COSTA RICA

The beautiful golden pineapple from Costa Rica, is more golden than ever!

The challenges of the supply chain from covid still linger for crop inputs, with prices for many nutrition components increasing 7 -10 times from what is was just a year before. We have seen some great farms run severely short on their sales commitments as they weren’t able to get enough crop protection to produce large fruit of export quality so far during the first quarter of 2023. Total acreage production numbers are similar or slightly higher than the previous 3 year average, but the exported volumes haven’t matched as many farms dropped in yields and quality.

The demand in the US has remained strong through the last 3 months, and we didn’t experience a dip over the holidays and end of year. We feel fortunate to have had extra production to support some new and previous customers when their other suppliers couldn’t deliver.

In general, crowned pineapple production should meet market demand for the coming months, and crownless pineapple with clean internal quality is forecasted to be short for the global market. We at Stella Farms, remain committed to our customers and have made the crop investments to maintain quality production to cover our customer needs.

MEXICO

Pineapple imports into the U.S. will continue to be very light as the main production area in Veracruz State continues to deal with the annual NDF period in that growing zone.  This time of year, quality control is extremely challenging as minimal brix levels of 13 tend to be very difficult to achieve due to the extreme growing conditions.  The good news is that all of our farms are indicating that quality will start to improve the beginning of September and by October we should see strong production numbers and very good quality.  This will allow for promotions during the important Fall holiday time periods and the sizing curve will see bigger sizes than what we’re expecting out of Costa Rica.

Watermelon production from the Southern MX growing regions is steady, and we should continue with arrivals from Nayarit and Campeche until mid-March when we will transition to the Northern MX growing regions of Tamaulipas and Sonora.  Availability should remain relatively stable in the sort, to mid, term at slightly above average price levels.  Very warm weather in South FL has the domestic crop tracking for an early start, as of now.

ROMA/ROUND TOMATOES 

Thus far 2023 has been quite the unusual year!  Our major producing area of Michiacan hung  in there longer than ever, producing product all the way through mid February, a full month longer than any other year.  The new production from the state of Sinaloa and city of Culiacan have been behind due to heavy rains back in October/November of last year so lack of production from this area prompt the markets up and created a window for us to continue to harvest.  This window closed violently about mid-January however, than some cold fronts moved across the state slowing production almost to a complete halt. The weather now has warmed again and production is back at full swing and markets have reacted back to minimum price levels.

The farm is beginning the process to clean and prepare the greenhouses for this seasons crop with aggressive expansion plans in the works that hold the potential of increasing production by nearly 30%.

Our growing partner, Coyopista provided us once again with superior quality product allowing up to add new and loyal customers to the brand!

GRAPE TOMATOES

Grape tomatoes are gaining in popularity throughout the industry and have been extremely active again this season. We are thrilled to have worked another season with two growers who are very quality conscious and only provide us with high quality products year-round.

Stella Farms has become a strategic supplier to customers who prefer bulk packed grape tomatoes. We are able to meet customers unique color and flavor requirements as we continue to learn and grow this item within the tomato category.

Our new crop cabbage has started at our North Florida farm and the quality is outstanding. We had very favorably growing conditions in the Fall that led to extremely strong plants – this was critical in our being able to weather the severe cold snap from the end of December. We’ve had very little damage from the cold and our production in January will be steady. Although the sizing will be heavy to mediums with minimal large cabbage, we will be harvesting at this farm until mid-February. Looking forward, we’ll be starting our Central Florida crop the beginning of February and we’ll be harvesting there through the end of March peaking in production leading into the all-important St. Patrick’s Day market push.