Distributor Salix Fruits ended 2019 with 30 percent growth over 2018, in part because of its imported Argentine lemon program in the U.S.
The global fruit distributor has partnerships with growers in South and Central America, Mexico, the U.S. and other countries. Domestic fruits include cherries, pears, apples, blueberries, plums and peaches.
The company’s U.S. headquarters is in Atlanta, with other offices in Chicago and Philadelphia. Other offices are in South Africa, Chile, Spain, Brazil, Russia and Argentina.
Growth was led by trade in the U.S., Latin America and Canada in the second half of the year, according to a news release.
Salix saw growth in its export of Washington apples and U.S. grapes.
“We export to the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia,” Juana Elortondo, sales manager for Salix Fruits, which also has offices in Chicago and Philadelphia. “This channel represents 25% of our business.”
In 2018, Salix fruit added CEO Alejandro Moralejo and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Calvo, which allowed the company to continue to strengthen its citrus program, according to the release.
“Salix was able to take advantage of new opportunities in the U.S. by nurturing its partnerships with Argentine lemon producers, such as Padilla Citrus,” according to the release. “By complementing the Argentine volume with imports from Mexico, Turkey and Spain, Salix provides lemons to the U.S. market throughout the year.”
After a 12-day journey from Chile, the first West Coast break bulk vessel of the season, Ice River, arrived to the Port of Los Angeles on, January 9. The ship unloaded 4,500 pallets of fresh grapes, cherries, peaches, nectarines, plums and blueberries that will be hitting retail shelves this week.
The entire SSA Marine operations team, including Kevin Nielsen, Terminal Manager and Lacey Patalano, Office Administration, were excited to receive the Ice River vessel, and look forward to receiving weekly Chilean fresh fruit vessels now thru April. Steve Hattendorf, Western Region Merchandiser for the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA), greeted the first West Coast vessel of the 2019-2020 Chilean winter fruit season and toured the 14 acre facility in San Pedro, California.
Winter has definitely arrived, but shoppers can get a taste of summer throughout the winter months, courtesy of Chile. Cherries, blueberries, grapes and stone fruit (peaches, plums and nectarines) are now in-market, with merchandising support available to retailers through the U.S. and Canada. Says Karen Brux, Managing Director of the CFFA, “Demos, digital coupons, kids cooking classes, and social media contests are just some of the programs we’re currently running with retailers big and small. We’re also further supporting retail sales through our consumer campaign, which includes extensive social media promotions, as well as our new “Super Fruit Bowl” campaign that’s currently running with ESPN.” Consumers can go to www.chileanfreshfruitbowl.com for a chance to win 2 tickets to the big game on February 2!
The Chilean season is just starting to ramp up. Through January 6, Chile had exported the following volumes to the U.S.
The New Year is expected to bring big time California strawberry shipments during the spring and early summer peak season.
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The California Strawberry Commission of Watsonville reports the primary reason is due to an anticipated small increase in acreage. Fall plantings, which will produce fruit during the traditional winter, spring and summer months, were reported at 26,928 acres for 2020, up from 25,868 last year.
Assuming the weather cooperates, 2020 California strawberry shipments could hit record levels from Easter (April 12) to Independence Day (July 4), according to the commission.
Summer plantings for fall production will continue its upward trend of recent years, reaching 7,185 acres this year, up from 7,089 in 2019.
During the past five years, greater yielding strawberry varieties have allowed growers to reach record production while acreages have declined.
A significant increase in Chilean blueberry exports are expected this season, while Chilean grape exports could see a small decline. Additionally, with more volume in Chilean cherry exports, this should translate into more fruit from that South American country arriving on U.S. shores.
The Chilean Fresh Fruit Association reports grapes easily account for the largest Chilean fruit export to the U.S., representing nearly 40 percent of all the Chilean fruit shipped here. A drought in Chile is being blamed for an expected slight decrease in export volumes. Official estimates for the 2019-20 season are only 1.6 percent lower than last season.
It is estimated that about 78.5 million boxes will be exported to the U.S. this year, which, which would mean only about 1.3 million boxes less than the previous season. Blueberries, cherries and the stone fruits are expected to make up the difference over the next four to five months.
In 2017-18 there were 6.2 million boxes of Flame Seedless exported to the United States, while last season (2018-19) volume dropped to 2.1 million boxes. Flame Seedless has been an industry standard for decades but is being replaced with newer varieties such as Timco and Allison. Timco volume grew by 61 percent and Allison by 72 percent in the past year.
Chilean grape shipments began in late December and should increase through January and continue into May.
Cherries from Chile have been in the U.S. marketplace for a couple of months with shipments continuing and increasing through January. The vast majority of Chilean cherries are exported to China.
Chilean fruit companies are projecting that they will export about 42 million five kilogram cartons this year, which will represent a 16 percent increase over last season.
North America receives about 60 percent of Chilean blueberry exports. With organic “blues,” North America accounts for 96 percent the Chilean exports. Chilean fresh blueberry exports are expected to grow by about 4 percent during the 2019-20 season led by organics.
Chilean stone fruits account for less than 10 percent of the country’s fruit exports to the U.S.
Within a few years, the company Westfalia estimates it will be exporting 10,000 to 15,000 metric tons (MT) of fruit from its own orchards, plus an additional 15,000 metric tons from third-party growers.
The company’s growth coincides with growth in the overall Colombian avocado industry. Westfalia predicts total Colombian exports will increase by at least 30 percent a year, hitting 100,000MT within five years.
