US: Greenhouse bell pepper market likely to tighten up

Supply for domestic greenhouse bell peppers is looking a bit slim for some produce companies. “For u…

Supply for domestic greenhouse bell peppers is looking a bit slim for some produce companies. “For us, the supply of peppers is on the tight side,” says Glen Bezanson of Greenhouse Produce Co., LLC based in Vero Beach, Fl. “We don’t have a big crop right now. Yet in general, looking at pricing, I’d say there’s a fair amount out there. I believe there’s a lot of production areas going on at the moment.”

Bezanson notes that pricing on greenhouse red bell peppers isn’t healthy, yet orange and yellow bell peppers seem to be in good shape. Prices also seem to be currently holding steady and fluctuation-free. “And when we have our bell peppers, which is about once a week, the demand for them is good. They go right out and most of that demand is from the southeast,” he adds.

Market to take a turn?
That said, Bezanson suspects the market will improve in the coming weeks. “I have a gut feeling that supply is going to start tightening up and I think we’ll start to see some pick up,” he says.

Meanwhile he echoes what many growers have been saying since Christmas: that demand for commodities has been light since the holiday season. “It’s been a very strange year. We always say that but this year, it’s one checkmark above,” he says. “I don’t know why that is—we’ve had bad weather in the past and different situations interfere, but this year I can’t put my finger on it.”