California garlic harvest will begin by mid-June, but COVID-19-related demand is expected to keep market conditions firm in the weeks ahead.
U.S. average terminal market prices for garlic, all origins, sizes and cartons, was estimated at $82.63 per carton on May 16, up 26% from $66.13 per carton in mid-March and 40% higher than $48.51 per carton in mid-May a year ago.
Wholesale market garlic prices range from $60 per 30-pound carton to well over $100 per carton in mid-May, depending on sizes and quality, said Bruce Klein, sales and marketing representative with Maurice A Auerbach Inc., Secaucus, N.J.
California dreaming
California garlic harvest will begin by June 10 or so, said Ken Christopher, vice president of Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, Calif.
“We got a little bit of rain last week, but nothing too bad to disrupt our harvest,” he said May 19.
Predicted temperatures in the high 80s should be good for the crops in the field, he said.
Christopher Ranch’s early garlic is the heirloom garlic variety, Lerg, which is slightly milder than the company’s late garlic proprietary heirloom, the Monviso variety, Christopher said.
This year’s California garlic harvest could reach about 100 million pounds, with 15 million pounds of early garlic and 85 million of late garlic.
“We’re expecting a pretty strong crop of about 100 million pounds, and there’s going to be demand for every one of those pounds, if not more,” Christopher said.
The COVID-19 pandemic and closure of foodservice outlets in March substantially changed the customer base for Christopher Ranch.
“For foodservice, we do a lot of peeled garlic, and those orders essentially went to zero the week of the first shelter-in-place,” he said. “The speed at which everything changed was alarming and pretty difficult to adjust to; our customer base shifted from being pretty even between foodservice and retail to be almost exclusively retail.”
Christopher said the company works with retailers across the country to accommodate garlic sizes not normally found at retail.
“Consumers might be seeing a little bit smaller or a little bit larger garlic at the grocery store than what they’re used to,” he said.
Retailers generally have between five and 10 garlic stock-keeping units, with pre-peeled garlic in a one-pound bag, a six-ounce vacuum sealed bag, sleeved garlic and bulk sales common for Christopher Ranch, he said.
“Right now it is all about order fulfillment and taking care of our customers when demand is just stratospheric,” Christopher said.
While the company had intended to carry 100% U.S.-grown garlic for the 2019-20 marketing season, ramped up demand in recent months necessitated Christopher Ranch to import about a third of its garlic from Latin America, notably Mexico and Argentina.
“We tried to take care of orders in May and April, which gobbled up a lot of our inventory of California (garlic), so right now we’re including the Latin American garlic as part of our product mix,” he said.
Last season’s California garlic in storage should be finished by the time the new crop begins, he said. Some consumers have been telling the company through social media that they can’t find garlic in their stores.
“That is anecdotal, and we are shipping a lot of garlic every week; but this is the first (season) I’ve been hearing that,” he said.
COVID-19 effect
Tight global supply and good demand has raised garlic prices, Christopher said. With some buyers avoiding Chinese garlic, Christopher said buyers have been competing for Mexican and Argentine garlic.
Even with foodservice demand showing a slightly recovery, Christopher said retail demand will have the upper hand for the foreseeable future.
“For at least the next six to 12 months, you’re going to see demand far more on the retail side than the foodservice side,” he said,
While demand has been strong during the COVID-19 pandemic for people seeking to boost immunity and cook at home, supply or the lack thereof has played a bigger role in the higher-trending markets for garlic and ginger, said Jim Provost, president of I Love Produce, Kelton, Pa., which imports Chinese garlic and ginger.
“I would say that the bigger part of the equation is the disruption in logistics and workers being able to come to factories,” Provost said.
Garlic and ginger are among the most labor-intensive crops in fresh produce.
“So for the month of January and February roughly when China was shut down (because of COVID-19), that is when that spike started,” he said.
China is now shipping garlic at close to normal levels, but Provost said there is pressure on supplies in other regions because of COVID-19.
“Spain is a major garlic producer, and they had disruptions in their workforce and having to lock down due to the virus that shut their supply down for a certain amount of time,” Provost said, noting that COVID-19 disruptions also have occurred in Mexico.
Now, with new crop supply of garlic on tap from California, Spain and China, Provost said seasonally expanding supplies may take some of the pressure off tight supplies.
However, if the coronavirus makes another surge of infections and factories operations close, “all bets are off,” Provost said.
“There will be enough garlic; its just a matter of (it) being packed and shipped and making it to market,” he said.
