Lettuce Prices Continue to Soar

While continued poor weather, such as heavy rains and unusual high heat, has hit the East Coast, and lettuce growers there are struggling to harvest a quality crop, it’s a big boom for California growers who are gladly filling the gap with higher prices.

“There are no complaints on our end,” noted Gabriela D’Arrigo, sales and marketing for D’Arrigo Bros. in Salinas. “It’s been more than a decade since the prices have been so high across the board,” she said. “The markets have been very good to us and to the other suppliers in Salinas.”

There is a big demand for iceberg lettuce as well as leafy greens and other vegetables, with some prices double what they were a year ago. “Many items are very short, the prices are up, and we are trying to fill orders for long time customers back east,” D’Arrigo said. 

It’s been a very good run over the last six weeks as prices started to rise in late May. Depending on the items, D’Arrigo said that “fennel, romaine hearts, broccoli, cauliflower, and other lettuces have taken turns on which ones would be high any given week, giving us good margins.”