Gary Andreasian, President, Growers Express:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We finished Salinas here several weeks ago. We started Huron on time and it came quick and fast so we finished a little bit early. We didn't get the usual overlap that we like to budget for going in to Yuma. We are finding ourselves on the light side for lettuce right at the peak demand time for the Thanksgiving pull. Supplies are probably at 60% across the board. The Thanksgiving pull started as the busiest time of the year for us and we have very little product to maneuver with."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Ernst Van Eeghen, Director of Marketing and Product Development, Church Brothers / True Leaf:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Our lettuce is in Huron right now, but by the end of November everything will be down in the Yuma Valley. The desert has seen a lot of rain which has affected the yields and the quality. The condition of the lettuce and Romaine is okay, but we are seeing some defects. There is a little bit of a gap between Salinas and Yuma season always, but this supply is certainly lighter than normal because of the rain in the desert. The demand is way up, we are shipping a whole lot more right now. Next week, the week of Thanksgiving, it usually dies down a little bit."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Doug Classen, Sales Manager, Foxy Produce:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We are just finishing up Salinas this week on a hand full of items. We will be moving down to Yuma; the transition for celery has already happened and we are in full swing in Oxnard. We had some rains back in September that disrupted some of the planting in the desert and as a result we have had a few hiccups. With a little bit of a planting gap we are feeling some of that pressure right now in the industry as a whole. Being ahead of schedule as far as finishing up Huron and Salinas areas, and having some of those gaps has caused a little bit of a disruption in the market. Hence, we have a lot of high markets across the board." <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Josh Ruiz, General Manager of Iceberg, Cold Crops & Celery, Tanimura & Antle:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Right now, we have just begun our transition into the Arizona desert area for the majority of our products and then we are also transitioning down to Oxnard for our celery program. The industry was hit with some pretty good rains, and that has affected the next couple weeks of harvesting down here in the desert. Quality overall in Arizona should be pretty good, there are just going to be some lower yields due to certain variables and the recent rains. Right now it is too early to see effects from that, because we are just getting through that. But, in the next ten days to two weeks, you might see the quality start to go down a little bit here and there."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
