Shoppers are open to advice

Shoppers Would Welcome Freshness and Storage Advice

Consumers admit they could use help keeping produce fresh at home, storage for optimal freshness, healthy eating and more. In all shoppers surveyed, 92-percent were interested in at least one tip and identified an average of three to four tips regarding shelf-life.

Interest in tips varies by age and having kids at home. Thirty percent of parents are interested in kid-friendly produce suggestions, including 41-percent of parents (Gen Z & Millennials) with young children, ages zero to six.

Source: FMI, The Power of Produce,2021

Potato Market Update

Demand in the russet potato market continues to be steady at best. All shipping areas appear to have adequate supplies available to last them until the new crop arrives. Some areas like Idaho and Colorado appear to have excess supplies. Pricing remains under pressure on all small sizes, while the larger sizes are staying firm.

Growers in Texas and Kansas completed their plantings and are starting to see the new crop of red potatoes emerge from the ground. New crop red potatoes are available from Florida and California.

Golden Red potatoes are now available from growers in Florida. These radiant red-skinned, yellow flesh potatoes are looking beautiful. Contact your RPE sales representative for more details.

Storage crop yellow potatoes remain available in Idaho and Colorado, while the new crop is available in both Florida and California. Pricing remains steady to strong in both shipping areas.

White potato availability remains limited in all shipping areas. Even with limited supplies, it appears to be enough to handle the current demand. New crop white potatoes are being shipped from California and Florida, with the majority of that crop remaining near the shipping point.

New crop fingerling potatoes are available from growers in Florida and California, with limited availability on red fingerlings. Pricing remains very steady.

Onion Market Update

Demand has been steady for new crop California onions! Growers are experiencing a good season, with excellent quality overall. Supplies are good for red, yellow, white and sweet onions. Prepack sized onions are a little tight, but all other sizes are in good supplies.

Growers in the Oregon/Washington Columbia Basin are still shipping excellent quality on yellow storage onions. Growers are preparing for new crop early onions coming next month!

Freight continues to be extremely tight in all major growing regions.

Another challenge facing growers is the increased pallet costs recently due to pallet supply shortages and increasing costs of lumber.

The Challenge of Labor Shortages facing Restaurants

With over half the country vaccinated, the restaurant and foodservice industries should be looking forward to its comeback. Despite this, the industry will be facing several challenges, none of which is larger than the labor shortage restaurants are facing.

Many are blaming the unemployment insurance supplement but the problems run much deeper than the money they are receiving from unemployment. The issues concern every area of restaurant workers from waiters to the back of the house staff. What many restaurants are discovering is that simply offering a pay increase is not enough. Staffing problems have a lot to do with the conditions that existed before COVID-19 and workers not willing to return to the status quo.

These issues include the need for insurance, safety conditions in the workplace, vacation time, sick pay and even sexual harassment. Restaurants are going to have to re-examine everything from wages to company culture.

There is a great deal of competition to get these employees back. Over two million restaurant workers were laid off between March and April of 2020. Fed up with workplace issues and the cyclical hiring and layoffs, many found jobs in other industries. A recent survey by Mise en Place, a restaurant staffing firm, found that 26-percent of the restaurant workers surveyed left the industry and a third of those surveyed had not returned to work yet due to looking for the right opportunity, safety concerns or said they may not return to the industry.

There is no question that the lack of labor is going to lead to higher menu costs, which of course is very concerning to the restaurant industry. These problems are not going away and will have to be dealt with to attract, not only previous restaurant workers but new potential employees especially with the competition for hiring them.