Locations Sign In Who We Serve Products Solutions Idea Center Careers Stores Home Market Updates Market Updates for November 12, 2021 Category Filter Showing All Market Update Categories Dairy | Eggs Large -Up Medium -Up Small - No change Retail demand mixed. Supplies of extra large and large well balanced and held confidently. Market steady to full steady. Dairy | Butter Butter- Up Cream inventories are continuing to tighten as ice cream production starts to compete for raw material and hits it's production stride. Retail sales show signs of decline, but overall are still healthy. With restaurants reopening food service distributors are still coming back to the buying table, but orders are still below expectations. Dairy | Cheese Barrel - Down Block - Up The CME Block market responded to the governments release of another billion dollars in the USDA Box program. Speculators feel this will have an effect on the markets for the short term but will not be sustainable for the long term. Grocery & Bakery | Frying Oil Soybean yields were taken down, slightly, in the most recent WASDE report. The complex moved higher to start the week amid the news. Export sales began the new crop year slowly due to Hurricane Ida closing down port activities in the Gulf Region. Since re-opening we've seen sales steadily climb. Next week we will get fresh export data and will confirm rumors of Chinese buyers stepping in to buy US corn. Should this come to fruition ag commodity prices will most likely increase. Most oil plants are running at full capacity due to heightened demand, and the shortened holiday schedule upcoming. November and December typically present logistic challenges with trucking and the shortage of drivers throughout the US could spell for significant delays should there also be any major weather events. Grocery & Bakery | Flour Prices continue to trend higher and out front pricing is firm as worldwide harvests are looking to be a little lighter than originally forecasted. Durum prices continue to rise indicating pasta prices will continue to rise as we enter 2022 production as a result of the North American drought as North America is the largest exporter of durum wheat in the world. Grocery & Bakery | Sugar Pricing remains steady to higher with a lack of product available for trade in the spot market as a majority of the harvest is already booked into 2022. Spot pricing is much higher than contract pricing right now as a result of heavy forward bookings and delayed harvest in both the Midwest and southern states due to weather challenges. Seafood | Imported Seafood - High Level Summary Overall-all imported seafood categories are being heavily affected by shortages of shipping containers, warehouse delays, domestic trucking/driver shortages and processing plant delays due to Covid outbreaks in other countries around the world. Countries with outbreaks are using quarantine methods restricting workers to barracks and closing plants to help control the spread of the virus causing a collapse of production stability. Newest shutdowns are in Indonesia and Vietnam. The energy crisis has struck both Europe and Asia with rising costs for electricity and fuel. China has forced closures on plants with some only producing 3 days a week due to the high cost and low supply of coal to run power plants. Cod, 2x Pacific and Atlantic: 2x Frozen products from Asia are heavily short due to Covid restrictions in the supply chain. Expect price increases and supply disruptions. Possible shortages through CNY maybe into Lent. Limson has booked with the processor our needs into 2022. Delays will be experienced with shipping. Cod is extremely short for a number of reasons. 1. The main ports and cold storage in China is still barely open due to Covid and Power restrictions. 2. The freight changes every day on shipping. 3. Raw materials are short due to vessels not being allowed into port in China. 4. Bookings on containers are being bumped off vessels every day by other high ticket items buying away the container. Cod, Atlantic 1x: North Atlantic 1x product from Russian fishing vessels continues to struggle with availabitiy and is hard to come by currently. Less boats due to pandemic, not as much production. Euro demand very high and they are taking all of the product. Not as much available to North American market. Pollock, Pacific 1x: The current catch is yielding extremely small fish. The finished fillet sizes are below the typical 2-4 ounce size. IQF will be the primary production since it is less labor intensive than the 1x Shatterpack. Labor challenges due to Covid continue to effect Alaska. The current catch has only been 20% of the previous