It’s getting colder out, but you knew that already. So, as you don your parka, when you might once have used a windbreaker, we venture out to do one of the most human things we’ve come to know: get all our groceries in one swoop from the store!
Now, you may have a specific diet, you may be a super-foodie, or a junk-food-junkie(may Larry Groce have mercy on you)! Either way, we’re going to set out to get a balanced list of beverages, meats, grains, vegetables, nuts, and fruits. Maybe, you’ve noticed something a bit different this year? Fruits(among many other commodities) have gone up in price, year over year for decades. In this particular day and age, we’re also mixing in supply chain disruption, tougher seasons on our farmers, and an ever-increasing demand for healthier foods. According to the USDA, the top six fruits per price by weight are blackberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries, apricots, and strawberries. For the purpose of this article, we’re going to focus on strawberries, as they meet the lowest price point and among the others aforementioned on this list, are the most commonly consumed by consumers and businesses.
But, what does it look like when you get to the store? In my personal experience, I couldn’t find strawberries anywhere at my local grocer for weeks. But, I found a quick fix that has become a staple for my household: frozen strawberries(and pretty much anything else I wanted to grab that I couldn’t find fresh). In fact, they had access to fruits that are almost never available fresh such as papaya, dragon fruit, passionfruit, acai berries, and much more!
Frozen fruit always comes in at a much more affordable price than its fresh counterparts. After taking my bag of frozen berries home, I discovered a second surprise: beautiful, vibrant, deep red, and delicious strawberries! It took some time to get used to thawing them out, but nine times out of ten, I have a superb batch of strawberries.
Frozen foods get a bad reputation for being processed; possibly having ingredients along the lines of “unnatural”. Throw this bias right out of the window! “Scientists from Leatherhead Food Research and the University of Chester, carried out 40 tests to measure nutrient levels in produce that had been sitting in a fridge for three days, compared to frozen equivalents. They found more beneficial nutrients overall in the frozen samples”. You may find this hard to believe, based on everything we’ve been taught growing up.
There’s a pretty big factor that comes into play for frozen fruit, that fresh fruit just can’t match! Here at the Allen Lund Company, we haul fresh produce daily, on tight schedules. Produce growers and farmers often pick fruit just before it’s ripe, to time it to ripen perfectly for delivery and consumption. The harvest comes in, then the clock starts counting down. If the produce doesn’t get from A to B in a certain amount of time, it’s likely going to be unfit to sell. So, eventually, a way around this schedule crunch was found: blast/instant quick-freezing fruits and vegetables. What’s the benefit you ask? Well, the freezing has a bit of a better schedule. Frozen fruits are picked at optimal ripeness and frozen immediately to preserve peak nutrition, flavor, and shelf life.
Having the ability to keep products at the perfect quality for double, triple, or greater shelf life allows growers to open a market for year-round sales, both in season and out of season. Consumers see huge savings on purchasing these goods, but where it really comes into play is supply chain management. Plus, keeping a bag or two of frozen goodies in the freezer comes into play for when you take a nasty spill on the way to the office!
More and more investments have been made in efforts to perfect packaging, create/lease cold storage centers, and erase supply gaps during off seasons for businesses. The proof is in the pudding, or should I say, the sorbet. Studies show that the Global Frozen Fruit market is a $4.65-billion-dollar industry, expected to grow at 1-2% annually CAGR to reach a peak of $5 billion dollars in 2026.
Consumers are steadily following this trend as their purchases shift. Many trade shows now include frozen goods being marketed, displayed, and packaged. Every year as the category expands, growers are getting better, and better at retaining color, nutrients, taste, and lower prices.
The next time you’re hankering for some produce and feeling adventurous, check out the frozen section. You’ll find that no matter what time of the year, you’ll always be able to afford juicy, nutritious, and gorgeous strawberries.
Onion is the third most cultivated vegetable in the country. Onions account for 9.3% of all the vegetables produced in the country and, in 2020, the country produced 1,499,740 tons of onions, i.e. 1 out of every 50 tons of onions consumed in the world, stated the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader).
