A long, hot summer followed by an early fall freeze threw grower-shippers a curveball at the start of the fall season in southern Texas, but they’re hopeful things will straighten out by mid-December.
Unseasonably warm temperatures delayed the harvest of green bell peppers and green and red cabbage in the Winter Garden/Laredo region for Uvalde, Texas-based Cargil Farms Produce, said Nano Tafolla, sales manager.
Yields from the early fields were lighter than usual, but movement should be back to normal by mid-December, he said.
Lighter volume was not limited to Cargil Farms.
“Every grower is in the same boat,” Tafolla said.
Cargil Farms will have bell peppers through December and will ship cabbage until June or early July.
The company will have a Texas onion deal in May and June, after the Rio Grande Valley deal that starts in March and April tapers off.
“That’s when we pick up the slack in the Winter Garden,” Tafolla said.
McAllen, Texas-based Val Verde Vegetable Co. was “kind of behind the eight ball this season” because of the prolonged hot spell, said Jeff Holton, sales manager.
Summer usually ends around Sept. 1 in that region but extended well into October this year, he said.
After enduring drought-like conditions, the area was expected to receive some welcome rainfall during the second week of November, Holton said.
Val Verde started the season with leafy vegetables this fall and now is shipping collards, turnips mustards, kale, cilantro and other items.
Quality is there, “but you really had to dig deep” to find it, Holton said, because the plants were severely stressed. The company will have product through March or into April.
Jack’s Produce in Pearsall, Texas, expected decent quality by the end of November on its Texas-grown green beans, sweet corn, cabbage, broccoli and leaf lettuce “if it doesn’t freeze again,” said salesman Lee Roy Moughon.
The growing area experienced a frost the first week of November.
The company couldn’t plant cabbage until Oct. 1, three weeks later than usual because of the extreme heat, he said, but it should be in good condition.
“The quality is good, but we have less of it,” Moughon said.
“Beans are going to be tight” from several areas in the U.S. and Mexico, he said. The company expected to add green beans from Mexico after Thanksgiving.
Volume of cabbage and sweet corn also was down, and prices were up, Moughon said.
McAllen-based Costa Oro LLC, the sales agent for San Antonio Commission Company of Texas Inc., has scaled down from bringing in multiple items like broccoli and cauliflower to focus on onions and some carrots, said owner Hal Hoffman.
Most of the firm’s onions now are coming from Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other U.S. growing regions, he said. Some even are arriving from Peru.
Onions from Mexico should start in late December or early January, with significant volume by the end of February to early March. The company sells yellow, white, red and sweet onions and some organic product.
An uptick in demand before Thanksgiving typically tapers off through the first week of December then picks up for Christmas and the New Year holiday before leveling off again.
He said prices often depend on weather, which affects product availability.
“Low volume is already pushing prices up,” Tafolla said the second week of November.
He doesn’t see that changing until December, when supplies increase.
Sales were up for Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day is a big occasion for cabbage sales, said Moughon of Jack’s Produce.
“In the Southeast and the Midwest, everybody eats corned beef and cabbage for good luck,” he said. “We’ll probably plant twice as much cabbage for that week than we normally would.”
