Good day!
As we make the transition from summer to autumn and September into October, the places where we get some of our vegetables changes and this affects supply and price.
English-grown salad items are coming to an end over the next few weeks and towards the end of October, Iceberg lettuce will become more scarce at first, pushing the prices up while we move over to Dutch suppliers.
When the Spanish growers start sending their produce over for the north European market, we’ll see the prices come down again and stabilise into October.
We’ll also utilise the Dutch producers for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the coming weeks to maintain the continuity of salad ingredients that you need for your plate.
Broccoli is coming toward the end of its season, which will cause price fluctuations during this time of scarcity and until the new supplies arrive, which will then bring stability back to the crop.
We talked about Butternut squash recently and pumpkins will be arriving soon as we approach the end of next month, but with the advent of Halloween just around the corner, we’ll cover that particular item nearer the time.
Piccolo parsnips and chantenay carrots are also coming into the new season, both vegetables of which are popular in our winter veg mixes as we head for cooler, darker nights.
We also have access to Polish suppliers for many vegetables during this transitional time, but unlike the heavily greenhoused Dutch growers, the Polish farmers usually depend more on the elements, which makes their crops more weather-dependent.
This can also lead to less graded produce, which means the quality isn’t always as high, so as ever, we try to source the best possible produce for our customers and make you aware when this will mean price increases.
We’re going for a slightly different feel in this edition of Zest News and we want to draw your attention to the website.
Previously we’ve stated that the Zest website is being upgraded and the first phase of this has been completed.
We now have our online ordering portal set up and ready to go. We’ve had a few customers using this system for a short while to check for any stress points and to make sure everything works as it should.
We’re happy to report that this is now functioning as we hoped and customers are reporting positive comments about the facility.
You can check out the new system here and to go alongside we’ve created a series of articles to explain how to use it, as well as a video on the order page.
We’ve spent some time and effort creating a library of articles to educate our existing and potential new customers, as to how Zest works.
We take you through the whole process of who Zest are right up to how you can become a customer and what you can expect.
We’d love for you to check these articles out and give us feedback on anything else you’d like to know about Zest.
Zest – Who we are and our commitment to you
But it’s not just articles about the company, we’re also compiling a library of information on the fruit, vegetables and other produce that we sell to you.
At the moment we’ve got an article about Bananas in the Zest Academy, but over the coming weeks and months, this will change as we add more content.
And it won’t just be in written form – we’re eager to engage with you across a range of mediums; we have audio and video projects in the pipeline, so stay tuned.
Send your thoughts about this newsletter and any other feedback here. And keep the jokes coming, if they’re bad enough they’ll be featured and as you can see, they can’t be any worse!
Community Spotlight – if your business or someone you know is having an event or has achieved something in this industry and we can promote or even sponsor it, let us know.
Thank you for being a part of Zest News. We look forward to sharing more exciting updates and content with you in the coming weeks!
My friend thought he was so smart, that the only fruit or vegetable that could make him cry was an onion.
So I threw a coconut at him!
Zest regards,
The Zest Team