The shorter days and cooler nights have taken their toll on quite a few lines of Victorian grown produce.
- You will have noticed that berry prices have been quite high. This has been caused by very short supply and some lines like blueberry and black berry not always being available. Prices will remain high for some time as Queensland grown strawberries are still at least two weeks away. I expect Queensland grown produce this year to be a little more expensive given the increased cost of road freight. Melbourne is somewhat at a disadvantage due to distance and must pay as high as Sydney or higher to get stock as growers can get a greater return by just sending to Sydney market and saving on freight cost.
- Local asparagus has all but finished and we have now moved onto an imported offering.
- Aussie garlic too has just about finished with the remaining stock holdings starting to shoot. I will buy some more Aussie garlic if we can find good quality that is not bolting but for the most part now we will be stock quality South American garlic and mostly the purple fire variety.
- Bean supply is still good from Gippsland but Victorian Corn has almost completely finished. There may be a period of no corn as Queensland farmers have had some issues with this year seed having some germination issues
- The good news is citrus! Late Autumn and winter is when Aussie citrus really comes into its own. We have started with Aussie Navel oranges, Afourer mandarins and now imperial mandarins are coming into market in good quantities. Quality and sweetness is increasing and the price is coming down.
- Most of the apples on the shelf are now new season except for pink ladies that won’t start the new stock for a few weeks. Snap Dragon is a new apple variety that has hit our shelves and it is getting rave reviews from staff and customers.
- Roman goes as far as saying “it’s the best apple he’s ever eaten”.
Cheers, Dean
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