Peruvian avocado imports by the U.S. should continue until around Labor Day, after arrivals began in May.
Peruvian growers are expected to ship 160 million to 180 million pounds of avocados to the U.S. this season depending on market conditions.
Last year, Peru shipped 180 million pounds of avocados to America.
Del Rey Avocado Co. of Fallbrook, CA reports the majority of avocados imported from Peru usually arrive at ports on the East Coast, while fruit grown in California tends to remain in the West.
California has a very small volume crop this season and Mexico also has fewer avocados than normal.. This could result in more Peruvian avocados being shipped to Western markets than usual this season.
Calavo Growers Inc. of Santa Paula, CA is in it’s 4th year of importing avocados from Peru to the U.S., and the third year of a relationship with the same grower-packer in that country.
The company’s initial Peruvian avocado imports from young trees in the furthest northern district had been distributed by mid May,while shipments from the Trujillo area farther south, where the main plantings are, started with in the past week.
McDaniel Fruit Co., Fallbrook, CA., expects to import a record amount of Peruvian fruit this season due to the small California crop. The company has been pleased with initial arrivals that started in May and describes the quality as excellent.
Eco Farms of Temecula, CA was experiencing good arrivals of Peruvian avocados in late May and early June when supplies from both California and Mexico had tightened.
Index Fresh Inc. of Riverside, CA., has been a major importer of Peruvian avocados to the U.S. since 2012 and ships product to Canada. A significant difference this season is 2019 imports from Peru started 2 months earlier than a year ago, which didn’t see significant volume until August.
The Peruvian avocado season typically lasts about 4 months long, but growers are planting trees in new areas in an attempt to extend the growing season.
Calavo is expecting a 10 to 15 percent increase in volume from Peru this year due to young trees maturing, but more importantly, a result of growers adjusting their balance of shipments between Europe and the U.S.
Although Peru is known for shipping larger sized fruit than California or Mexico, the size curve is beginning to fall into a more normal range.
Index Fresh will receive avocados from Peru at ports in both California and Philadelphia, which gives Peruvian fruit a freight advantage compared to some other countries of origin.
Michigan asparagus shipments have been underway for a month and should continue through the end of June from the west-central area of the state.
The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board in Dewitt, MI notes loadings have been lagging because cool weather limited picks of asparagus fields to about 11-12 harvest sessions through late May, compared to normal tallies of 15-16.
Last year processed asparagus accounted for about 60 percent of the volume, although there is less processing demand this year. That is expected to result in more fresh shipments. One estimate has fresh shipments accounting for about 75 percent of the volume with product for processing making up the balance.
The USDA census report notes Michigan’s asparagus acreage was 12,285 acres in 2017, up from 9,405 acres in 2012 and 12,127 acres in 2007. Acreage has gone down compared with 1997, when 18,266 acres of asparagus were harvested in the state. About 9,500 acres were planted this year.
Michigan’s primary competition comes from Mexico and Peru during the May to June shipping window, although imports haven’t been big this year. Last season, May volume accounted for 33 percent of total fresh shipments and June accounted for about 67 percent of total annual volume.
Michigan’s fresh shipments of 385,000 28-pound equivalent crates in 2018 compared with 421,000 crates in 2017 and 417,000 crates in 2016.
In 2018, Michigan accounted for about 32 percent of total domestic asparagus shipments, trailing Washington (49 percent), but well ahead of California (19 percent).
However, both Mexico and Peru have big year-round volume coming to the U.S., and last year May to June U.S. imports from those two countries were seven times bigger than Michigan’s shipments in those two months.
The rapid pace with which greenhouse construction is apparently slowing down for several reasons.
According to Cuesta Roble (Oak Hills) Consulting’s 2018 report, there are 894 greenhouse vegetable companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, according to Cuesta Roble (Oak Hill) Consulting’s 2019 report. The study is named, Greenhouse Vegetable Producing Companies North America.
