Good supplies of fresh vegetables and citrus is being predicted by observers from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas as they gear up for the holiday season.
Among the dozens of different vegetables are kale, cilantro and cabbage as well as mustard, collard and turnip greens. As far as citrus is concerned, grapefruit shipments got underway in early November, and several varieties of oranges should be ready by early December.
Vegetable shipper Frontera Produce Ltd., of Edinburg, Texas, began loading cabbage, its biggest vegetable item of the winter, last week. The company started its jalapeno pepper shipments in late October and the product should be available through mid-December, depending upon the weather.
Frontera volume should increase slightly on jalapenos, with shipments on other commodities remaining similar to a year ago. The firm began cilantro shipments the first week of November and will continue until mid-April.
Crescent Fruit & Vegetable LLC is a sister company of Frontera, which will load about the same volume of onions and watermelons as last year.
Another South Texas shipper, Grow Farms Texas LLC, located in Donna, will ship green, red and napa cabbage this winter, along with squash, eggplant, cucumbers and jalapenos and Anaheim chili peppers. Grow Farms will be loading green bell peppers until the first frost.
Rio Fresh Inc., of San Juan, Texas, was shipping about 20 wet vegetables by late October and early November that included herbs, parsley and beets. In early December the company should be shipping specialty vegetables such as bok choy, napa cabbage, leeks and spinach.
Citrus Shipments
Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus acreage for the 2017-18 shipping season should be similar to a year ago when it totaled 27,000 acres, with about 70 percent of this acreage being rio red grapefruit.
Grapefruit acreage in South Texas is expected to increase by 4,000 acres within 12 to 18 months.
South Texas and imported Mexican produce – grossing about $3100 to Chicago.