Vegetable Market Update: Supply Challenges Across Multiple Categories

The Salinas Valley in Central California—often called the “Salad Bowl of the World”—is a leading national producer of leafy greens and vegetables. As the Salinas growing season winds down, challenging weather conditions and high demand have driven prices significantly higher than usual. In many cases, costs have more than doubled. 

Our supply team is monitoring the situation closely and working directly with growers to ensure weremainstocked with the products your business relies on.  

Why is this happening? 

Over the past three weeks, Salinas has experienced challenging and unusual weather conditions—elevated temperatures, high humidity, and significant rainfall that have stressed crops and increased disease and insect pressure in the fields.At the same time, Hurricane Priscilla is impacting northern Mexico and parts of Arizona, further complicating supply chains and availability. 

What crops are most affected? 

Supply tightness that began last week continues to intensify, especially for the following items:

Tender Leaf Greens 
Limited supply withquality challenges due to mildew and pest pressure. Baby green kale and baby arugula are most affected. Expected to resolve bymidNovember, when the growing season kicks off in Yuma, Arizona. 

Brassicas 
Critical shortages for brassicas including broccolini, broccoli rabe, broccoli and broccoli crowns, and cauliflower.Expect challenges to persist for the next month—until mid- to late November. 

Lettuce 
Increased temperatures and humidity have severely impacted the yield and quality of all lettuce types, including romaine, romaine hearts, baby varieties, iceberg, green leaf, and red leaf. The lettuce market is expected to recover in mid- to late November with the transition to the growing season in Yuma, Arizona.

Asparagus 
An excess of rain events throughout the month of September in Mexico resulted in a disruption toplanned production schedules, significantly reducing yield. This, in turn, is placing significant pressure on Peru supply, keeping pricing strong into the immediate weeks ahead.Volume is expected to return in early November. 

Have questions? Contact your sales rep to discuss product availability and alternatives.