years. Look to the GFS IQF items as options for customers using shatter pack. IQF is tight but available. The "B" Season has been terrible so Limson Trading is looking for supplemental suppliers. The Next fishing season starts in November. Commitment orders are being shorted by processors. Thought we were going to get 350,000 lbs raw material, only getting 250,000 lbs. A season doesn't start until third week of Jan. Won't see product until March. Pollock, Pacific 2x: We have seen delays on pollock being shipped as raw material on the larges sizes has become tight which has caused pricing to rise by 10%-15% since last year. Raw material will remain short due to Covid port and production issues. Haddock: Supply challenges with limited availability. The 10-12z size is not available at all at this time. Reaching out to source locally but none to be found in 10-12z. Working on 6 months coverage. Domestic Lake Fish: General Lake fish - The Fall Fishing has started slowly. Larger size Walleye and Whitefish are still short but should improve over over the next couple weeks. Yellow Lake Perch: Michigan Sizes are becoming available, but costs are crazy. Michigan Splits very small amounts available but Butterfly most abundant in Perch category. Ohio sizes pretty non existent. Overall category is still short. Walleye: 8-10z and larger are short with more expected as fishing progresses. Whitefish: Larger size Whitefish, 8-10 and bigger are short as well. Euro Lake Fish & Zander: Struggle to source with most of the supply coming from Poland and Kazakhstan which are dealing with Covid restrictions and overfishing issues. Limson is working with other suppliers to source more. Sizes 20-40 and 40-60 are still a challenge. Mahi Mahi: Similar to tuna, Mahi is extremely short and the US GFS sales is double the typical forecast. Costs are elevated over 2019/20 and expect these levels to increase just to secure supply as the cost for the raw material has risen sharply. We are trying to supplement - but we are very picky with quality. Usage increased significantly this year. Mahi-pre booked import orders are delayed due to lack of containers, shipping and ports causing shortages. Limson has 3-4 more containers coming. Costs rising. Frozen Tuna, Swordfish : Really hard to come by with poor fishing in Vietnam at about 40% of last years catch at this time. Situation is getting worse, not better. This item is an example of the container delays, decreased fishing boats, & decreased production workers that we have been seeing from many overseas commodities due to the pandemic. The US supply chain has attempted to start back up to full speed, while other countries are still feeling the impact much more than we are. We will see impact from the pandemic until at least 2022 from what our partners are telling us. For this particular commodity, our partners at Sea-Delight gave us the below breakdown: The countries catching and producing Tuna are all second and third world countries which are very slow in getting access to vaccinations. Because of that, they are still in full COVID mode, meaning: When the boats come back from fishing, the fishermen have to quarantine for 2 weeks, meaning: Few fishermen want to go out at all because of the added danger of Covid and having to quarantine. Very few workers want to come in to work to process the fish that is brought in due to danger of Covid. With no raw material being caught, processing plants being idled our suppliers are not able to take or confirm the orders we place with them for set shipping dates. They are also not able to confirm or guarantee pricing. Swai: Vietnam is starting to open plants and ports back up but supply will be slow to return due to labor shortages. Demand continues to stay at all time highs and many suppliers do not have product causing customers to look for inventory. Do not be afraid to price accordingly. Limson has booked inventory coming in and targeting to receive more from other importers in the US to fill in to meet the high demand. Swai-booked out ahead is taking longer to get to the US due to Vietnam's issues. Note, Swai is USDA inspected which is causing a delay of 3-5 weeks with the backlog and slow down with Government inspections. Expect supply disruptions on all sizes. Tilapia: Tilapia frozen fillets are also going up in price to market due to logistical issues, freight, costs, tariffs and a strong U.S. demand. Sales have been extremely strong so Limson secured a few extra loads up expect disruptions due to delays in transport. Seafood | Shrimp Imported Black Tiger: Smaller shrimp harder to secure. Very very short compared to whites. Covid challenges continue with India