Posts Tagged “Colorado”
Colorado is the fourth leading shipper of onions by volume in the USA, and 
loadings not only with onions, but other vegetables begin this month from the northeastern part of the state.]
In the San Luis Valley, which at an elevation of 7,600 feet, is the highest and largest commerical agricultural valley in the world, potatoes from the 2011-12 season should be finishing up soon, just in time from the new crop of russets to get started. Colorado ranks in the top 10 among potato shipping states.
The Rocky Ford area of Colorado has started shipping cantaloupe, but loading opportunities will be off a whopping 70 percent this season. Much less acreage was planted following the disasterious 2011 season where a food borne illness – listeria – killed 32 people, plus sickened nearly 150 people in 28 states. Only about 180,000 cartons of Colorado cantaloupes are forecast to be shipped, and distribution will not be nationwide this year, as in the past.
San Luis Valley potatoes – grossing about $1600 to Dallas.
The Westside district of the San Joaquin Valley is now shipping cantaloupe 
and other melons. However, after the Colorado listera outbreak last season involving a number of consumer deaths from eating cantaloupe, sales across the USA were affected. As a result, even though California cantaloupes were not associated with the outbreak, shipments were impacted. As a result fewer Westside district acres were planted this season.
The early portion of what is expected to be record breaking table grape shipments from the San Joaquin Valley is building. Best volume is currently coming out of the Arvin district near Bakersfield. Within days however, there will be light volume of grapes available from as far north in the valley as Fresno and Tulare counties. Including the grapes from Coachella (which are finished), California could ship over 100 million, 19-pound cartons this season.
There’s also other items now being shipped such as tomatoes from the Tracy, CA area, and a number of vegetables from the Fresno area and other parts of the valley.
You may be surprised at the amount of onions California ships, with the heaviest volume coming out of Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties. However, since you can haul onions in everything from flatbed trailers to dry vans, rates are significantly lower.
San Joaquin Valley onions – grossing about $5400 to New York City.
San Joaquin Valley fruit, veggies, melons – about $7500 to New York City.
We’re not talking huge volumes of loads involving fresh produce in the 
Midwest, or Central USA, but there are quite a few areas shipping this time of the year. Even a partial load may allow you to get to another destination to fill out the trailer, or deliver and get a full haul.
Texas – There are 350 to 400 truckloads of Mexican avocados crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley each week. There’s also a significant amount of Mexican watermelons moving into Texas as well. The valley itself continues to ship various vegetables.
New Mexico — It may not be big volume, but onions are being shipped from the Las Cruces area.
Michigan — Light to moderate volumes of apples are available from Western Michigan. In about a month vegetable shipments will get underway.
Wisconsin — Potato loadings continue from the Stevens Point (central Wisconsin) area in moderate volume.
Colorado — The San Luis Valley is averaging around 500 truckloads of potatoes a week.
Nebraska — The Cornhusker state is certainly no Idaho, or even a Colorado or Wisconsin, when it comes to potato shipments. However, there are spuds in limited amounts coming out the Southwestern (Imperial) and Northeastern (O’Neill) parts of the state.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $2000 to Houston.
South Texas produce – about $4600 to New York City.
If you haul cantaloupes out of the Rocky Ford area of Colorado during the 
summer, better look for something else this year. Thanks to the 2011 outbreak of listeria at Jensen Farms that killed 32 people and sickened others in 28 states, melon shipments from this area will be much less this year. Acreage from this district in southeastern Colorado will amount to only 500 acres, compared to about 2,000 acres of cantaloupe each year before the disasterous outbreak.
The Colorado cantaloupe industry has taken steps to improve their food safety programs, including having safety audits by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Still, it’s too late, the damage has been done. The whole cantaloupe industry in the United States suffered because of the lax safety standards of a company, not to mention lives lost and ruined. As consumers become more confident, cantaloupe shipments will return to Rocky Ford as they had in the past, and other shipping areas around the country will recover as well.
It’s kind of like having one careless driver acting like a an idiot in an 18 wheeler. The whole trucking industry’s image suffers — deserved or not.
As we move further into spring and there are shipping gaps with some fruits 
and vegetables, one of the most consistent items on a year around basis are potatoes. They certainly don’t always pay the highest of freight rates, but they are dependable, and usually less perishable; meaning less risk to the hauler and hopefully less chance of dealing with “claim happy” receivers looking to shaft you with a unfair deduction or rejection.
