Shoppers preparing for Mother's Day celebrations were met with an array of delicious, fresh options. New crop cherries, nectarines, apricots, and peaches arrived from California in time for celebratory fruit salads and desserts. Strawberries and raspberries, the perennial favorites of moms everywhere, were highly featured. Mother's Day cookouts were handled with ease as sweet onions, zucchini, corn, and asparagus were well advertised. Roses were markedly higher in price this year, but tulips gave shoppers a more economical way to make mom feel special.
Total ad numbers this week were 269,106, a 4% decrease from last week's 280,744. The total for the same week last year was 9% higher than for this year. The total number of ads broken out by commodity groups: fruit 127,381 (47% of all ads), onions and potatoes 23,886 (9%), vegetables 104,006 (39%), herbs 2,473, ornamentals 9,647 (4%), and hemp 1,713. The number of ads for organic produce was 40,299, 15% of total ads.
The following are the prices of major advertised items (3,000 plus stores) this week, compared to the same week last year. Significant increases in price for fruit this week included apple juice at 31%, seedless watermelons at 28%, Honeycrisp apples at 25%, avocados at 18%, and raspberries at 15%. There were no significant decreases.
Significant increases in price for onions and potatoes this week included only sweet yellow onions at 15%. There were no significant decreases. Significant increases in price for vegetables this week included Roma tomatoes at 14% and zucchini at 12%. There were no significant decreases. Significant changes in price for ornamentals included a 30% increase for bunched roses (dozen) and a 12% decrease for bunched tulips (10s).
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Source: mymarketnews.ams.usda.gov