Posts Tagged “Washington apple shipments”
Here’s an update on Washington state apple shipments, as well as the new crop of Florida avocados, and Mexican mango imports.
While Florida is pretty darned quiet this time of year when it comes to hauling fresh produce, the new crop of avocados has just started being harvested. Volume will gradually increase throughout the month before hitting stride in early July. Shipments will continue into next March, or perhaps early April. About 1 million bushels will be shipped, similar to the 1.17 million bushels hauled last season.
Mango Shipments
This year’s mango volume has seen shipments of more than 4 million boxes weekly; an 18 percent increase compared to the largest week in 2014,
Volumes are expected to remain steady through the second quarter of 2015. Mexican mango imports are expected to be 3 percent higher than 2013, which was a record-breaking year for Mexican mango imports.
The forecast is for about 36 million boxes of mangos to be imported during this year’s second quarter.
Imported Mexican mangos, melons and vegetables through McAllen, Tx – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
Washington Apple Shipments
Fruit transporters are dumping millions of pounds of apples across Washington, leaving them to rot under hot sun. State officials call the dumps “historic.” In Pateros, a hillside is covered with rows of Red Delicious apples. Trucks pull up several times a day, unloading thousands of apples on top of sage brush and flowers.
Washington growers produced the highest volume of apples on record, plus labor disputes at Washington ports have left cargo sitting, sometimes for weeks. The Washington State Tree Fruit Association estimates $95 million in lost sales due to apples that could not ship. Growers suffered further deficits from longer storage periods.
The Feds recently helped bail out the industry by purchasing millions of dollars of apples for school lunch programs.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $7000 to Miami.
Washington cherry shipments, which typically provide some of the better produce rates, should get underway in late May.
The first cherry harvest in the Northwest is expect around May 20-25 — which could possibly be the earliest harvest in 25-years. Washington state provides the bulk of cherry shipments, with lesser volume coming out Oregon and Idaho.
The early start for shipping should ensure heavy volume before traditional pre-Fourth of July deliveries.
The Washington crop is about seven days ahead of last year and 10 days ahead of the five-year average.
Northwest cherry shipments may hit 10 million cartons in June and possibly about the same amount in July. Though no official estimate has been released, overall Northwest 2015 cherry ahipments are expected near 20 million cartons, down from about 23 million cartons a year ago.
However, truck loadings will come on earlier than in 2014. This should result in heavy shipments throughout June leading up to the Independence Day holiday.
The Northwest cherry shipping season is typically about 85 days, and this year the shipping season will be closer to 80 days. The back end of the season in August will have a few less shipping days.
Washington Apple Shipments
Until cherry shipments take off, apples may be your best bet as a lot of product remains to be shipped this season.
Yakima and Wenatchee Valley apples – grossing about $4450 to Orlando.
California grape shipments get underway later in April, plus we’ll take a look at Washington cherry shipments, starting in May.
The 2015 season for California grapes is expected to mirror 2014 in timing, beginning with late April in the Coachella Valley and running through January in the San Joaquin Valley.
California’s table grape growers shipped their second-largest crop ever last season, sending 110 million 19-pound boxes of grapes to consumers worldwide.
The top volume export markets included Canada at 11.4 million 19-pound boxes, followed by Mexico at 5.7 million and China/Hong Kong at 5.5 million. Just over 40 percent of the total crop volume was exported.
Salinas Valley vegetable shipments are increasing – grossing about $5300 to Cleveland.
Washington Cherry Shipments
Cherry pickings should begin picking around May 20th, with the first bing peak shipping period to start about June 8-10, while the rainier peak is seen around June 15-30.
At this point the season appears it will start about five to 10 days ahead of normal, making it the earliest Washington cherry crop in six years.
Assuming the early cherry crop makes it through frost season unscathed, it could mean even greater loading opportunities leading up to the Fourth of July.
Peak Washington cherry shipments should occur between the first week of June and to the first week of July. However, keep in mind there is still a lot of weather to get through in the next month or so.
Washington apple shipments, Yakima Valley – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
Here we take look at Washington apple shipments, Idaho and Oregon onion loads, Idaho potatoes, plus the outlook for California strawberry shipments coming for Easter.