Mexican sweet onions begin crossing the border in South Texas in March.
The federal agency highlighted that, in 2020, Chihuahua produced 21.6% of all the country’s onions, and that state’s onion sales amounted to nearly 2,881 million pesos.
It was followed by Guanajuato with a production of 210,255 tons, Zacatecas with 182,212 tons, Tamaulipas with 134,962 tons, Baja California with 103,603 tons, and Puebla with 94,157 tons of onions.
The country will produce nearly 1,432,922 tons of onions in 2021, according to estimates from the Agrifood and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP).
Exports increase Between January and August of this year, Mexican fresh or chilled onion and garlic exports grew by 6.8% over the same period of the previous year, totaling 347 million dollars.
In November the Washington organic apple crop was projected to exceed 15 million cartons, while the Washington state overall crop was projected at 118 million cartons.
Domestic truck shipments of Washington conventional apples through December 25 equaled 24.4 million cartons, compared with 25 million cartons the same time a year ago, according to the USDA.
Through December 25, season-to-date domestic truck volume of Washington organic apples totaled about 5.5 million cartons, almost exactly the same volume as the same time a year ago.
Organic apple supplies are tight and getting tighter in the 2021-22 marketing season.
The December 25 average organic apple price was $56.26 per carton at U.S. wholesale markets tracked by the USDA, 41% higher than the $39.83 per carton average for conventional apples the same day. The USDA reported size 72 Washington organic gala apples were trading at $34 to $36 per carton on December 29, up slightly from a year ago.
The USDA reported the national average shipping point price for organic apples on Dec. 25 was $29.65 per carton, just 3% higher than the average shipping point price for conventional apples at $28.96 per carton.
The U.S. average retail promoted price for organic apples was $1.81 per pound in early December, up from $1.61 per pound in early December 2020.
Sage Fruit Co. of Yakima, WA notes both conventional and organic apple volume is down this season. About 15% of the company’s total crop is in organics, but that number is growing yearly.
At Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA, organics account for about 30% of its overall apple shipments.
Honeybear Marketing of Brewster, WA reports about 12% of the company’s shipments are with organic apples. Honeybear Marketing has more domestic organic trees coming into production in the 2021 season, boosting this year’s volume of organic apples. The company has supplies of organic galas, Honeycrisp, granny smith, fujis, Pink Lady and Cosmic Crisp.
Honeybear ships organic and conventional apples year-round because of its dual hemisphere program. During the winter and spring, it is loading its domestic supply, but in late summer, the company gradually shifts to its Southern Hemisphere apple program.
At CMI Orchards of Wenatchee, WA, organics account for about 15% to 20% of apple volume, and also as a dual hemisphere program for winter and spring.
Washington apples and pears – grossing $13,500 and more to New York City.
Driven by efforts to catch up on North-South routes, reefer container rates have risen sharply through 2021, but in contrast to dry cargo rates, are forecast to rise further in 2022. Conclusions are found in Drewry’s recently published Reefer Shipping Annual Review and Forecast 2021/22 report.
Drewry’s Global Reefer Container Freight Rate Index, a weighted average of rates across the top 15 reefer intensive deep-sea trade routes, rose 32% over the year to 2Q21 and by the end of 3Q21 these gains are expected to reach as much as 50%.
But these advances are dwarfed by the recent surge in dry container freight rates which have seen average container carrier unit revenues more than double over the same period.
The resurgence in reefer freight rates has not been uniform across all trades. Pricing recovery has been particularly strong on the main East-West routes, where vessel capacity conditions have been noticeably tight. But North-South trades have generally seen less price inflation, particularly on export routes from WCSA, Central America and Southern Africa.
“In contrast to dry container freight rates which are expected to decline in 2022 as trade conditions normalise, reefer container freight rates are forecast to continue rising as price inflation feeds into North-South routes when long term contract rates are renewed,” said Drewry’s head of reefer shipping research Philip Gray. “Most reefer cargo on these trades moves on long term contracts.”
