Posts Tagged “exchange rate”
A strong exchange rate is helping Quebec vegetable shippers increase their exports to the United States. Meanwhile, California pear shipments are underway.
With the incentive of a strong exchange rate, Quebec growers have been exporting vegetables ranging from radishes, leaf lettuce and asparagus..
Since 2012 members of the Quebec Produce Growers Association have been exporting nearly 50 percent of its vegetables and this is expected to increase on 2017. Most of those exports are to the U.S. including the East Coast, mid-west and Texas. Various types of lettuces (such as iceberg and leaf), as well as cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower are now being shipped. Green peppers and cantaloupe should be starting any day now, followed by colored peppers in mid-August.
Produce cooperative Groupe Vegco Inc., in Sherrington, has been shipping carrots, colored beets and celery root since June.
Isabelle Inc. of Saint Michel started digging 1,000 acres of whites, reds, yellows and russets in early July. Last year, the company exported 15 percent of its product to the East Coast.
California Pear Shipments
California bartlett pear shipments should total about 2 million 36-pound box equivalents this season, which got underway around the Fourth of July. That is almost equal to last year’s loadings, although some other pear varieties will take a hit.
Lake and Mendocino counties will have significantly fewer pear shipments than last year, which had a bumper crop. Last year’s combined shipments for all California varieties was 3.1 million boxes.
Bosc and golden bosc are down about 30 percent from 2015, with most of the reduction in the early Sacramento River district.
Rivermaid Trading Co. of Lodi packs and ships more than half of California’s fresh pears, as consolidations have reduced the number of packers from a dozen or so a decade ago to only four today.
Rivermaid expects over 1 million boxes of bartletts, and about 200,000 boxes of bosc pears out of about 400,000 total. Scully Packing Co. of Finley, began with mountain bartletts in Lake and Mendocino counties, with boscs coming August 1st and all other varietal pears by mid- to late-August.
The latest California pear shipments will overlap with Pacific Northwest loadings, with bartletts available all the way into October from the Golden State while Yakima, Wash., starts the same variety typically in the second week of August.
One of the challenges of California pear shippers is the lack of extended storage like is available in the Northwest.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit and pears – grossing about $6800 to New York City.