Washington state ships approximately 60 percent of the apples in the United States, but it is responsible for over 90 percent of the apple exports. In a typical year, Washington exports one-third of its production outside of the United States. Needless to say, exporters were relieved to see the port labor dispute on the West Coast settled.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $1000 to Seattle, $5000 to Dallas.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Looking at the Twin Falls, ID area, potato shipments remain pretty steady from week to week and are averaging around 1800 truck load equivalents per week….Moving to western Idaho and eastern Oregon, there are about 300 truck loads of dry onions moving from storages per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Western Idaho and Malheur County, OR onions – grossing about $4700 to Atlanta.
California Strawberries
Easter Sunday is April 5th, and all three California berry growing regions will be up and running, and shipments should be good. Also, keep in mind the primary California strawberry shipping areas are cranking up a couple of weeks early this year because of excellent growing conditions.
Oxnard, which typically peaks from mid-March to mid-April is starting shipments about two weeks early. Santa Maria will also will have strawberry shipments for Easter, while Watsonville will play a supplemental role with light strawberry volume for the holiday…..Currently Oxnard not only has light volume with berries, but other items ranging from celery to romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County (Oxnard) produce – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
Apple Shipments
With the arrival of the New Year about 113.5 million bushels of U.S.-grown fresh-market apples had yet to ship, 16 percent more than at the same time last year. The amount of apples remaining in storage is also 26 percent higher than the five-year average.
Washington state accounted for 100.4 million bushels of fresh-market apples still in storage, while Michigan had 4.9 million bushels, New York 4.2 million bushels and Pennsylvania 1.3 million bushels.
The holdings of all major apple varieties were up from Jan. 1, 2014 ranging from red delicious to galas, fujis, granny smiths, golden delicious, Pink Lady and Honeycrisp.
Washington apple shipments are amounting to about 2,500 truck load equivalents a week from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys, with a much smaller volume in pears.
Washington apples/pears – grossing about $4600 to Chicago.
The state also is shipping about 700 truckloads of onions per week from the Columbia Basin and the adjacent Umatilla Basin in Oregon. The same area also is shipping about one-half this volume in potatoes.
Washington/Oregon potatoes and onions – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
In Michigan, there is adequate equipment from apple haulers, but shortages of trucks for hauling onions.
Michigan apple shipments grossing about $2600 to Atlanta, while onions are paying about $500 less per load.
Record apple shipments in the United States are predicted for the 2014-15 shipping season.
As of December 1st, this season’s fresh apples in storage totaled 122.2 million bushels, a whopping 16 percent increase from the same time last year.
Apples for processing totaled 44.6 million bushels, 3 percent above last year on December 1st. The total number of apples in storage on December 1st was 166.8 million bushels, 12 percent above last December’s total.
The United States has about 7,500 apple producers who grow nearly 200 varieties of apples on approximately 328,000 acres.
The 2013-14 crop estimate, at 248.6 million bushels, was the 10th-largest apple crop shipped since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping statistics on commercial apple production.
Washington state’s Yakima and Wenatchee valleys continue to ship about as many apples each year as all of the apple shipping areas in the United States combined. The state is averaging about 3,500 truck load equivalents weekly.
Both Michigan and New York state have similar volume this season, with both averaging around 250 truck loads of apples being shipped a week.
By contrast the Appalachian district that includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, Viriginia and West Virginia combined are loading about 100 truck loads of apples per week.
Michigan apple shipments – grossing about $4100 to Houston.
Hudson Valley New York apple shipments – grossing about $1600 to Baltimore.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $8,000 to New York City.
Washington apple shipments for the 2014-15 season are expected to easily blow away the previous record set during the 2011-12 season.
The state’s apple growers harvested an estimated 150 million boxes this year, a little less than originally forecast.
So far, packers have shipped 35 million boxes, leaving 115 boxes currently in storage to fill the market throughout much of 2015. A box of apples typically weighs between 40 and 42 pounds.
