Strong southeast squash yields lead to low prices

With squash season starting across the southeast, strong early yields have left suppliers grappling…

With squash season starting across the southeast, strong early yields have left suppliers grappling with low prices. “Prices are terrible right now,” says Glenn Johnson of JGL Produce Company, Inc., a wholesaler based out of Immokalee, Florida. “Last season, this time of year, prices were double what they are now.”

Johnson blames the climate for the issues with the market. Hot temperatures and moderate rainfall levels have created ideal conditions for squash throughout the region. “There’s good weather all over the southeastern United States and Mexico.” In response, plants have come in earlier and with higher yields than normal.

Suppliers – including many of JGL’s competitors – are flooded with inventory as a result. Johnson adds that the inventory glut has gone beyond squash, affecting cucumbers, beans, eggplants, and other commodities.

Johnson expects the market will correct itself in due course, but says that the current situation is bad business for growers and wholesalers alike. “The market is bad. It’s not profitable for growers. It will be. But it’s not right now.”