Great Lakes offers a variety of bulk and ingredient items including dried tropical fruits, apricots, tomatoes, berries, edible seeds and nuts.
Choose from a variety of styles and sizes, such as slices, dices, tidbits, and chunks. Looking for something you don’t see on our list? Inquire today and let us help you find it.
The Malatya Region of Turkey experienced a significant frost event on the nights of March 30th and 31st. Temperatures in the apricot orchards dropped to well below freezing on both nights. These temperatures followed a very early spring, in which the apricot trees were some two weeks ahead of normal in development. The resultant timing could not have been worse, with a majority of trees in their most delicate stage. We are expecting a very large decrease in 2014 tonnage as a result, and prices have already responded by increasing sharply. Hopefully abundant stocks from crop year 2013 will help to mitigate the tonnage decrease. Hazelnuts, Sweet Cherries, Mulberries, and Apples are also said to be heavily damaged.
Turkish Dried Apricots – the new crop harvest is nearly complete. Great Lakes has 2013 Apricots in sizes #1 and #4 arriving this week.
Strawberries – the new crop will not be shipped until September from Thailand due to delays in the delivery of raw material. We have a very few cartons of Thailand BROKEN Strawberries available in L.A. @ $3.25/lb FOB.
Turkish Figs 2013 – the new crop is developing in timely fashion. The spot market is rather short, particularly for the large sizes #2/#3. GLIT has stocks of both bulk and retail packs. Call your favorite salesperson for spot prices.
VP
Re: Market update (16th July 2013)
Please find current market situation for your reference
Pineapple: Today is low season of pineapple. The crop season will be in October-December. This will be the biggest season of Pineapple. We expect raw material this year should be in the same level as per last year crop. There will be another small crop during April-May before low season.
The dehydration sectors is only 20% of Pineapple crop consumption. Therefore, even if shortage during poor season. Our section should be still be able to keep inventory.
Currently Pineapple ring may be slightly various in size due to lack of pineapple raw material.
Pineapple core will be more plentiful from October onward. Today we need to limit order of Pineapple core down to 100cs x 20kgs per container in order to make our stock last till new crop arrived.
Papaya for color added: White papaya that use for color added production, season is in August-October.
Crop size expect to be similar to last year so as raw material pricing. We expect offer price to be stable and we believe that we should be able to secure raw material to cope with demand.
Papaya natural: Season will start in October. We will update on raw material situation again in September.
Inventory of papaya raw material in our inventory is now running low. We, therefore, may not be able to offer in large quantity from now on till new season start.
Mango: Our mango in inventory should be able to cope with the demand throughout the season. New mango season will start in March till June.
Some surcharge may be need due storage cost (especially cold storage). Energy price will have effect on the cold storage cost further.
We may see some price adjustment during October.
Cantaloupe: Crop is year round available. Only some shortage during interval of the season.
However, cantaloupe this year is much higher in price and less available due to fresh market take more cantaloupe and the price has been firm year round.
We need to limit cantaloupe order down to 50-100cs per container as we are facing with slow collection of raw material.
There will be no total shortage of this product and expect the price will stay at present level for some times.
Ginger: This year crop will be delay by one month, we expect the crop will be in August-September.
The growing area have been unchanged and farmer expect to be able to offer similar quantity of ginger as per year 2012.
However, slight price increase of raw material will occur due to higher minimum wage applied since 1st January 2013. Therefore, we expect to see some up charge on ginger price offer this year.
Coconut: Currently is low season of coconut. Of course raw material still available but small quantity and need longer time for collection.
We expect more coconut available in October-December. However, the price expect to be firmed at this level.
Starfruit: First available crop in July is not good. However, the second crop will be in August then next set of fruit will be available in August – September. We expect the price will be stable but quantity available will not be large.
There should be only slight effect due to the demand of this fruit product is not big.
Pomelo: Currently we manage to find more supplier for pomelo skin. Therefore, offer can be provided in larger quantity than before.
Pomelo is year round fruit. There is no shortage, only occasionally slow in raw material collection.
Hibiscus: Season will be in August-September, only one season a year. Production for the first shipment of new crop will be in late September.
Today our raw material stock is running very low. However, the demand of this item is not so big. Therefore, we may see only shortage by 30 days.
Guava: Main season is during April-June. However, guava is year round available and the price remain firm throughout the rest of the year (April-July, raw material cheaper compared to the rest of the year).
Strawberry: Raw material of Strawberry are now coming in (season is in June-early August).
We were told that the crop size is smaller than year 2012 due to less farmer grow the variety that we use and push the price of raw material higher.
However, we manage to secure the raw material similar quantity as last year.
The first lot of strawberry production for year 2013 will be 2nd-half August onward.
Contract can be signed. However, the period of shipment need to be limit to January 2014 shipment only.
By February 2014, we will offer based on quantity available of raw material in inventory.
Kiwi: Raw material is now running low. Season is in end August and the first available shipment of Kiwi crop will be in September / early October.
Today price and availability of the new crop are not yet know. We are working with our supplier on this information.
Please check our raw material availability before confirm order with customer for this time being.
Peach: Season will also start in August. We will reserve more raw material quantity than last year in order to cope with the demand. However, this item still low demand.
Apple and Pear: Our raw material in inventory should be able to cope with the demand till new season start in October/November.
Other factors that influence on pricing of our products
:- Highly fluctuation of fuel cost is due to political instability in some countries.
:- The change in fuel cost will have direct and indirect effect to our production cost, freight cost, so as to the raw material (fruit) cost.
:- Fluctuation on currency will also effect on our pricing.
:- Market demand can affect on raw material price ie. if more fresh market consumption or more fresh fruit export, we will have direct influence on product available and shortage.
Well summer is here in Michigan and cherries are still the talk of the town. It appears that the tart cherry crop was almost completely wiped out by early warm weather, and then freezing temps. Everyone is scrambling. That said, it is beautiful in Northern Michigan and the Wall Street Journal promoting it as a great summer destination.
Unlike Michigan the weather in Turkey has been cool and great for growing apricots. The crop is later than normal, but as a result there was very little or no frost damage and we are expecting a good crop. We think prices will slowly trend down until new crop arrives in mid/late August.
Per my comments above, there appears to be about 85-95% damage to the tart cherry crop in Michigan, and since we produce about 70% of all tart cherries, it is having a huge impact on dried cherry market. Most processors are withdrawn and prices seem to go up every day. Some are trying to promote dried sweet cherries, but these have a very different flavor profile and are not at all as popular as the tart cherries. It is going to be a crazy 14 months.
Prices seem to be very steady for the past several weeks for Chinese pinenuts and demand has tapered off slightly. We expect demand to pick back up shortly because salad season is here, and fresh basil will start arriving for pesto. Turkish pinenuts are VERY expensive. The new crop from Turkey is due in during the summer months, but reports are that the crop is fairly small and prices will remain firm.
Our pistachio sales have been brisk. Once again, the weather in Turkey has been good and we expect the price to continue to come off as we get closer to new crop. The only caveat being that there is not a lot of inventory in the USA and everyone will want to be out of stock before new crop arrives. There could be shortages very late in the season.
Pepitas have been also selling very well. Prices are steady and attractive. We are now selling only sterilized (H20) seeds which is a little more expensive, but we feel is the right thing to do.
Apples in USA and South America are short and very expensive. We have been getting quite a lot of interest in our Chinese dried apples. We have dices and rings, also both with SO2, and without SO2. Give us a call, quality is great and prices are very attractive.