The final count came in 3 percent shy of the previous forecast of 155 million boxes because of a November freeze and a port slowdown that prompted many packing companies to divert more fresh fruit to processors.
A labor dispute between dockworkers and the companies that operate the shipping terminals in Seattle and Tacoma, as well as 27 other cities along the West Coast, has drastically slowed down exports and imports of everything from fruit and airplane parts to clothing and kitchen goods.
Washington leads the nation in apple production, while Yakima County is the highest-producing county in the country.
Refrigerated trucks for hauling Washington apples continues to be in short supply.
Freight on apples out of the state have been fluctuating by $400 to $500 per truck load to the same destinations, depending on the day of the week, availability of equipment, etc.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $4800 to Chicago; about $7200 to Pittsburgh.
While the Washington State bumper apple harvest is nearly finished, a monster sized crop may be getting even bigger – increasing your loading opportunities for the season.
The initial estimate for Washington apple shipments was about 140 million boxes, however, some growers believe it could now hit 150 million boxes.
In fact, the Washington apple crop is so huge some growers are already mentioning sending some of the fruit originally intended for the fresh market, to the processed market, or being used for cow feed. We expect to hear this talk coming from Idaho potato farmers, who are notorious for over production, but not the apple folks!
There also are concerns by apple growers and shippers about the availability of transportation in the midst of large volumes.
One shipper recently stated, “We have needed almost 300-400 more trucks each week out of the state of Washington to deliver this product. And that’s been difficult especially this time of year as the Northwest begins shipping Christmas trees, so trucks are much more difficult to obtain.”
Under these circumstance one would expect produce freight rates for apple hauls to be stronger this year – something we will find out in the weeks and months ahead.
Washington state apples from the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys – grossing about $6800 to Orlando.
The nation’s two largest apple shipping states, Washington and New York, are gearing up with excellent, if not record breaking apple loads this season.
Washington Apple Shipments
There’s little doubt Washington state will break all records for apple shipments during the 2014-15 season. An estimated 140 million cartons of fruit will be shipped, with the majority being by truck. This volume will easily break the record loadings of the 2012-13 crop, which totaled 128 million cartons. This will be 22 percent more than the 115 million cartons shipped during the 2013-14 season.
The new records reflect higher density plantings in orchards over the past 10 years. The old orchards had about 300 apple trees per acre. In recent years 1,000 to 1,500 trees are being planted per acre. Red Delicious still remains the top variety to be shipped, estimated at 38 million cartons this season. This is followed by the Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. About 72 percent of Washington apples are shipped for the fresh market, with the balance for processing.
Washington apples from the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys – grossing about $8200 to New York City.
New York Apple Shipments
Truck loadings for apples during the 2014-15 season will be less than last season, but more than the average shipments for the past five years. The state expects to ship over 30 million bushels this season.
New York apple shipments should rank second to Washington state in total volume this season. The state moved into volume in September, and loadings will be heaviest from now through the first quarter of 2015.
The leading varieties volume are: McIntosh, Empire, Red Delicious, Cortland, Crispin and Golden Delicious.
Hudson Valley apples – grossing about $2200 to Atlanta.
There should be excellent hauling opportunities for apples and pears from Washington this season.
Similar to most crops along the West Coast this year, Washington apple shipments got underway unusually early with the Gingergold variety in late July. It may have been the first time fruit was picked before August.
As the season is off and running it appears there will be record shipments this year, mostly by truck. Washington apple shipments are expected to be around 140 million cartons, which would easily surpass the previous record of just under 130 million cartons during the 2012-13 season.
Washington Pear Shipments
The green colored Bartlett pears started being shipped from Washington state in early August. As the Bartletts lead off pear loadings, other varieties are nearing being shipped as well.
Red Anjous and Starkrimson are getting underway this week. Soon to follow will be the Bosc, Forelle, Comice, Seckel, Asian and Red Sensation pears. Shipments of Bartletts, Starkrimsons and Red Sensations will continue through December. Seckels, Comice and Asian pears ship during the winter months, and Red and Green Anjous typically ship from late summer or early fall into the next summer.
Washington apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $4300 to Chicago.