The key driver of reefer freight rate inflation has been capacity related, as perishables shippers have competed with higher paying dry freight BCOs for scarce containership slots, despite ample reefer plug capacity provision. Meanwhile, continued disruption across container supply chains has led to acute shortages of reefer container equipment, already challenged by the particularly imbalanced nature of reefer trades.
“We believe that these conditions are short term and will self-correct as trade normalises from mid-2022,” added Gray. “However, we expect reefer container equipment availability to remain an issue for certain trades during their peak seasons, as the global fleet is not expected to keep pace with rising cargo demand, despite record output of newbuild containers.”
These conditions have provided short term reprieve to specialized reefer vessels, as some BCOs have returned to the mode seeking relief from congested container supply chains. But despite these developments Drewry estimates that the specialized reefer vessel’s share of the perishables trade fell to 12% in 2020 and is expected to decline further into single figures over the next few years.
Hence, despite a 0.4% decline in global seaborne perishables trade in 2020 to 132 million tons, containership reefer liftings advanced 0.3% to 5.4 million tons. Further modal share gains and buoyant cargo demand will see containerized reefer traffic expand at a faster pace than dry cargo trade from 2022.
The contraction in overall seaborne perishables trade in 2020 was much milder than for dry cargo, demonstrating the stronger resilience of reefer trades to economic shock. The trade was particularly impacted by a shuttered hospitality sector which reduced demand for deciduous fruit, fresh vegetables and frozen potatoes, while Covid-19 containment measures cut crop production and fish catches.
Meanwhile, an outbreak of fusarium TR4 disease in the Philippines weakened growth in banana trades. But cargo demand was supported by a booming pork trade, owing to African Swine Fever driven imports into China.
Seaborne reefer traffic picked up through the first half of 2021, expanding 4.8% over the previous year, led by meat, citrus and exotics trades but is not expected to expand at the same pace as dry cargo through the remainder of the year as it is not recovering from as deep a contraction in 2020.
Mexican blueberry shipments are expected to slowdown following a five-year growth, which exceeded 50,000 tons in 2020. However, the 2.6 percent projected growth over last season represents a slowdown, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture told Opportimes.
International sales reached $399 million in 2020 with 95.9 percent of the exported volume going to the U.S., but exports went to 34 other nations.
The U.S. is the world’s largest blueberry importer, with import purchases worth $1.4 billion in 2020.
Blueberry shipments went from 15,000 to 29,000 tons from 2015 to 2016, to 37,000 tons in 2017, 40,000 tons in 2018, 49,000 tons in 2019, and 50,293 in 2020. During the last decade, blueberry volume has averaged an annual growth rate of 25.1 percent.
In 2020, 11,614 acres were allocated to blueberry production. The state of Jalisco generated 31.5 percent of the national production value with 23,169 tons.
California mandarin shipments expected to be far less than the previous season, with the 2021-22 volumes expected to be off by 45 percent compared to a year ago.
California Citrus Mutal also predicts total Navel orange loadings for the 2021-22 season will be down 20% from the previous season’s final numbers.
According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s 2021-22 California Navel Orange Objective Measurement Report, released on Sept. 10, 2021, the initial forecast for the navel orange crop was 70.0 million cartons, down 14% from the previous year’s total utilized production. Additionally, an estimated 4% of last season’s crop was not utilized, meaning it was not picked or sold.
Now several weeks into 2021-22 season, the CCM anticipates, based on current picking estimates, will be 20% below the prior season’s total utilized production and approximately 24% below the total crop size.
The drop in production is attributed to the previous season’s heavy crop and extended season. Due to the larger sized crop and other market conditions, fruit remained on the tree far longer than is typical, which negatively affected the current year’s crop size.
The CCM also estimates 2021-22 California mandarin shipments will be down 45% from the previous season’s exceptionally large crop.
