China's Economic Outlook Drags Us All (Up & Down)

The last years have been a wild ride but at BPF we have been able to keep costs low by searching alternative sources while always watching quality specifications. China has one of the sources for us in key items such as Mandarins with much success and others like Artichokes with less. So many production areas can say the same in many different industries. We are more connected globally than ever before.

For the last few years, as most know, China has supplied most of the world's economic growth (International Monetary Fund sources, WSJ, etc.).

The U.S. and the E.U. are expected to expand barely for years to come, while (we hope) China's economy to keep rising at this year's at 8% growth rate or better. Is this going to happen? WSJ's Gongloff raises some interesting quotes including: "The combination of soaring investment and dwindling returns was seen in Japan in its asset bubbles in the 1980s and in the "Asian Tigers" just before their crises in the late 1990s, he (Edward Chancellor at Boston asset-management firm GMO) says."

The impact to costs of Mandarins is pretty clear. Prices are going up. How much will depend on several factors which we will watch closely...

Stay tuned as China evolves into the engine of the recovery or the latest weak link in the evolving global economic scene.

Artichokes Early

When I began in the business, there were over 170 packers of Artichokes in Spain and none in China, Peru and very few in Chile. Product was mostly packed fresh from the Spring Crop. The heat around Easter always ended the "COLMA" or large influx of raw material to auction and 90% of the years product was produced. Late November or early December production was small and used for marinated and bottoms nearly exclusively. Packing for this was only a few weeks.

This year there may be only 10 or so packers left in Spain of which only 4 or 5 are seriously adding production (for which the USA is the largest market).

This year packing of the "Winter" crop begins earlier then my memory recalls (end of October!) due to the ideal weather this fall... The importance of the winter crop increases as does the quality of the harvested material.

While the economic shake outs may continue, the turn around after the shortages of this year leaves the major producers rushing to fill the vacuum.