Following the wettest May in memory, not only is the season getting a late start, but California cherry growers see fewer shipments due to rain-related fruit damage.
Chinchiolo Stemilt (Stockton) California, whose cherries are marketed by Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA., estimates the statewide cherry crop to be slashed 50 percent, or 5.25 million boxes, of the 10.5 million boxes estimated at the season’s start.
The company relates it may come in lower, depending on the condition of the fruit on the remaining trees.
Harvest of the bing variety, the state’s largest-volume cherry may suffer the most damage of any of the varieties.
Early season estimates for bings were 4.5 million cartons, which was conservative. The California cherry industry plans to continue packing into the middle of June, but volume is expected to be significantly reduced.
If the current rough estimate holds true, production would be close to the 6-year average of 6.5 million boxes. Quality cherries are predicted to be shipped from June 5 to the 20th, despite orchards having significant fruit damage.
El Camino Packing Inc. of Gilroy, CA., grows and packs cherries from about 200 acres. The operation is reported 20 to 40 percent of its early cherries being cracked because of excess rain. Later blocks appear to have less damage.
SALINAS, CA – Coastline Family Farms a western vegetable grower/shipper with locations in Salinas CA, Yuma AZ and Brawley CA., has announced the formation of a new dry onion growing and packing joint venture with Madison Ranches located in Echo, OR. The new venture will be named Madison-Cox Onions, LLC.
The Madison-Cox Onions joint venture will produce red and yellow bulb onions in Hermiston Oregon with the first harvest in September 2019 and shipping through March of 2020. Madison Ranches will be responsible for the production, storage, packing and shipping for the new venture.
Larry Cox, the CEO and grower/owner of Coastline said “My family has been growing red, yellow and white dry onions in the Imperial Valley of California for over 35 years. With the dynamics of the produce marketplace, we wanted to consolidate our onion sales under the Coastline Family Farms structure and develop an all year round onion program on the west coast.
We have known the Madison family for some time, they have a reputation for producing high quality premium onions in the Hermiston region of Oregon and knew they would be the right partner to help expand our production footprint.”
“Larry, myself, and our teams began discussing working together in the Pacific Northwest last fall. We are very excited about the opportunity to put together a quality oriented, year round onion program.” said Jake Madison, a 4th generation farmer and CEO of Madison Ranches. “Our two family farming companies are very similar which helps build a strong foundation of trust, shared values and a focus on a customer centric business model”.
“We started construction…on our new packing and storage facility which will feature a state-of-the-art, optical grading, sorting and packing line, capable of meeting the needs of our clients with onion bags ranging from 10-50lb. We focused the design on automation and state of the art equipment in order to deliver a premium product to our customers. ” added Jonathan Miller, General Manager of the Madison-Cox Onions joint venture..
“Coastline Family Farms will handle the sales and marketing for the joint venture.” said Tonya Giotta, Vice President for Foodservice Sales. The onion and vegetable sales veteran is joined by Carly Kwak-Bauch, Vice President of Product and Channel Development. Both women previously worked together at River Point Farms and were tapped by Coastline to develop a new dry onion business unit.
“The addition of the Madison-Cox joint venture in Oregon, gives Coastline a year-round, integrated west coast supply base. This enables us to provide national and regional foodservice operators, distributors, wholesalers and retail clients with a consistent year-round supply of premium dry onions.” added Tonya.
About Coastline Family Farms
Coastline Family Farms was founded in 1991 and is owned by Larry and Tina Cox. The company is a year-round grower-shipper of premium vegetables from California, Arizona and Mexico. Four generations of the Cox family have actively farmed throughout California for over 95 yrs. Today the company grows permanent, rotational and vegetable crops on over 10,000 acres of farmland in conjunction with a handful of highly respected, quality-focused family growers. This integrated grower/packer/shipper alignment, provides a product line which includes lettuces (iceberg, red & green leaf, and romaine) and a wide range of vegetables including cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, green onions, dry onions (red, yellow and white) and more.
About Madison Ranches
Since 1917 the Madison family has farmed the rich soils of the Southern Columbia Basin in Oregon. Today the 4th generation, Jake and Heather Madison manage nearly 10,000 irrigated acres producing onions, vegetables, seed crops, grains, organic crops, cattle, and feed crops. Continuing the over 100 year tradition of sustainable agricultural farming, the Madison’s use pioneering water conservation practices including cutting edge irrigation management systems, aquifer recharge along with aquifer storage and recovery (sub surface water basin replenishment and storage), and green power generation (wind, solar, and hydro).
