Your Produce Man - Produce News

Our last PRODUCE MAN PUZZZZLE dealt with citrus: Which citrus has a belly button? Well, we thought we would end the year with an easier JC Produce Puzzzzle, which it certainly turned out to be. Hundreds of correct answers came in. Some people thought the Navel Orange was named because it was the first orange used by the US Navy. The Navel Orange was so named because the blossom end looks like a belly button. Since wintertime is citrus season, this week's PUZZZZLE still deals with citrus: What was the first citrus to be patented? See next week's "Fresh Tips" for the answer.

--NAVEL ORANGES: You may see larger sized fruit this year, but prices will most likely stay higher than normal throughout the winter Navel Orange season this year. California Navel Orange growers in the San Joaquin Valley are saying this is one of the smaller crops in many years. Estimates put the crop size at around 68 million cartons of Navel Oranges. To put that in perspective, a record crop of Navel Oranges was around 88 million cartons in 1993 and 1998. An average crop would be around 78 million cartons. This year's crop is about 15% below last year's crop and about 13% below the 10-year average. In early May, growers were looking at Navel Orange trees bursting with blossoms. It was a very heavy bloom set which should have led to a record or a near-record crop. But in mid-to-late May, there was a 10-day stretch of 100 degree plus temperatures. Those fiercely hot temperatures caused trees to stress out and to drop the tiny fruit. During the rest of the growing season, the trees food and energy was used on fewer fruit on the trees, and that will lead to larger-sized Navel Oranges. An average crop will size to around 88 or 72, but many growers are seeing a lot of 36 and 42 size fruit. That's the size of a grapefruit! With a shorter Stonefruit crop from Chile, and with some shortfalls in Banana supplies, there will be less competition for sales. In addition, there should be stronger export action because Hurricane Michelle caused about $50 million of Cuban fruit damage. All of this will certainly push and keep Navel Orange prices high.

--LEMONS: Wintertime is Lemon time, especially in California. That's when the peak of the crop is harvested from Riverside to the San Joaquin Valley. This year, however, the same problems that affected the Navel Orange crop, have also impacted the Lemon crop. Growers say they Lemon Slices

saw a very light fruit set due to the very high temperatures in May. Some San Joaquin Valley growers lost about 40% of their lemons from the May heat wave. Growers in Arizona also felt the heat, losing about 15 - 20% of their lemon crop. Expect Lemon prices to stay at higher than normal levels throughout the rest of the winter lemon season.

--POTATOES: Sub-Zero temperatures in the Northwest can have an impact on short-term potato prices. In the Northwest, there are a lot of potato storage sheds and few potato packing sheds. Where they store the potatoes is not the same place where they pack the potatoes. To get spuds from the storage sheds to the packing sheds requires transportation, usually in an open-air truck. Well, with sub-zero temperatures, you just can't get the potatoes from the storage sheds. Those cold temperatures would cause a lot of damage. Prices are already high, and even with sluggish demand, don't expect prices to soften.