Eastern U.S. Produce Shipments

Eastern U.S. Produce Shipments

Even in the midst of winter when produce loading opportunities in most areas of the country are nothing to get excited about, Florida still offers the best opportunities, at least in the Eastern time zone.

Some things never change, and multiple pick ups and drops is the norm. There’s a tremendous variety of produce for hauling in Florida, but none of the items are in big volume.

Imports from around the world continue to increase and south Florida ports are beneficiaries. Boats frequently arrive with containers from Chile to Peru, Guatemala, Central America, Brazil and the Caribbean.

Domestic loadings of dozens of vegetables are available, mostly out of Central and Southern Florida. Mature green and grape tomatoes are probably the heaviest volume items offering around 700 truck load equivalents per weeks. After this there is much lighter volume with items ranging from cabbage, to squash, peas and citrus, among numerous others.

South Georgia has light loadings of cabbage, carrots, sweet corn and greens. The Port of Savannah is becoming a bigger player with produce imports.

However, the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington, NC are much higher volume ports handling imports from countries such as Chile, Peru, Italy, Brazil and Ecuador.