Today is the 51st wedding anniversary for my wife Vivian and I.
It doesn’t seem that long ago I met Viv at a 4th of July church picnic. It wasn’t totally by accident as my older bother had invited me to his church a week earlier and I briefly met her there.
It’s been quite a journey and I wouldn’t be who I am today without her. We have a beautiful daughter and wonderful son-in-law, as well as a precious 5-year old grandson.
Throughout my career as a writer, mostly with trucking and produce related publications, I have had her unwavering support. Nearly all of those years I was self employed as an independent contractor. She handles the books, taxes, etc. She also can be a pretty good editor.
During most of my career in journalism there was a lot of travel. I’ve visited many produce shippers, and wholesalers, as well as transportation companies over four-plus decades, located from coast-to-coast.
I give Viv much of the credit for being there during the critical years to raise our daughter who today is an excellent physical therapist in home health. We also are so proud of her for being an extraordinary mother and wife. Our son-in-law is also very special and talented.
My wife is loving, caring and a blessing to all who know her. We are blessed with relatively good health and are thankful for our family and friends. We also are thankful to all of you who make HaulProduce.com possible.
What a life we have shared and most of it has been made possible by living in the greatest country in the world. May God bless America and each of you.
Shoppers of produce who purchase fresh cut (referred to value-added) items often or whenever possible tend to fall into several categories.
Core value-added shoppers were found by The Food and Marketing Institute in a study found that 47 percent have a six-figure household income, 47 percent make three or more shopping trips a week, and 43 percent order produce online. The results have been released in the 2019 Power of Produce report.
Additonally, 40 percent of core value-added buyers are also core local buyers, and 36 percent are also core organic buyers.
“Core value-added shoppers are interesting to retailers, with above-average spending and weekly trips,” FMI wrote in the report. “Much like seen in organic, the presence of children is a point of entry, particularly among high-income shoppers. In urban areas, expanded assortment is likely to do well, including organic value-added assortment and kid-focused solutions.”
Two years ago, 20 percent of shoppers fell into that category. Now the number is 28 percent.
“Despite the increase in purchase frequency, there is significant room for growth, with 64 percent of shoppers being occasional users, at best,” FMI wrote. “Overall, value-added users skew toward higher-income shoppers, older millennials, often with young kids living at home.”
The core value-added shoppers reported several variables that would prompt them to purchase more — better prices (57 percent), longer shelf-life (39 percent), greater assortment (39 percent), greater variety of flavors (36 percent) and better organic offering (32 percent).
Many consumers who land in the category of sometimes buying value-added produce are Gen X (47 percent). Within that periphery group, 49 percent eat fresh fruits and vegetables 4-5 days a week, 47 percent make two trips a week, and 47 percent have a household income of less than $35,000.
For that shopper segment, key triggers to buy more were better prices (63 percent) and longer shelf-life (37 percent), according to the report.
Among consumers who hardly ever buy value-added produce, many are baby boomers (37 percent), limited-assortment shoppers (31 percent), two-person households (33 percent) and people who eat produce less than three times a week (35 percent).
In that group, 58 percent said better prices would prompt them to buy more, but 17 percent said they were unlikely to buy more regardless of changes made.
Domestic blueberry shipments got underway in mid-April from Georgia and should wind down in the Northwest in late summer or early fall.
North Carolina blueberry loadings started in early May and California is just now entering its peak shipping period.
New Jersey blueberry shipments will be launched in mid-June, followed soon thereafter by Indiana and Oregon. Dry weather during the growing season may adversely affect Oregon blueberry volume.
Washington State enters the picture in late June with shipments continuing until early to mid-September.
Naturipe Berry Growers of Salinas, CA ships blueberries year-round and was loading in good volume from Delano and Bakersfield in early May. Although cool weather held up the start of the crop, volume was picking up in April as conditions improved.
California Giant Berry Farms of Watsonville has competed its shipments of Georgia blueberries and has switched to California, with volume expected to be normal.
J&B Blueberry Farms Inc. of Manor, GA will be shipping blueberries until early July.
