Posts Tagged “San Joaquin Valley produce rates”
California’s Westside District, known for its cantaloupe shipments, gets underway this week.
The area gets its name from being located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Centered around the town of Huron, the melons are starting a week to 10 days earlier than normal.
A number of California produce shipments shipped earlier than ever in 2014 and then broke that record this year. Melons are in a similar situation. The first California melons were shipped out of Brawley in the California desert on April 27. Yuma melons were early as well.
Despite the California drought, melons are still be produced with a key factor being that growers a shifted the location of their acreage to areas that have more water. Some have moved north, while other growers moved west or east or found land with well water when surface water wasn’t going to be available.
Cantaloupes have a short season crop and are considered a low water use crop, plus do well on well water.
The highest volume for Westside District cantaloupes will be from the end of June through the middle of October, if the weather cooperates in September and October.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for fruits and vegetables – grossing about $4900 to Houston, $6100 to Atlanta.
The harvest of California navel oranges is winding down as July approaches and the season’s production could be close to 81 million cartons, although late season citrus is requiring more grading as marketable product keeps falling. At the same, Valencia orange shipments are replacing navels.
For much of the season, utilization rates — the percentage of fruit that could be sold as fresh — remained in the low 80s, but now it has dipped into the 70s as the crop has been picked over. Subpar oranges are diverted to juice.
Meanwhile, harvest is under way for a diminished Valencia orange crop. Growers this season are expected to ship a 20-million-carton crop, down from 22 million cartons last year and a little more than half the 39 million cartons produced in 2001-02.
Only about 25 to 30 percent into that crop has been harvest, but the Valencias are coming out fewer than expected.
The harvest hits as a fourth year of the California drought and its related federal surface water shutoffs have resulted in many growers taking trees out of production. It is estimated as many as 50,000 acres of orange and other citrus trees would be bulldozed.
The orchard removals could take a particular toll on Valencia trees, which were already being replaced with navels and other more lucrative citrus varieties before the drought began. Valencia acreage has seen a precipitous decline in recent years; there are about 34,000 bearing acres this year, down from 65,000 in 2001-02.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for citrus, veggies and fruit have been fluctuating by nearly a $1000 in a given week to New York City. On average, rates appear to be around $7700 to the Big Apple.