especially with lockdowns. Production out of Indonesia has been slow and steady without any major shutdowns. Continued Container delays present challenges overall. Since Tigers grow to adulthood slower than Imported Whites this species is seeing limited availability. Imported White: IMPORTED WHITE SHRIMP: Usage is at record levels. Supply has started to improve but expect continued shortages due to logistics. Pricing continues to rise weekly as demand shows no sign of slowing. Larger sizes 8-12 nonexistent. Limson is sourcing product from other importers to supplement into GFS DC's. Please be aware you will witness other brands in the GFS item slots. Latin White: Prices have firmed due to limited supply with in the market. Domestic White & Brown: We are seeing some supply of Gulf product being available, mostly with 26/30 and smaller. This is due to unsettled users in the Gulf states. Larger white production for headless has stalled with supplies available but limited. Expect pricing to stay stable while demand stays consistent. Domestic PUD: For right now these pack outs will be hit and miss. Producers are reporting higher pricing, as the demand is higher and product is getting bid up at the docks. Domestic Rock & Pink: Rock-No production, no boats targeting, no existing inventory. We may see a couple of small pack outs from the incidental catch in the spring, but the real season starts in July. Last year was poor for rock; hopefully this year will be the opposite. We encourage the use of 70/90 PINK P&D 10/5 Key Treasure as a good alternative. Very good eating, cheaper, more consistent supply. Key West Pink HDLS: production just ok, and prices sky-high: (.75-1.50 over gulf browns).* Seafood | Lobster North Atlantic: North Atlantic inventories have improve and we have inventory of all the typical sizes. Tails 3-4z, 4-5z, 5-7z are available. We are receiving small amounts of 6-7z, and 8-10z but these remain limited. Lobster meats are available but the high cost has stabilized demand. Expect pricing to stay elevated and there still remains the potential for shortages later in the year. Warm Water: In good supply currently and Limson has a significant amount of warm water Lobster on-order but arrivals are slow. Product arriving from Brazil. There is inventory available but there may be small gaps in supply by size as the containers arrive with new harvest. South African: Starting to arrive with small gaps in supply based on shipping delays. Seafood | Crab General on the Alaskan Crab Season. The Biologist sampling that is typically used to establish quota's was extremely poor. On Sep 9, 2021 they announced that due to Low stocks the state of Alaska to cancel the red king crab fishery in Alaska's Bering Sea for winter 2021-2022 season. There has not been a decision on the snow crab harvest yet but we assume the quote will be low. Snow Crab: Pricing remains high for SNOW CRAB: Supply is available matching demand is rated moderate in comparison to prior years. There is availability of 5/8, 8-ups and a few suppliers have 10-ups at higher pricing. Limson Trading is currently stocked with 5/8, 8 ups and 10 ups. Next season for Canadian season opens in April 2022. Limson Trading was able to secure an additional two loads of 5-8's from Canadian. King Crab: US crab sales in 2021 continue on a year over year growth of over 60%. For now the product remains very short and costs are firm. 20-24's are difficult to find, larger sizes and available and we have some supply. Seafood | Scallops Prices continue to stay high. Supply of all-natural U10s has been constrained since last season and continues to demand record high premiums week after week. Prices are on the rise with monthly offering and no long term purchase contracts available with processors. Landings of these larger sizes are being harvested, however, the volumes are not yet adequate enough fill freezers. We may start to see shorts on U-15, U-12 along with the U-10's. Sea Scallops - 20% fewer landings. A decrease in overall supply mainly 20-30 sizes. Overall scallop supply is low. Chinese Flounder and Ocean Perch: China production plants are still running at reduced volume (70%) as there is still a lack of demand around the world because of the Covid-19 impact. Squid: Limson has secured inventory from other importers to fill in due to higher sales but it is a struggle to source due to global logistics. Demand continues to be very strong. Squid-Booked ahead for next year hopefully will arrive on time. Many suppliers are out of stock and with the higher cost of shipping from overseas expect to see prices climb. Seafood | Salmon Limson and our Norwegian / Chilian suppliers have secured