Greenhouse proponents say the structures offer better protection from the unpredictability of weather, outdoor pests and contamination and indoor growing of all kinds offers more reliability and consistency.
In 2012, there was 98 million square feet of greenhouse vegetable production in the U.S. specifically, according to the USDA.
In Canada, greenhouses produced 612.8 million pounds of tomatoes in 2017, the latest number available, according to Statistics Canada. That is more than 14 million pounds above 2016’s production level and about 35 million above 2015.
But the typical annual 7 percent increase in acreage experienced by the 201 grower members of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association isn’t expected to continue into 2019. Ontario accounts for about 80 percent of the entire Canadian greenhouse output.
And it is not just the cannabis explosion taking up space.
The whole process of expansion has gotten more complicated. There are growing uncertainties of what land municipalities will serve for greenhouse production.
The time it takes to build a greenhouse has jumped from 24 months to 40 months due to issues ranging from land purchase and rising building costs. As demand increases, so does the demand on resources.
Cannabis production is demanding on current resources. These resources can mean everything from steel, to municipality services, to construction workers.
Plant City, FL – International grower and year-round marketer of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, Wish Farms is gearing up for a robust Southeast blackberry season.
North Carolina berry shipments are underway and peak volume is expected around the second to third week of June, with the season concluding in September.
Since 2016, growth in the blackberry category has been a focus for Cane Berry Director Jose Saca: “We aligned ourselves with exceptional growers that allow us to provide great tasting varieties like PrimeArk 45, Osage, Ouachita and Natchez among others. We are also encouraged by the steady growth in consumer demand. If there are no major weather events, we can expect a good production year with early volume estimates 15-20 percent higher over last season.”
In 2018, Wish Farms completed a 7,500 square foot cooler in Shelby, N.C. to manage their blackberry shipments in the region. All Wish Farms blackberries in this region will ship from this facility after thorough quality control inspections.
“This
southeastern blackberry program is essential to our mission of providing the
best tasting berries,” said James Peterson, VP of Sales. “We look forward to
working with our retail partners this June and throughout the summer to support
blackberry ads.”
The blackberry season is expected to align well with the high-quality blueberry shipments shipments coming from the region. Weather in Georgia and North Carolina has been ideal leading up to the season. Plants have had favorable chill hours. Presently, there have been no major weather events or late winter injuries that lead to bud or fruit damage.
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About Wish Farms:
Wish Farms, founded in 1922 and third-generation owned, is a year-round supplier of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries growing both conventional and organic varieties.
Normal Florida avocado shipments have not been seen since 2017 and optimism abounds 2019 is the year of rebound for this tropical fruit.
Brooks Tropicals Inc. of Homes reports in 2017 it was Hurricane Irma which devastated the Florida avocado crop and 2018 the fruit was still recuperating.
Southern Florida, where avocados are the Miami-Dade area’s second largest crop, has had excellent weather with warm temperatures and adequate rains. The season for Florida avocados typically begins in June and continues until February or March.
M&M Farm Inc. of Miami expects to grow and ship around 800,000 bushels this season. In 2018 due to the previous-year hurricane and declining (laurel wilt) acreage, the entire Florida avocado industry only shipped about 500,00 bushels.
Limeco LLC of Princeton, FL recently launched its avocado season. The company notes the 2018-19 crop was only about 60 percent of normal, due to the after-effects of the 2017 storms.
Unity Groves of Homestead, FL is looking forward to normal avocado shipments this season as their avocado trees have rebound from the adverse effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
VERO BEACH, FL – IMG Citrus, a family-owned, vertically-integrated citrus grower, packer, and shipper in Vero Beach, FL, announced the acquisition of one of the largest grapefruit groves in St. Lucie County. The 4,000-acre grove increases their control of citrus land management in Florida by over 75 percent, securing their position as an established citrus leader in the state of Florida, and solidifying their commitment to the industry. The grove has been renamed Happy Food Grove, after their main consumer brand “Happy Food,” which can be found in supermarkets across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
“Investing in agri-business is always risky, but citrus is even more so today because of Greening,” said Michel Sallin, IMG Citrus President. “We know Florida grapefruit is the best in the world. We believe in this industry and we believe in Florida grapefruit. A solution to Greening will be found, and when that day comes, we’ll be ready.”
