Cold and colder

It's another cold one on the NCR.  -10 F this morning and no end in sight this week.  With a Nor'easter predicted for the mid-atlantic states, demand for fresh fruits and veggies will be depressed.  Meanwhile in the California and Arizona desert growing areas the weather remains warm and dry.  This of course is the classic double whammy.  No demand and abundant supplies.  The only way to build demand would be a drastic decrease in price, but that is not the way the system works these days.  The chain stores, which control most of the volume of fruits and vegetables are in the main, run by bean counters who really have no empathy with growers.  They see their mission as maximizing profits without concern for those who supply the means to those profits.  Instead of passing on the absurdly cheap prices being quoted on the FOB markets, the chains rely on the contract pricing they have negoitiated with major growers.  This moves a fraction of the available produce at high prices, leaving much of the crop in the field or being sold to wholesalers for next to nothing.  In either case, the consumer is left with high prices which leads to low sales which further depresses the market.  It's the classic negative feedback loop.  Welcome to January in the produce biz.