Here is a glimpse of some produce loading opportunities found east of the Rocky Mountains, stretching to the East Coast.
Florida is entering its last few weeks of spring vegetable shipments. Sweet corn is averaging 700 – plus truck loads per week primarily from central and southern areas of the state, while just under 700 truck loads of mature green tomatoes are being shipped weekly. There also is decent volume coming from red potatoes and cabbage, with lighter volume on cabbages and dozens of other vegetables. A biggie when it comes to shipments is yet to arrive. Watermelon loadings are in light volume but rapidly increasing.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $3300 to New York City.
Chilean imported grapes totaled around 1200 truck loads arriving by boat last week, primarily at the Ports of Philadelphia and Long Beach, CA. However, expected is a significant decline in volume as Chilean grapes come to a seasonal end.
Sweet potato shipments are pretty steady from the Eastern part of North Carolina averaging around 400 truck loads per week. This is triple the amount of volume coming out of California, Louisiana and Mississippi combined.
New York state is shipping light amounts of apples, but they are coming from scattered areas across much of the states. There also is light volume with cabbage and onions.
Michigan is moving about 100 truck loads of apples from the western half of the state, plus light amounts of potatoes and onions, many which are being brought in from other growing areas for repacking and distribution.
Michigan apples – grossing about $3800 to Boston.
The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota have light volume with red potatoes averaging about 200 truck loads weekly, while shippers in the Central area of Wisconsin are shipping similar amounts of russets.
In the Southeastern part of Colorado, around 625 truck loads of russet potatoes are being loaded each week.
Colorado and Wisconsin potatoes – both averaging about $3000 to Atlanta.