While Greening remains a threat, IMG Citrus’ production model utilizes innovative practices and technologies to keep groves productive and profitable.
“We have adopted a more aggressive approach to production, focusing on high density, and super high density planting methods to help combat Greening by creating a more controlled environment,” said Brian Randolph, Director of Grove Production. “In the new grove, we can optimize nutrient and water management, a critical factor for production in a Greening environment. This level of precision not only helps keep the trees healthy, but it’s more environmentally sustainable by reducing water use and nutrient runoff.”
An additional 397 undeveloped tree acres will be home to the company’s new grove redevelopment project, with 273 acres of citrus trees to be set within high-density planting blocks predicted to produce mature fruit within three years, and 124 acres of trees set within existing traditional blocks.
Their high density planting methods were fine-tuned over the last three years at their groves at Cherrylake, IMG Citrus’ sister company, also founded and operated by the Sallin family.
“Cherrylake was originally all citrus groves,” explains Sallin. “We lost nearly everything during the freezes in the 1980’s. Rather than shut everything down, we adapted by turning our Cherrylake property into a thriving, ornamental tree farm that focuses on landscape construction and maintenance, while moving our citrus operation down south to where it is today. 75 Acres of land at Cherrylake is still dedicated to citrus, where we have been able to explore new varieties and high density planting methods.”
The newly-acquired Happy Food Grove also contains a 300-acre reservoir, and is home to native wildlife including deer, wild turkey, alligators, Roseate Spoonbills, and Blue Herons.
“We are stewards of our environment, and we diligently protect the quality of our air, land, and water,” said Sallin. “We realize that we do not own our land, but rather, we are borrowing it from future generations. Our best management practices help ensure our horticultural practices are in line with this philosophy.”
In addition to the land purchase, the acquisition also included transitioning 17 existing grove employees to IMG Citrus.
“It was important to us that we did not disrupt the operation of the grove, and more importantly, that the employees felt reassured that IMG Citrus would continue to provide them the opportunity to work and grow within the company,” said Joaquin Perez, Human Resources Manager. “Our goal is to make the transition as easy and as seamless as possible, and I think we’ve done that well through open communication. Employees have kept their same positions, they’re just part of a bigger family now.”
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About IMG Citrus:
IMG Citrus is a second-generation citrus grower, packer, marketer, and shipper in Vero Beach, Florida, with over 9,000 acres of productive AGland. Family owned and operated for over 35 years, IMG Citrus was founded by Michel and Veronique Sallin. Born and raised on a French farm, Michel has a genuine love for sustainable agriculture, and an entrepreneurial spirit that fuels a passion for using the most innovative processes and technologies. Today, a second generation of family-operators is involved and working alongside the most professional industry leaders that make up the IMG Citrus team.
About Happy Food:
Happy Food is IMG Citrus’ primary consumer brand, and is marketed in North America, Europe, and Asia. The brand features bright colors, happy fruit faces, and is used to pack citrus including grapefruit, oranges, and mandarins grown in Florida, as well as South America and Mexico. Since its launch in 2013, Happy Food continues to re-energize the citrus aisle with a cheerful, contemporary brand that promotes a healthy, happy lifestyle.
About IMG Enterprises:
IMG Enterprises, the holding company for IMG Citrus, is a Florida owned and operated family agri-business with divisions in citrus, real estate, mitigation banking, and landscape construction. The mission of IMG Enterprises is to manage a sustainable enterprise rooted in the land which benefits its family, employees, and community, while having a positive impact on the environment. With over 500 employees, the company ranks 31st on the list of Top Privately Held Companies by the Orlando Business Journal.
