Blueberry shipments in most seasons are coming from different areas of the USA and Canada, but weather factors have resulted in a lot of “blues” maturing at the same time….With other produce, California navel orange shipments will soon replace valencias….The Eastern Shore is shipping watermelons.
Blueberry Shipments
Blueberry loads have been available at the same time this year from New Jersey, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia during parts of the season.
Blueberry shipments have double over the past 20 years, not only because people love eating the fruit, but there has been countless publicity over studies touting the health benefits of “blues.” And in typical fashion, growers see a good thing, over plant, and prices fall (which is good for produce haulers and consumers, but growers).
Orange shipments
The California valencia season should wind down in October just as the navel shipping season begins. The navel orange crop looks slightly smaller than last year, when 90 million 40-pound cartons were trucked to markets.
East Coast
Watermelons continue to be shipped from the Delaware, Maryland, and the eastern shore of Virginia. Melons tend to start getting ify this late in the season and quality problems can certain be cropping up if the shipping areas have had to much rain. Just a word of caution.
Delaware/Maryland/Virginia watermelons – grossing about $2300 to Chicago.
Michigan blueberries and vegetables – about $2100 to Atlanta.