Posts Tagged “Red River Valley potato shipments”
There still will be a lot of potatoes for hauling this season which will extend into next summer despite the fall crop in the United States being down 5 percent compared to 2012.
Here’s a glimpse of the leading potato shipping states:
Idaho 132.9 million hundred weight (cwt)., down 6.3 percent; Washington 96 million, up less than 1 percent; Wisconsin 27.9 million, down 5.2 percent; Oregon 21.6 million, down 5.9 percent; Colorado 20.3 million, down 1.5 percent; Michigan 16.8 million, up 5.4 percent.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5400 to New York City.
Washington Potato Shipments
Year to date, loadings have been running a little ahead of schedule compared to recent years.
Most of this is due to early season shipments in July and August when potato supplies were very short across the country. Washington’s fresh producers account for 26,000 acres of the 160,000 acres of potatoes in the Evergreen State. About half of that total are russet potatoes, and the other half is a mix of reds, yellows, whites and other specialty potatoes.
Washington state, Columbia Basin potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
The North Dakota potato crop will come in at 22.6 million cwt. down about 10.1 percent from last year. Some folks were forecasting shipments to be down 25 to 30 percent at one point.
81,000 acres were planted in North Dakota compared to 88,000 last year, and harvested acres dipped from 84,000 last year to 78,000 this year.
Potato production in Minnesota dropped from 18.8 million cwt. in 2012 to 17.5 million this year, a drop of just under 7 percent. All but 2,000 of the 47,000 planted acres planted in Minnesota were harvested.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
Winter is never a great time for hauling produce as volumes are less and loading opportunties can become even worse as products are susceptable to the whims of Mother Nature.
It was reported recently adverse weather in Mexico is expected to cut loading opportunities at US border crossings starting next month. Now we’re hearing intial reports of imports of Chilean produce expected to be significantly hit, due to weather.
As US volume and loading opportunities seasonally decline in the latter part of the year, Chile is an important exporter of winter fresh produce to America. The product is typically picked up at ports on both coasts and distributed throughout North America.
There apparently going to be significantly less Chilean produce items for hauling this winter ranging from stone fruit, to kiwifruit, blueberries, grapes, almonds and walnuts.
The Santiago-based Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (ASOEX) is asking the Chilean government to declare a national state of disaster in the wake of the losses.
Up to 50 million boxes of fruit could be lost to freezes last September “….that sets up the biggest crisis that has affected the Chilean fruit industry,” according to one observer.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
Shipments of potatoes from North Dakota and Minnesota is light to moderate as the focus still remains on getting the crop out of the ground. It is estimated the harvest is 60 to 65 percent complete.