The current navel and mandarin crops are forecast to go through May and June, respectively.
The 2021-22 season is shaping up to be far different than the previous season. Shippers extended last year’s season well into August.
Adolescence is a critical period for the evolution of cardiometabolic risk factors that are largely influenced by diet and lifestyle. Understanding these risk factors is essential to developing effective dietary guidance for disease prevention targeting this critical age period. Recently published research in the British Journal of Nutrition found that 9-17 year-old girls who consumed up to one cup of potatoes daily had no increased risk of becoming overweight or developing high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, or impaired fasting glucose by the end of the study in late adolescence.
According to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, girls aged 9 – 18 are encouraged to consume 1½ to 3-cup equivalents per day of vegetables, depending on their calorie needs, but most fail to meet these guidelines. In this study, the highest levels of potato consumption ranged from 1/5 to 1 cup per day and at that level, no adverse effects were observed.
“Our results show that nutrient-rich potatoes can be part of a healthy diet in young girls during this important period of growth and development,” says Lynn L. Moore, DSc, MPH, Boston University, the study’s senior author. “There is growing evidence that overall diet quality is what really matters in the preservation of heart health. Potatoes are an affordable food, with a number of valuable nutrients, and our research suggests that moderate intakes of potatoes, along with many other types of vegetables, can be a regular part of a healthy diet pattern.”
Higher intakes of all forms of potatoes (including fried) during the ‘tween’ years of nine to 11 were associated with higher intakes of potassium and dietary fiber, two nutrients of public health concern,[i] as well as vitamin C, vitamin B6 and magnesium. Black girls in this study with the highest intakes of potatoes also consumed more fruit and non-starchy vegetables and had higher diet-quality scores.
Study Design, Strengths and Limitations
The researchers analyzed data from nearly 2,000 subjects (approximately 50% Black, 50% White) from the National Growth and Health Study, a longitudinal study of the development of obesity and other cardiovascular-related outcomes in adolescent girls.
For girls at 9-11 years of age, researchers analyzed data on total potato intake (white and sweet) as well as separate intakes of fried and non-fried potatoes.
For girls at 9-17 years of age, researchers analyzed data for total potato intake (white and sweet).
Diet was assessed using 3-day diet records at baseline when girls were 9-10 years old, and during the follow-up years 2-5, 7, 8, and 10. The intake of potatoes (both white and sweet potatoes) was extracted from total vegetable servings. Anthropometric measures of body fat and body composition and blood pressure were measured annually. Additionally, fasting triglycerides, other lipids, and glucose were measured in later adolescence (at 18-20 years of age)
Repeated measures of a number of potential confounding variables were examined, including socioeconomic status, body mass index (BMI), changes in height, physical activity, television viewing, intakes of food groups and nutrients, as well as diet quality measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015. The study’s strengths include its prospective design as well as the use of multiple sets of three-day diet records, which is considered the gold standard method for dietary assessment. Researchers also took repeated measures of cardiometabolic risk factors and most potential confounders.
The investigators acknowledge limitations to the study, such as reliance on self-reported dietary intakes from adolescents who may have had difficulty accurately estimating portion sizes and reporting details. However, parents and other caregivers were actively involved in the completion of these diet records, especially during the earlier years of the study. Researchers were unable to assess the effects of very high levels of potato intakes since few girls reported consuming more than one cup equivalent of potatoes per day. They were also unable to analyze any differences between white and sweet potato consumption, given the low intakes of sweet potatoes within the study population. Finally, the researchers were unable to control for baseline values of fasting glucose or triglycerides due to missing or unreliable data at the initial exam.
This study was selected as the Nutrition Society’s Paper of the Month. Every month, the Editors-in-Chief of the Nutrition Society’s journals select one paper as being of particular interest or originality, and/or because it challenges previously conceived notions in nutritional science and public health. The research manuscript, “Potato consumption is not associated with elevated cardiometabolic risk in adolescent girls,” is published in the British Journal of Nutrition (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521003445). Authors include Ioanna Yiannakou, Mengjie Yuan, R. Taylor Pickering, Martha R. Singer, and Lynn L. Moore, Boston University. In addition to funding from the National Institutes of Health, funding was provided by the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (APRE); APRE had no input on interpretation of the results or manuscript development.
