SALINAS, CA - This just in! Duda Farm Fresh Foods has released another update on the status of its planting and harvesting. This time, Senior Vice President of Fresh Sales Rick Alcocer took a beat to detail continued fluctuations in the celery market due to several factors.

“The cold weather in Oxnard, [California,] caused a shortage of large-sized celery, which started the gradual increase in overall celery FOBs. Similarly, the Salinas season is delayed by two weeks because of colder temperatures as well,” Alcocer stated. “This transition from Oxnard to Salinas presents challenges including lighter supplies, inferior quality, lightweight celery, and seeder issues. As a result, the celery market has faced erratic supply, poor quality, low yields, and an overall shortage of available produce, leading to higher-than-normal FOB pricing ranging from $40.00 to $50.00.”

Alcocer went on to note that even though weather delayed the grower’s celery harvest by two–three weeks, Duda expects to see an adequate celery supply. According to Alcocer, Duda’s proprietary varieties are bred to not suffer the seeder issues some other growers are facing.

“With all the factors in play, we expect prices to remain elevated until the Salinas season stabilizes around the first week of July,” Alcocer stated. “The market's volatility is likely to persist until the situation improves.”

As we continue to hear updates from companies like Duda, keep clicking back to ANUK.

Duda Farm Fresh Foods