All potato shipping areas combined around the country are loading over 4,700 trucklload equivalents of spuds on average per week right now. Idaho is accounting for around 1750 truckload equivalents weekly. Other leading states currently shipping spuds are Colorado’s San Luis Valley, the Columbia Basin in Washington state and the nearby Umatilla Basin in Oregon, as well as South Florida and Central Wisconsin. Much fewer shipments are occurring from Western Michigan, Aroostrock County, Maine, as well as from the Imperial and O’Neill areas of Nebraska and the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnestoa.
Twin Falls Idaho area – grossing about $5300 to New York City
San Luis Valley – $1600 to Dallas.
South Florida – $2700 to Baltimore
NOTE: The new U.S. potato season usually kicks off around late July or August. A peek at the upcoming year for potatoes shows potentially good news if you haul the product, or if you are a consumer. Potato farmers in the Northwest once again can’t resist the urge (or is it greed?) to plant an additional 30,000 acres of spuds for the 2012-13 season. That will probably more loading opportunities and lower retail prices. It could also mean a disasterous season for growers if too many spuds end up in the distribution pipeline.
Supplies of refrigerated equipment are tightening for hauling Lower Rio 
Grande Valley produce, as well as Mexico fresh products crossing the border into Texas. This has resulted in some relatively small rate increases. Everything from grapefruit, oranges, greens, and cabbage, among other items are being hauled out of South Texas to various U.S. destinations.
There continues to be steady movement of Colorado potatoes out of the San Luis Valley…..The same goes for Michigan apples from the Western part of the state.
In the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota shipments of red potatoes have recently increased by about 15 percent. Most of this season, loadings have been below those of a year ago. However, increased demand should keep shipments above 2011 levels through the spring and into the summer. No significant rate increases have been reported.
Grand Forks, ND red potatoes shipments – grossing about $3900 to Philadelphia.
Colorado russet potatoes – about $1600 to Dallas.
Michigan apples – $2000 to Houston.
South Texas produce – $3000 to Chicago.
March can be one of the more frustrating months if you haul fresh produce. 
We are getting there, but certainly haven’t arrived. Several major shipping areas are starting to wind down, while others are still trying to ramp up with spring volume. A great example is in the West. Winter shipments of lettuce and other veggies from the deserts of Arizona and California provide loading opportunities during the winter, but are entering a transition period, where shipments will be moving northward to the Huron area of the San Joaquin Valley, following closely by Salinas. There’s now light volume with vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower from Santa Maria and Ventura County. Strawberry volume in Southern California is ramping up, but certainly not there yet.
Florida is similar in that vegetable volume is increasing, but won’t be hitting seasonal numbers until early April.
The steady, more consistent shipments are with hardware items ranging from apples, pears, onions and potatoes from the Northwest, potatoes from Colorado and Wisconsin; sweet potatoes out of Lousiana, Mississippi and the leader — North Carolina.
By this time next month we should be seeing significant increases in loading oppportunities, particularly from California and Florida, with rates rising accordingly.
Yakima Valley apples and pears grossing – about $5500 to Atlanta.
South Florida vegetables – about $2200 to Baltimore.
Supplies of trucks from major produce shipping areas around the country appear to be mostly adequate.
One of the most active shipping areas has Mexican produce crossing the border at Nogales, AZ. Heavy volume of vine ripes, roma, plum and grape tomatoes are accounting for about 1,200 truckloads a week, and this doesn’t include many items ranging from melons and various kinds of vegetables.
From the San Luis Valley of Colorado, over 700 truckloads of potatoes are being shipped each week.
South Texas also has significant shipments of produce, whether talking about product moving from the Winter Garden District south of San Antonio (cabbage), or citrus and vegetables from the Lower Rio Grand Valley, not to mention good volume crossing the border from Mexico, ranging from onions and carrots to tropical fruits.
In the Northeast, potatoes loadings from the Presque Isle, ME area are exceeding 100 truckloads per week. Maine potatoes are grossing about $1700 to New York City.
Lower Rio Grande Valley produce – about $1700 to Chicago.
San Luis Valley potatoes – about $2700 to Atlanta.
Nogales produce – about $1200 to Los Angeles.
This probably won’t make big news, but head lettuce grown in Arizona fields south of Phoenix and shipped to a few areas in the west have been pulled from the market. The grower and shipper of the lettuce is Growers Express of Salinas, CA. The vegetable company is already receiving high praise as it pulled its product from the market even though there is nothing known to be wrong with it. Apparently a separate lettuce field not too far away was found to have Somenella. As a precauation Growers Express decided to remove it’s lettuce from retail stores, even though none of its lettuce had tested positive for food containmation. In the wake of the Colorado cantaulope debacle last year resulting in several deaths, extra precautions are apparently being taken by some produce companies.