is early in the season, the crop has more of a green colouring, which is normal and will change in the coming weeks.
New season red cabbage will arrive at the end of August, with produce coming from Spain until then.