supplies of raw material to meet our needs into 2022. There may be some supply gaps due to shipping containers and logistics but the raw material is secured. This along with the elevated cost of feed and freight have the pricing up to a new 5 year average high. US salmon sales have exceeded usage well above pre-pandemic levels in the early part of 2021. Note; Worker shortages are due to migrant workers not being allowed into EU production countries due to Covid restrictions. Norwegian Salmon: Salmon from Norway in the Gordon Choice brand is the best option for customers currently. There is a slight supply disruption due to logistics but this will clear up over the next couple weeks. Supply is available and even though prices are elevated it is a value in comparison to other proteins on the menu! Chilean Salmon: Limson Trading and our Chilean suppliers have secured contracted raw material to supply our needs into 2022. There may be some supply gaps due to shipping containers but the raw material is secured. Prices will remain elevated. Sea Bass: Short in supply! Seafood | Imported Seafood - High Level Summary Overall-all imported seafood categories are being heavily affected by shortages of shipping containers, warehouse delays, domestic trucking/driver shortages and processing plant delays due to Covid outbreaks in other countries around the world. Countries with outbreaks are using quarantine methods restricting workers to barracks and closing plants to help control the spread of the virus causing a collapse of production stability. Newest shutdowns are in Indonesia and Vietnam. The energy crisis has struck both Europe and Asia with rising costs for electricity and fuel. China has forced closures on plants with some only producing 3 days a week due to the high cost and low supply of coal to run power plants. Cod, 2x Pacific and Atlantic: 2x Frozen products from Asia are heavily short due to Covid restrictions in the supply chain. Expect price increases and supply disruptions. Possible shortages through CNY maybe into Lent. Limson has booked with the processor our needs into 2022. Delays will be experienced with shipping. Cod is extremely short for a number of reasons. 1. The main ports and cold storage in China is still barely open due to Covid and Power restrictions. 2. The freight changes every day on shipping. 3. Raw materials are short due to vessels not being allowed into port in China. 4. Bookings on containers are being bumped off vessels every day by other high ticket items buying away the container. Cod, Atlantic 1x: North Atlantic 1x product from Russian fishing vessels continues to struggle with availabitiy and is hard to come by currently. Less boats due to pandemic, not as much production. Euro demand very high and they are taking all of the product. Not as much available to North American market. Pollock, Pacific 1x: The current catch is yielding extremely small fish. The finished fillet sizes are below the typical 2-4 ounce size. IQF will be the primary production since it is less labor intensive than the 1x Shatterpack. Labor challenges due to Covid continue to effect Alaska. The current catch has only been 20% of the previous years. Look to the GFS IQF items as options for customers using shatter pack. IQF is tight but available. The "B" Season has been terrible so Limson Trading is looking for supplemental suppliers. The Next fishing season starts in November. Commitment orders are being shorted by processors. Thought we were going to get 350,000 lbs raw material, only getting 250,000 lbs. A season doesn't start until third week of Jan. Won't see product until March. Pollock, Pacific 2x: We have seen delays on pollock being shipped as raw material on the larges sizes has become tight which has caused pricing to rise by 10%-15% since last year. Raw material will remain short due to Covid port and production issues. Haddock: Supply challenges with limited availability. The 10-12z size is not available at all at this time. Reaching out to source locally but none to be found in 10-12z. Working on 6 months coverage. Domestic Lake Fish: General Lake fish - The Fall Fishing has started slowly. Larger size Walleye and Whitefish are still short but should improve over over the next couple weeks. Yellow Lake Perch: Michigan Sizes are becoming available, but costs are crazy. Michigan Splits very small amounts available but Butterfly most abundant in Perch category. Ohio sizes pretty non existent. Overall category is still short. Walleye: 8-10z and larger are short with more expected as fishing progresses. Whitefish: Larger size Whitefish, 8-10 and bigger are short as well. Euro Lake Fish & Zander: Struggle to