SALINAS, CA - Oh, leafy greens, oh leafy greens, where would we be without you in our routine? …Probably battling scurvy like it was 1653! In present-day 2019, however, the lettuce and leafy greens categories are up and active, meaning consumers are not only living life with scurvy off their radar but enjoying the super veg with real zeal.
To find out more about how leafy greens are faring this year, I asked Jason Lathos, Manager of Commodities for Church Brothers Farms, if he could reveal more about the state of the category.
“The lettuce and leafy greens categories are very active, mainly due to weather. If you look back to May, we had a very rainy month—I think there was 21 days of total rain,” Jason shared with me. “When June hit, it started to get hot, with our growing regions tempering over a hundred-degree weather for more than four days.”
Even though the market is active at the moment, have supplies been affected by the heat? Jason revealed I wasn’t the only person asking this question, with Church Brothers Farms’ customers looking for answers as well.
“We had a lot of customers ask what effect the weather would have on crops," Jason said. "After our production teams had the time to look, we were told that while the cold and rain created harvest issues, we did not lose any yield. The heat, however, will cause yield loss—probably a minimum decrease in supplies of at least 20 percent.”
With a loss of yield for the next couple of weeks, the market should stay active and tight.
For more crop updates across all categories, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.
