The roller coaster ride of Western desert lettuce volume has steadied in recent weeks. More consistent loading opportunities will hopefully continue the rest of the season from Yuma and the Imperial Valley.
Lettuce shipments should remain in good volume until around April 1st, before a seasonal decline ends the season by mid April. At this point lettuce shipments will shift to Huron, CA for about three weeks before heading into the Salinas spring season.
Yuma lettuce and other vegetables – grossing about $4700 to Atlanta.
Chilean Fruit Imports
Central Chile has recently had relative humidity levels not seen in many years, leading to further losses for table grape growers. Recent rains have resulted in losses of 30 percent for Flames (red grapes) and Superiors (green grapes) in the area. Three years ago when this happened there was a lof of rot with grapes.
Normally there would be humidity of 20-40 perecent, instead of 80 percent.
This means a large amount of fruit will not meet export standards for lacking quality standards.
Apple Shipments
About 75.3 million bushels of U.S.-grown fresh-market apples had yet to be shipped as of February 1, 21 percent less than last year at the same time.
The February total was also one percent lower than the five-year average, according to the February Market News report from the Vienna, Va.-based U.S. Apple Association.
Washington accounted for 64.9 million bushels of the February 1 apples remaining in storage. New York had 4.2 million bushels, Michigan 3.4 million bushels and Pennsylvania 1.1 million bushels.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $3700 to Chicago.