Crop Report

There are likely to be some significant availability challenges towards the end of June and into July, as the South African season is predicted to finish earlier than expected due to frosts, which have meant that additional stock has been graded out due to quality issues. 

With northern hemisphere planting taking place later than planned in Portugal and Spain, we will be monitoring the situation very closely over the coming weeks as the transition will be difficult.

The first part of the strawberry season is coming to an end. This is where the early season June-bearing plants provide one big crop, typically in June, before giving way to the main summer crop. 

This year’s favourable weather provided some excellent early season fruit, but, as we shift to the next phase of the season, there are likely to be some market shortages. 

While we are not expecting any major issues, the transition to the main season’s crop, known as ever-bearer, is likely to see some market-wide challenges for the next week or so, while we wait for the crop to peak. 

The good weather is helping to reduce the gap, but supply remains tight, and we have some size concessions in place to help maximise availability.

With very limited supplies available from America, we are using the last of the current season’s Egyptian stock to manage a difficult period until new season produce from Egypt becomes available at the end of July/beginning of August.

We have been working hard with our suppliers and continue to avoid any major issues, despite it being a very difficult market. We are hopeful that the measures and concessions we have put in place will avoid any significant gaps in supply despite expecting market-wide shortages throughout July.

This is one of the most challenging parts of the year for blueberries with the gap between the Moroccan and British seasons causing some problems with availability. This is not unusual for the time of year and, to cover this gap, we are bringing in additional fruit from Spain and Portugal. We expect the market to continue to be difficult for the next 
few weeks.

Brassicas are now all British, with broccoli having been the last to transition fully back to the UK. Generally, we are seeing good availability and quality, with only minor issues on broccoli, which is seeing some discolouration due to the weather, and cauliflower, where a concession remains in place for weight. 

We are in the final stage of the transition between Spain’s Almeria and Murcia regions. This is a challenging part of the season and, as is often the case, there are some market-wide supply issues. 

We are working with our suppliers and have a number of concessions in place to maximise availability ahead of the new season which we expect to be fully operational in around a week’s time.

While all raspberries are now British, the high temperatures that we’ve been experiencing are proving challenging, causing fruit production to slow down as the plants react to the heat. The cooler temperatures this week should help the plants to recover. 

There has been a slight vessel delay to passion fruit from Colombia. This will require a short period of air-freighted produce to be imported from Kenya. This will last for around a week from the end of this week.

There are some concerns with red and white cabbage, where stored produce is not lasting as well as hoped, with more wastage and lower yields than we would normally expect and there may be some challenges before the start of the new season. The overall market remains very tight.