source with most of the supply coming from Poland and Kazakhstan which are dealing with Covid restrictions and overfishing issues. Limson is working with other suppliers to source more. Sizes 20-40 and 40-60 are still a challenge. Mahi Mahi: Similar to tuna, Mahi is extremely short and the US GFS sales is double the typical forecast. Costs are elevated over 2019/20 and expect these levels to increase just to secure supply as the cost for the raw material has risen sharply. We are trying to supplement - but we are very picky with quality. Usage increased significantly this year. Mahi-pre booked import orders are delayed due to lack of containers, shipping and ports causing shortages. Limson has 3-4 more containers coming. Costs rising. Frozen Tuna, Swordfish : Really hard to come by with poor fishing in Vietnam at about 40% of last years catch at this time. Situation is getting worse, not better. This item is an example of the container delays, decreased fishing boats, & decreased production workers that we have been seeing from many overseas commodities due to the pandemic. The US supply chain has attempted to start back up to full speed, while other countries are still feeling the impact much more than we are. We will see impact from the pandemic until at least 2022 from what our partners are telling us. For this particular commodity, our partners at Sea-Delight gave us the below breakdown: The countries catching and producing Tuna are all second and third world countries which are very slow in getting access to vaccinations. Because of that, they are still in full COVID mode, meaning: When the boats come back from fishing, the fishermen have to quarantine for 2 weeks, meaning: Few fishermen want to go out at all because of the added danger of Covid and having to quarantine. Very few workers want to come in to work to process the fish that is brought in due to danger of Covid. With no raw material being caught, processing plants being idled our suppliers are not able to take or confirm the orders we place with them for set shipping dates. They are also not able to confirm or guarantee pricing. Swai: Vietnam is starting to open plants and ports back up but supply will be slow to return due to labor shortages. Demand continues to stay at all time highs and many suppliers do not have product causing customers to look for inventory. Do not be afraid to price accordingly. Limson has booked inventory coming in and targeting to receive more from other importers in the US to fill in to meet the high demand. Swai-booked out ahead is taking longer to get to the US due to Vietnam's issues. Note, Swai is USDA inspected which is causing a delay of 3-5 weeks with the backlog and slow down with Government inspections. Expect supply disruptions on all sizes. Tilapia: Tilapia frozen fillets are also going up in price to market due to logistical issues, freight, costs, tariffs and a strong U.S. demand. Sales have been extremely strong so Limson secured a few extra loads up expect disruptions due to delays in transport. Seafood | Shrimp Imported Black Tiger: Smaller shrimp harder to secure. Very very short compared to whites. Covid challenges continue with India especially with lockdowns. Production out of Indonesia has been slow and steady without any major shutdowns. Continued Container delays present challenges overall. Since Tigers grow to adulthood slower than Imported Whites this species is seeing limited availability. Imported White: IMPORTED WHITE SHRIMP: Usage is at record levels. Supply has started to improve but expect continued shortages due to logistics. Pricing continues to rise weekly as demand shows no sign of slowing. Larger sizes 8-12 nonexistent. Limson is sourcing product from other importers to supplement into GFS DC's. Please be aware you will witness other brands in the GFS item slots. Latin White: Prices have firmed due to limited supply with in the market. Domestic White & Brown: We are seeing some supply of Gulf product being available, mostly with 26/30 and smaller. This is due to unsettled users in the Gulf states. Larger white production for headless has stalled with supplies available but limited. Expect pricing to stay stable while demand stays consistent. Domestic PUD: For right now these pack outs will be hit and miss. Producers are reporting higher pricing, as the demand is higher and product is getting bid up at the docks. Domestic Rock & Pink: Rock-No production, no boats targeting, no existing inventory. We may see a couple of small pack outs from the incidental catch in the spring, but the real season starts in July. Last year was poor for rock; hopefully this year will be the opposite. We encourage the use of 70/90 PINK P&D 10/5 Key Treasure as a good alternative. Very good eating, cheaper, more consistent supply. Key West Pink HDLS: production just ok, and prices sky-high: (.75-1.50 over gulf browns).