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The Colombian avocado industry focuses mostly on exports to the European market, but Westfalia believes its operation will increase exports to the U.S. in time, not only because it’s the largest avocado market, but also because of its geographic proximity. Transit times from Columbia to the U.S. are under a week, and are 24 hours less than Mexico when exporting to the U.S. East Coast. The operation also is looking to export avocados to other South American countries and to Canada as Columbia seeks to become a reliable year-round avocado supplier, complementing volumes from Mexico.
Although Westfalia does not foresee Colombia replacing Mexico, it believes Colombia should be a good plan B for the U.S..
“The constant changes within the Mexican industry can be challenging for the trade, especially for retailers and consumers. So I think Colombia could provide more stable conditions with certain volumes for the future.
“I have no doubt in my mind that, in the next few years, the U.S. market will be the most important target market for Colombian avocados.”
U.S. potatoes remaining in storage to be shipped is down 4 percent from a year ago as of December 1st.
The USDA reports 37 percent of U.S. spuds have been shipped for the 2019-20 season. Processors in the eight major states used 76.3 million cwt of potatoes for the season, up 3 percent from December 2018.
Compared with a year ago, the USDA reported lower volumes of potatoes were in storage in North Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho. Cold weather in Idaho and a combination of wet conditions followed by cold weather reduced output in those growing regions.
The USDA reported that Idaho potatoes remaining in storage stood at 95 million cwt. on December 1, down 6 percent from 101 million cwt. the same time a year ago. In North Dakota, storages held 14 million cwt., down 18 percent from 17 million cwt. on Dec. 1 2018. In Minnesota, holdings were estimated at 12.3 million cwt., off 4 percent from 12.8 million cwt. on hand a year ago.
U.S. imports had significant increases in Hass avocados from all Latin American origins through September this year, the USDA reports.
Total imports from the region rose by 20 percent over last year during a nine-month period.
The growth came amid the lowest California avocado shipments in a decade, which created a supply gap for overseas producers.
A lot of the increase was due to Mexico with its rising avocado volume.
But there were also substantial increases in percentage terms from Peru, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia.
U.S. imports from Peru – the next biggest origin – rose by 24 percent, which is more than triple the amount imported from Peru in 2016, and also comes amid a 15 percent reduction in total Peruvian exports this season.
Chilean exports to the U.S. rose by 61 percent in 2019 through September. This increase came despite the Chilean avocado indsutry also forecasting lower total supplies from a year ago for the 2019-20 season.
Meanwhile, the U.S. imported five-times more Hass avocados from the Dominican Republic.
And U.S. imports from Colombia rose eight-fold from in August 2017 under a restrictive export protocol. This was eased a little earlier last year and an significant increase in avocado shipments to the U.S. is seen over the next few years.
A record setting October helped successfully launch Peruvian table grape exports this season, with dramatic volume increases for the U.S.
Data from the country’s Exporters’ Association shows that
Exports in the season’s opening month rose by 15 percent to the U.S., according the Peruvian Exporters Association.
Table grapes accounted 12 percent of Peru’s total agricultural exports during October, second to blueberries, but ahead of asparagus, onions, quinoa, cacao, and bananas.
The Netherlands was the main table grape export market during the month, growing by 3 percent, followed by the U.K. with 6 percent growth.
The U.S. was the third largest market, with an astounding growth thus of 211 percent. The three-fold higher exports over last season came as U.S. grape supplies were significantly lower.
Chilean imported mandarins by the U.S. are expected to decline in the years ahead as Chilean exports develop to the newly opened Chinese market.
The USDA reports America is by far the leading market for Chilean mandarin exports, with a 96 percent market share.
Chilean exporters of mandarins, however, started diversifying its market destinations with the opening of the Chinese market for citrus products in November 2019. An increase in exports also is predicted China for Chilean mandarins, clementines, oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.
The market opening comes amid rapid growth in the Chilean mandarin planted area, which rose by 13 percent in 2019 to over 19,000 acres. Chilean authorities project that the opening of the Chinese market will further expand the citrus planted area.
The marketing season for Chilean mandarin ranges between May and October each year.
Chilean mandarin exports to the world have increased by 200 percent since 2014. The South American country shipped a record 170,230 metric tons (MT) of the fresh fruit in 2018.
New Mexico is replacing Georgia as the top producer and shipper of pecans following the devasting affects of Hurricane Michael a year ago, if predictions hold.
Georgia has been the nation’s largest supplier of pecans for years, accounting for about an 88 million pound harvest and representing one-third of U.S. pecan production.
This has change for the 2020 shipping season a year after Hurricane Michael’s 115-mile-per-hour winds ravaged nut tree orchards Pecan growers are still struggling as they harvest this year’s crop.
The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service reports in an average year, farmers harvest between 1300-1400 pounds of pecans per acre. However, but this year’s production is down by more than 50 percent.
The service believes growers will be fortunate if they average 500 pound per acre this year. Pecan trees lost a large percentage of limbs.
The USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service notes although U.S. national pecan production should increase this year by over 20 percent, with an estimated 281 million pounds, Georgia production will plummet to 76 million pounds, followed by Texas (47 million pounds, up 8 ½ percent), Arizona, and Oklahoma.
At the same time New Mexico is estimated to have an increased production of 6 percent based on a forecasted record high of 97 million pounds for the current harvest. New Mexico first surpassed Georgia last year after the howling hurricane winds decimated some 32,400 acres, downed trees, and dropped production dramatically.
Pecan trees take nearly a decade to produce and a couple years more to turn a respectable profit. This means with the amount of trees lost mean, may take up to 10 years for Georgia growers to fully recover.
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New Mexico produces pecans on nearly 52,000 acres in the southern part of the state with most product coming from the Mesilla and Hatch Valleys and the Pecos River Valley, although expansion in pecan acreage is being noted further north as raising pecans continues to replace cotton acreage because cotton prices continue to drop.