WENATCHEE, Wash. – The apple season continues to roar along and Stemilt’s latest Fruit Tracker Fast Facts analysis is proof of strong category performance in March 2019.
According to Nielsen scan data, apples made up 8.2 percent of fresh produce sales on average in the U.S. between February 24 and March 30. The volume of apples was down 1.8 percent year-over-year and dollars were up a nominal 0.2 percent.
“With less volume in this crop and supplies starting to dwindle because of seasonality, we expect to see strengthening apple prices in the coming months,” said Brianna Shales, Stemilt communications manager. “The 2019-20 apple crop is trending two weeks later than last season’s crop start and that will add pressure on supply and demand during the late summer transition.”
Regionally, the Midwest topped the national average, with apples making up 9.4 percent of fresh produce sales in March 2019. The Northeast was second with 7.7 percent of fresh produce sales from apples, followed by the South at 7.5 percent and the West at 7.8 percent.
The top five apple varieties in March 2019 were: Gala, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Red Delicious, and Granny Smith. Gala volumes were up 14 percent year-over-year with dollars also up double-digits at 10.7 percent. Gala accounted for 27 percent of March apple sales. Honeycrisp has also seen volume growth of 9.3 percent and dollar growth of 7.2 percent when compared to March 2018. Honeycrisp made up 24 percent of apple dollars in March.
“Gala has been moving in a positive direction all season. The quality of Gala this year has helped this top variety and helped drive consumer demand for apples,” said Shales.
Stemilt’s signature apple, Pinata®, saw sales increases in March 2019 when compared to the year prior. Fueled by good sizing and great eating qualities, volumes of the tropical apple were up 4 percent and dollars up 6 percent in March.
The average retail price of apples in March 2019 was $1.69 per pound. Organic apples were up nearly 2 percent in volume year-over-year and made up more than 9 percent of total apple volumes sold in March 2019. The average retail price for organics was $2.19 per pound, a 30 percent premium over conventional apples.
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About Stemilt
Stemilt Growers is a leading tree fruit growing, packing and shipping company based in Wenatchee, Washington. Owned and operated by the Mathison family, Stemilt is the leading shipper of sweet cherries and one of the nation’s largest suppliers of organic tree fruits.
RIDGE SPRING, S.C. – Titan Farms, the premier grower, packer and processor of peaches in the Eastern United States, has kicked off another season of South Carolina peaches, with initial loadings that took place in time for Memorial Day celebrations.
Titan Farms is the second largest producer of peaches in the country behind California and the largest producer in the East Coast with over 6,000 acres in production.
“We’re the only vertically integrated peach grower on the East Coast. We grow it, we pack it, we sell it. This gives us optimal control over quality at all times,” says Daryl Johnston, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Titan Farms.s
“We’re excited to get peach season started here in South Carolina,” says, Johnston. “We had an optimal winter that will provide our customers with a great tasting peach throughout the season. With an increasing interest in consumer packs – especially the two-pound bag, volume fill and retail promotions, we’re looking forward to an exciting year with our partners. At the end of the day, our goal is to help our retail partners grow their peach category. We are supporting them with a range of different retail promotions to help drive their sales.”
About Titan Farms
Titan Farm peaches will be shipping from the end of May through early September to retailers across the U.S.
Based in Ridge Spring, South Carolina, Titan Farms is the premier grower, packer and shipper of over 3 million boxes of fresh peaches, broccoli and bell peppers annually.
Two varieties of melons are being added to the line up this season by Dan Andrews Farms LLC of Bakerfield, CA.
Over the year the firm has grown honeydews, cantaloupes and watermelons and this season is adding orange-flesh honeydews as well as hami melon that shaped like a football, which have white flesh and an exterior yellow rind with a touch of green.
