NORMAN PARK, GA & LOXAHATCHEE, FL - As we move through the first month of 2017, markets for key veggies seem to be in-flux. With Mother Nature making for a tight squash market, growers gave me some key insights into current and future outlooks.

“The squash market is significantly higher right now for two reasons; because of increased demand and because both U.S.-based and international growing operations are seeing tight supply at the moment,” Dug Schwalls, Director of Sales for Georgia-based Southern Valley Fruit & Vegetable, Inc. said. “To put it simply, the demand is exceeding the supply, causing the markets to go up.

J&J Family of Farms' VP of Business Development Brian Rayfield also commented that squash is tight currently, with Florida growers having had an uphill battle throughout the season.

“Squash has become very scarce in the month of January, and it looks like we will not see any major changes until early February,” he shared, adding that weather issues in both Mexico and Florida have affected the higher market.

It does look as though we might be in for a turnaround, however, as we head into February.

“Florida growers are finally starting some new field, and with promising weather forecasted for the next week or two we expect to see production and quality increase across the board on both Yellow and Green Squash,” Brian said. “Our next Full Moon is Saturday, February 11th, and with no further weather events we believe that will be the first week that promotional volume will be available.”

The current forecast is that we should see steady volume from that point through early March, which is where the market historically sees a shift once again.

Keep checking in with AndNowUKnow as we track any changes in the industry through the remainder of winter and beyond.

J&J Family of Farms Southern Valley Fruit & Vegetable