CALIFORNIA - Broccoli is today’s topic of choice as we dive into the details of the current vegetable market. To find out what opportunities lie in wait as we close in on the summer months, I touched base with category experts from Ocean Mist® Farms and Ippolito International.

Ocean Mist Farms Commodity Manager John Chobanian provided some insights just before the Memorial Day weekend.

“We are about into the full swing of our California spring/summer season, and we’re seeing volumes continue to increase,” John shared exclusively with ANUK. “With the favorable weather conditions and the days getting longer, we’re not experiencing any issues and the quality is looking good.”

As John reported, Ocean Mist Farms is expecting promotable volumes through the summer months.

Ippolito International’s Jacob Abramson, Sales/Commodity Manager, Broccoli, also gave us a closer look at the current market.

“Over the past several weeks, the broccoli market has been trending upwards,” he shared. “We’ve seen strong demand recently due to the Memorial Day holiday, which has helped the market overall. The Salinas Valley weather has seen ideal growing conditions for broccoli plants. Overnight lows and daytime highs have been moderate, resulting in good growth and quality. In other broccoli growing regions, hailstorms followed by unseasonably high temperatures have negatively impacted the quality and reduced overall sales volumes. This has helped the supply currently being harvested in the Salinas Valley. Despite lighter demand the week of Memorial Day, we expect markets to stay firm and elevated for the next several weeks.”

Jacob continued, noting that “Overall, industry broccoli supplies have been trending below budget, but Ippolito has had steady volume. We are in a great position to promote our commodity and value-added broccoli packs further into the summer.”

For more exclusive insights into the categories lining the produce department, be sure to leave a tab open to ANUK.