* Seafood | Lobster North Atlantic: North Atlantic inventories have improve and we have inventory of all the typical sizes. Tails 3-4z, 4-5z, 5-7z are available. We are receiving small amounts of 6-7z, and 8-10z but these remain limited. Lobster meats are available but the high cost has stabilized demand. Expect pricing to stay elevated and there still remains the potential for shortages later in the year. Warm Water: In good supply currently and Limson has a significant amount of warm water Lobster on-order but arrivals are slow. Product arriving from Brazil. There is inventory available but there may be small gaps in supply by size as the containers arrive with new harvest. South African: Starting to arrive with small gaps in supply based on shipping delays. Seafood | Crab General on the Alaskan Crab Season. The Biologist sampling that is typically used to establish quota's was extremely poor. On Sep 9, 2021 they announced that due to Low stocks the state of Alaska to cancel the red king crab fishery in Alaska's Bering Sea for winter 2021-2022 season. There has not been a decision on the snow crab harvest yet but we assume the quote will be low. Snow Crab: Pricing remains high for SNOW CRAB: Supply is available matching demand is rated moderate in comparison to prior years. There is availability of 5/8, 8-ups and a few suppliers have 10-ups at higher pricing. Limson Trading is currently stocked with 5/8, 8 ups and 10 ups. Next season for Canadian season opens in April 2022. Limson Trading was able to secure an additional two loads of 5-8's from Canadian. King Crab: US crab sales in 2021 continue on a year over year growth of over 60%. For now the product remains very short and costs are firm. 20-24's are difficult to find, larger sizes and available and we have some supply. Seafood | Scallops Prices continue to stay high. Supply of all-natural U10s has been constrained since last season and continues to demand record high premiums week after week. Prices are on the rise with monthly offering and no long term purchase contracts available with processors. Landings of these larger sizes are being harvested, however, the volumes are not yet adequate enough fill freezers. We may start to see shorts on U-15, U-12 along with the U-10's. Sea Scallops - 20% fewer landings. A decrease in overall supply mainly 20-30 sizes. Overall scallop supply is low. Chinese Flounder and Ocean Perch: China production plants are still running at reduced volume (70%) as there is still a lack of demand around the world because of the Covid-19 impact. Squid: Limson has secured inventory from other importers to fill in due to higher sales but it is a struggle to source due to global logistics. Demand continues to be very strong. Squid-Booked ahead for next year hopefully will arrive on time. Many suppliers are out of stock and with the higher cost of shipping from overseas expect to see prices climb. Seafood | Salmon Limson and our Norwegian / Chilian suppliers have secured supplies of raw material to meet our needs into 2022. There may be some supply gaps due to shipping containers and logistics but the raw material is secured. This along with the elevated cost of feed and freight have the pricing up to a new 5 year average high. US salmon sales have exceeded usage well above pre-pandemic levels in the early part of 2021. Note; Worker shortages are due to migrant workers not being allowed into EU production countries due to Covid restrictions. Norwegian Salmon: Salmon from Norway in the Gordon Choice brand is the best option for customers currently. There is a slight supply disruption due to logistics but this will clear up over the next couple weeks. Supply is available and even though prices are elevated it is a value in comparison to other proteins on the menu! Chilean Salmon: Limson Trading and our Chilean suppliers have secured contracted raw material to supply our needs into 2022. There may be some supply gaps due to shipping containers but the raw material is secured. Prices will remain elevated. Sea Bass: Short in supply! Download PDF By Section Dairy Grocery & Bakery Grocery & Bakery Seafood Seafood Download Full PDF Past Market Updates Subscribe to Our RSS Feed © 2021, Gordon Food Service. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy Terms of Use Contact Us FAQ Donations Ordering Select your language English (US) Spanish (US) English (CA) French (CA) Ask Gordon Now Welcome to Gordon Food Service, I'm here to help if you need me.