Posts Tagged “sweet potato shipments”
From sweet potatoes to green beans, cranberries and more, here’s an outlook for fresh produce hauls relating to items popular for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is November 28th.
The leading states for sweet potato shipments are North Carolina, California, Mississippi and Louisiana. There will be 20 percent fewer loadings of North Carolina sweet potatoes this season, although it may not be noticeable during the next few weeks, since Thanksgiving is the most popular holiday for the product. There also is less sweet potato volume from Mississippi and Louisiana.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to New York City.
Mississippi sweet potatoes – about $1800 to Chicago.
Cranberry Shipments
The harvest of cranberries in Wisconsin is late this season and is still going on. However, good supplies for hauling are available from Central Wisconsin, as well as the other leading state, Massachusetts.
Green Beans
This is a seasonal low point for Florida produce shipments, but some vegetables, including green beans are being hauled. Beans are now originating out of the Belle Glade and Homestead areas.
Imports
Spanish, Morroccan and Chilean clementines will be arriving at U.S. ports by boat in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Most of the arrivals will be on the East Coast.
Peruvian Onions
Sweet onions from Peru have become a popular items during the past decade and volume has increased significantly. In fact, many of the leading domestic sweet onion shippers, are acting as the importers and have growing operations in that South American country. Arrivals are occurring in good volume at U.S. ports on the East Coasat and should continue into Feburary.
Halloween, and then Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and one big hint of those events coming are pumpkin shipments. Those loadings have actually been going on since August in some places, but now bigger volume is taking place.
A vast majority of pumpkins are shipped relatively short distances, primarily because the item is grown in virtually every one of the lower 48 states. Still, some pumpkins are shipped several hundred miles.
From upstate to New York down to the Carolinas a significant drop in pumpkin shipments are expected due to excessive rains. Much better growing conditions and the resulting volume is seen from the upper Midwestern states. New Mexico is reporting good loadings, but most destinations are to regional markets in nearby states such as Texas, Oklahoma and some to Colorado.
The five leading pumpkin shipping states are: Illinois, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
NE Colorado Onion Shipments
Northeast Colorado onion shipments are not expected to be signficantly affected from heavy rains in the state in mid September, just some harvesting delays. At least this is what Colorado onion shipper are saying. Up to eight inches of rain pounded the area over a six-day period. It is still recomended looking for possible quality problems when loading these onions coming out of storage.
Northeastern Colorado has about 2,000 to 2,500 acres of onions, which is only about 2.5 percent of total storage onions in the USA….There also are some norkotah potato shipments from this area, but no word as yet on how quality or volume may be affected.
Sweet Potato Shipments
North Carolina is the nation’s leader with sweet potato shipments. Both the Tar Heel state, as well a loadings from other leading sweet potato states are expected to be down around 20 to 25 percent, compared to the season that recently ended. Some other areas with significant sweet potato volume are California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Shipments are so light right now as farmers have just finished the old crop and are starting to harvest the new crop, that shipments of uncured, green sweet potatoes are taking place to meet demand. Just make sure your receiver is aware of this. It takes about 30 to 45 days once sweet potatoes are harvested, to be cured. Weather issues have resulted in harvests running two to four weeks late. Curing should be completed by late October.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to New York City.
Here is a round up of loading opportunities for domestic pumpkins and sweet potatoes, plus an outlook for hauling imported tropical fruit crossing our southern border – and at various USA ports.
HaulProduce.com subscriber Mark Yackee sent in this message:
” Pumpkin shipments have begun in the tri-state area of Michigan,Indiana, and Ohio. Volume as of September 16th will increase significantly, peaking around October 10th. Crop quality is very good overall and the area looks to ship more than 400 truckloads. Haulers and buyers welcome!” Thank you, Mark!
North Carolina, the nation’s leading shipper of sweet potatoes, could be down as much as 20 or 30 percent for the 2013-14 season. Nationally, sweet potato acreage is off 11 percent, so fewer may be available in other southern states such as Mississippi and Louisiana.
Last season, the USA had 135,500 acres of sweet potatoes planted, but this season there is only 116,100 acres. The weeks prior to Thanksgiving tend to provide the heaviest time for sweet potato shipments, but with harvests running behind schedule due to weather, volume could be off even for this holiday.
Eastern North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to New York City.
Mississippi sweet potatoes – about $1800 to Chicago.
Fall Tropical Imports
Fall is a strong time for shipments of tropicals, including mangoes, papaya and pineapple. Mexican products will have heaviest crossing into the USA in South Texas, while South American tropicals will be arriving at various ports on both the East Coast and West Coast.
Imports of Mexican mangoes have been particularly heavy, but should be winding down now. However, the Mexican product is quickly being replaced with imports from Brazil.
Consistent imports of papayas and pineapples are predicted this fall.
The year around imports of Mexican limes continues as the old crop is finishing up and the new crop of limes are starting to arrive in the USA.