During my 47 years involvement with the trucking and produce industries, it has been my privilege to work with men and women, who are dedicated, hard-working and mostly good, down-to-earth honest folks. Without either industry it would be impossible to bring the finest fruits and vegetable to a hungry nation every single day. This is why I’ve been so proud to be part of these dynamic Industries.
And nothing is more important to the supply chain than trucks and truckers. Without you our great country would come to a halt.
I launched my career in September 1974 and was soon heavily involved in the most drastic change of the trucking industry, its deregulation. From this point on it has been a dynamic and exciting ride; one which I have never regretted.
haulproduce.com was formally launched in January 2012 and I “retired” nearly three years later. Over the past decade I’ve posted over 3,150 news and feature stories. Hopefully a few of the things I’ve learned over the past half century are beneficial.
May this special time of the year bring you peace, good health, and happiness. And may 2022 bring us hope, resilience and a belief the human race will become better.
I sincerely thank you for your loyalty and kindness.
Florida citrus growers see good volume shipments this season, despite a USDA forecast for a smaller production of all oranges and grapefruits.
Florida Classic Growers of Dundee, FL report excellent fruit color, especially Florida navels.
Noble Worldwide of Winter Haven, FL started harvesting the second week of September and expects to harvest through May and ship through June or July.
DLF International of Fort Pierce, FL notes they began picking at the end of September and will run through the first part of July using a cold storage program at the end of the season.
DLF has similar volume to last season, but overall fruit quality has improved.
Seald Sweet of Vero Beach, FL, has volume matching last year because of the good growing conditions and weather. Florida citrus movement is expected to be strong in part because Texas grapefruit volume is limited due to a freeze last February.
Continued efforts to manage citrus greening is another factor leading to increased quality crop, Parris said.
DFL reports while East Coast demand is about the same as last year, and there has been an increase in business in the Midwest. DFL also is also expanding its orange and grapefruit businesses.
According to the USDA, overall U.S. citrus production for the fresh market is estimated at 3.45 million tons in 2020-21, down 6% from the previous season, with smaller fresh-market crops of oranges (down 11%), grapefruit (down 15%) and lemons (down 6%).
The USDA’s October forecast for Florida’s production of all oranges was down 11% from last season with grapefruit production down 7% and all tangerine and tangelo production up 1%.
The United States receives fresh vegetables from more than 125 different countries, but most imports originate from Mexico and Canada.
In 2020, Mexico accounted for 77 percent of U.S. fresh vegetable import volume, and Canada represented 11 percent. An analysis of domestic census and trade data shows Mexican and Canadian producers have dominated the U.S. import market by offering protected culture—or greenhouse—imports as well as organic options, which increased choices for consumers.
While conventional and field-grown fresh vegetables still account for most imports, organic and greenhouse vegetables are expanding market reach.
U.S. consumers have pushed for greater consistency in supermarket produce and expanded demand for year-round availability of virtually all fresh vegetables. Between 1998 and 2020, the volume of fresh vegetable imports increased nearly 200 percent, and the value of fresh vegetable imports grew to exceed fresh exports by $7.6 billion, more than double the same figure a decade earlier.
Market Window Creep in Fresh Vegetable Imports
Market window creep is an extension of seasonal demand and refers to the increasing volume of fresh vegetable imports entering during the start or end of the traditional domestic production seasons.
Over time, the categorization of vegetables into summer and winter categories has dwindled as near year-round imports of both categories of produce proliferated. Many traditional domestic market windows have eroded as importers have found their own market windows expanding, according to trade data.
From 2008 to 2020, imports entered the market earlier than usual (entering the traditional domestic market window), and shipping seasons were extended into the following season.