Hami melons taste similar to honeydews, but are more of an Asian specialty melon.
The company has reduced cantaloupe acreage to add the new melons, which were requested by customers. The produce will bein June and July.
Andrews Farms also has gone back to growing carrots after dropping the item a couple of years ago. The carrots will include jumbo and short-cut carrots for Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield.
Now that the Mueller investigation is completed, you just have to marvel at the absolute stupidity of it all.
It’s not hard to figure out why the 2016 presidential election turned out the way it did. After all it was a perfect storm. And it sure was fun watching it happen. To understand the sequence of events you need to go back to the 1992 election. In 1992 Bill Clinton defeated George Bush because of an independent named Ross Perot. Ross Perot got about 19 percent of the conservative vote which cost George Bush the election.
Now you fast forward to 2016 and you can see what the Clintons were afraid of. This time around they had an independent candidate that was running for president named Bernie Sanders. The only problem, he was a liberal. This must have struck fear into old thunder thighs Hillary. She could see the same thing happening to her as happened with George Bush. So, she cooked up a new strategy.
The Clintons needed to defeat Bernie Sanders in the primary election. That would insure he used up almost all of his campaign funds and prevent him from competing in the general election by running as an independent. So they invited him to compete in the Democratic primary election. The only risk factor was that the Clintons needed to assure themselves there was absolutely no way Bernie could win the primary. They did this by loaning the Democratic Committee over $20 million and rigging the primary election process with so called super delegates. This would insure just in case the primary voters actually voted for Bernie they could nullify the voters choice and coronate queen Hillary.
This is something that every Democrat voter should be up in arms about, but they’re not. Well, maybe one Democrat was. As usual the best plans of mice and men always seem to go awry. Here is good lesson we all should learn. You almost never get into trouble for what you don’t say. You almost always get into trouble for what you do say. With all of their money and political hacks in place there was no way Hillary could lose except for one small detail. Hillary and her cronies had communicated their plans by email to Debbie Wassermann-Shultz who was the DNC party head at that time. And they did it on a server that some stupid Democrat set the computer password to “PASSWORD”.
Now you just can’t make this stuff up. How absolutely stupid can you be? It’s my guess someone who was a Bernie supporter found these emails and was livid about what they had discovered. They turned them over to Wiki Leaks who published them and blew the entire rigged election scheme wide open. Wasserman-Shultz had to resign.
Enough Bernie supporters stayed home or voted for Donald Trump and the rest is now history. Now you throw in all the fake news the Russians posted on the internet. Mix it well with all the stupid things Hillary told the voters like, “We’re going to put a lot of you coal miners out of work. But don’t worry we’re going to retrain you for other jobs.”
Another good one was when she tried to get people who were voting for Trump to support her by calling them deplorable. Every good politician knows you can insult voters into voting for you don’t they? My guess is the one who was most surprised by the 2016 election results was Donald Trump himself.
Now all the while this was going on the FBI and DOJ had their own issues. If they went hard on Hillary for her other e-mail scandal then they were going to be in the Clinton crosshairs after she won the election. They didn’t want to lose their big fat government retirement checks. So Comey, McCabe, Struck, Page, and the rest all played along and let Hillary slide. Then they cooked up an “insurance policy” to prevent Trump from winning by using a Clinton paid for fake dossier from Russia. All to get a FISA court warrant to spy on Trump. This was better than an old Pink Panther movie.
The Clintons are out millions and lost the election. The Mueller investigation cost tax payers well over $25 million. The Democrats are in complete chaos and have a bunch of total losers running for president in 2020. Congress remains dysfunctional and has a group of air heads like AOC and Omar to deal with. And the UK was inspired by this mess and voted to pull out of the European Union.
Now let’s not forget our good old friends the Russians. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in disrupting our country. I bet they are sitting around, sipping vodka, and wondering… “How could we have possibly lost that ‘Cold War’ thing to these idiots?”
