Brisbane Market Report 94

Prices have dropped on some recently expensive fruit and vegetable lines, although some fresh produce from storm affected regions and new season lines will still cost more than usual.

The more notable price drops in the vegetable aisle are broccoli and cauliflower from expensive to now firmly priced, and a price reduction in asparagus and beans, which are value-for-money.

The best buy of the week is the capsicum, with the Bundaberg grown crops cheap and of mixed quality but the better quality produce commanding a reasonable price.
Other reasonably priced, good quality produce includes Asian vegetables, beetroot, carrots, eggplant, fennel, leeks, zucchini, mushrooms, onions and pumpkin.

Brussels sprouts are firmly priced and expected to rise in the days ahead. The 2cm in diameter vegetables look like miniature cabbages and are much tastier now that the bitter flavour of the old varieties has been breed away.

Expect to pay firm prices for cabbage, celery, parsnips, silverbeet, squash, sweet corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Lettuce crops are of mixed quality after huge stock losses from hail damage some weeks ago, but the plants are now thriving, increasing harvests and reducing them to cheap prices in Your Local Fruit Shop.

Expect to pay top dollar for mixed quality tomatoes, with the exception of reasonably priced and quality truss varieties, and expensive priced avocados and ginger.

Most other salad items are reasonably price, including mixed leaf salad, cucumbers, eshallots and herbs.

The fruit aisle is bursting with colour and the smells of tropical fruit in the lead up to Christmas.

Mangoes are contributing to much of the aroma, with the first of the Queensland crop arriving at the Brisbane Produce Market to join the last of the Northern Territory grown fruit, which has eaten well.

Berries will cost more this week and apples have maintained their firm prices, with pink lady, royal gala, delicious, granny smith and New Zealand grown jazz on the shelves.

The best buys are bananas, limes, rockmelon, watermelon and pawpaw.

You will pay firmer prices for honey murcott mandarins, navel and valencia oranges, the first of the Australian and last of the New Zealand kiwifruit, honeydew, pears, pineapples, passionfruit and cherries.

Brisbane Produce Market.