Imported Chilean grapes enter their traditional seasonal decline this month. Entering April, red grapes and green Thompson grapes were dominating Chilean shipments to the United States, although many black grapes seemed to have better quality. Meanwhile, come this fall a big diesel tax increase is coming from California.
California’s Coachella Valley red grapes should get underway about May 10th, two weeks later than a year ago. Imported Mexican grapes typically start several days before Coachella, but Mexico also is behind last year and is not expected to have any shipments until the first week of May.
High prices on Chilean grapes due to light supplies may encourage some growers to “clean up their vineyards” and put everything in the box that they can get their hands on. In other words, if you’re planning to haul late season imported Chilean grapes, use caution when loading and make sure your receiver knows what kind of quality is being put in the truck.
Onion Shipments
Vidalia onions shippers have been loading trucks for weeks, but under Georgia regulations they cannot legally pack and ship those onions as Vidalia onions. This is an attempt to protect the Vidalia name as a sweet onion and early shipments have bigger chances of having onions with high pungency levels – in other words – hot onions. That changed today because April 12th is the official start of the Vidalia sweet onion shipping season……Meanwhile, Texas sweet onions apparently are having some quality issues due to rain. An already short crop is expected to end shipments early, probably by the end of April.
California Passes Fuel Tax Hike
California just gave truckers another reason not to truck there. The California legislature passed a bill last week increasing the excise tax on diesel fuel by 20 cents per gallon to help fund a $52 billion infrastructure plan. Gov. Jerry Brown s expected to sign it into law this week. which becomes effective November 1st.
The increase in the tax rate will bring the state’s excise tax on diesel fuel from 16 cents to 36 cents per gallon over 10 years. It also increases the state sales tax on diesel from 9 percent to 13 percent. The state’s gasoline tax will also increase from 28 cents to 40 cents per gallon during the same time period…..Several other state also are considering increase taxes on fuel.