July 2021 – Fruit & Veg Market Report

At Menu Fresh we aim to provide information on the fresh produce sector across the United Kingdom, Europe, and the world; we can advise and guide you, and your chefs on the market changes, product changes and seasonal trends to ensure you’re able to make an informed choice in line with your menus and budgetary requirements for your restaurants.

Potatoes

While we see the only variety dropping in price is the Jersey Royals all other varieties with see an increase in cost over the next month.

The largest affected is the chipping potato we mentioned last month in detail regarding its ambient storage conditions.

The crossing over of seasons as we wait for the new season to start and increase the hospitality trade will push costs up.

Onions

We have moved over to Egyptian red onion and seen an increase in costs.

The new season Spanish onion has now started and is some 50% cheaper than the Chilean onion. This is good news but keep hand to mouth as the skin on the Spanish is not yet set and has a shorter shelf life.

Root Vegetables

UK parsnips will be starting mid-July, please continue to Keep this more hand to mouth the shelf life will be shorter with the Spanish imports.

The UK carrot season is due to start and availability and prices return to more normal levels. The quality and shelf life will also get better.

Leeks remain short while we wait for the new season UK to start at the end of June beginning of July.

Brassicas

There is still a good supply of UK cauliflower coming through and the UK broccoli is starting to make more of an appearance.

UK red and white cabbage has finished and we will be using imported Dutch mainly until the new season starts a little later this year and may get to the middle of July.

Fruit

Spanish peach, nectarine, plum, cherry and apricot continue to be in good supply. UK Cherry will be starting very soon, so keep an eye out for that.

We have seen the recent scare on melons, but we have moved over to Spanish melons now and we can look forward to using this fruit.

All the UK berries are now available – strawberry, blackberry, raspberry and blueberry. Make the most of the least travelled berries of the year.

We have seen the last few varieties of apples switch over to Southern Hemisphere so we will some a few price increases this month.

Salads

UK salads are continuing to coming through well now.

More UK herb and salad leaf are now available but we are still relying on Israeli, Kenyan and Spanish imports to make the volume and the varieties and cope with the UK weather conditions. Heavy rain can affect certain more delicate crops like coriander and salad for a few days.