“The market for lettuce was really high a couple of weeks ago,” said Eric Garcia with River Fresh Farms. “It went up really fast, and I think it was a little inflated.” He explained that the market, in turn, was depressed just a short time before that, and that lull was likely caused by an abundance of available product.
“Production is steady in the Salinas Valley when it's overcast, and production shoots up when it's sunny and it's warm,” explained Garcia. “There was a glut of supply available and not enough demand.” That low market gave way to high prices earlier this month that approached $20.00 per carton. Prices have come down through the end of last week, and prices stayed on the low side this week.
“It was a little dicey for a bit,” said Garcia. “Things got down to the $5.00 to $8.00 range, and it's almost not worth packing lettuce at that point.” But the market has since improved, and Garcia thinks it's on the upswing. On July 21, prices for a lined carton of iceberg lettuce from Salinas were between $8.00 and $10.56.
“I don't know how high prices will get, but I think the market will go up from where it's at,” said Garcia. “Ideally, the market can get into the low teens; the price points there are manageable for the grower, the retailer and the consumer.”