New Jersey blueberry shipments should start in mid June, continuing into mid August.
Michigan will wrap up the domestic season with loadings underway about July 1st and continuing into September.
KIRKLAND, Wash. — Every year, up to 50 percent of all food produced worldwide goes to waste. Experienced across the entire supply chain, the negative financial and environmental consequences of these losses are massive. Fruits and vegetables account for the largest portion of wasted food in terms of mass.
Seeking to reduce this food waste that makes up a significant amount of today’s landfills, StixFresh, (https://www.stixfresh.com/), has developed a new, simple way of helping reduce our carbon footprint and foster more responsible stewardship of the immense amount of natural resources required to grow our food.
StixFresh’s solution? A sticker that can keep fruits fresh for up to two weeks longer. Just apply the sticker to the fruit and let the all-natural compound contained on the sticker create a protective layer around the fruit that will increase its shelf life.
The scientists at StixFresh have used what plants naturally secrete to protect themselves from harmful environmental conditions and applied this formulation to the surface of their stickers. Composed of an all-natural formula of specially sourced beeswax and other natural ingredients, the coating on the stickers has been independently tested and scientifically shown to keep fruits and vegetables fresh for longer.
StixFresh Co-Founder and CEO, Moody Soliman, further elaborates on this novel process, stating that, “the repurposed compounds work together to create a protective layer around the fruit, thus naturally slowing down spoilage and over-ripening. By slowing down these processes, we can extend the freshness of many fruits by up to an incredible two weeks. Further independent studies have also shown that fruits treated with the StixFresh sticker show increased sweetness, higher retention of moisture, and sustained cellular structure resulting in increased firmness.”
StixFresh provides a post-harvest solution that is:
Simple: StixFresh is minimally invasive with no need to inject or coat the fruit with anything. Easily peel and place StixFresh stickers on apples, pears, avocados, dragon fruits, star fruits, kiwis, mangos, oranges, and other citrus fruits to help keep them firm, sweet and juicy.
Effective: Through countless comparative tests, StixFresh has proven to deliver incredible results, extending the shelf-life of fruit for up to two weeks.
Safe: Keep your fruit fresh longer without chemicals. StixFresh is made of all-natural ingredients which meet GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) requirements in accordance with the FDA.
StixFresh was recently selected as a finalist for three categories at the 2019 World Food Innovation Awards and took home the award for Best Packaging Technology and Best Sustainability Initiative.
Originally developed by Malaysian inventor, Zhafri Zainudin, StixFresh stickers currently work with apples, pears, avocados, dragon fruits, star fruits, kiwis, mangos, oranges, and other citrus fruits, but the team at StixFresh are actively working on the application of their sticker for additional fruits and vegetables, such as berries, bananas, and tomatoes.
About StixFresh
StixFresh’s mission is to develop and commercialize groundbreaking and innovative technologies that will significantly reduce food waste via all-natural methods. In addition to fruits and vegetables, they hope to expand to providing food waste reduction solutions across the many food and agricultural industries.
It has been a slow start due to rainy weather earlier this year, but California strawberry shipments are gradually returning to normal volume this spring.
California strawberry loadings had amounted to about 27.7 million trays on April 20th, compared to about 29 million trays last year.
On a weekly basis, volume for the week ending April 20th was around 7 million trays, up from about 5.6 million trays for the same week in 2018.
Shipments had picked up leading up Mother’s Day May 12th and with the May 27th Memorial Day.
Ventura County strawberries are pretty much finished, but Santa Maria is picking up the slack with the Salinas/Watsonville not far behind.
Well-Pict Inc. of Watsonville wrapped up its Oxnard season the first week of May and now is focusing on Santa Maria and Watsonville.
Santa Maria and Watsonville both started late due to consistently rainy weather, although the precipitation was welcomed even though it pushed back the season a little.
In mid-April, Watsonville and Santa Maria were running about two to three weeks behind their normal shipping schedules, although strong volume is expected through June.
Naturipe Berry Growers Salinas has been in full shipping mode from Santa Maria since early May. Volume has gradually been increasing since then at their Salinas/Watsonville operations.
This season is pretty much back to normal following a dry year in 2018.
California Giant Berry Farms of Watsonville in now hitting peak shipments out of Santa Maria, with the second round of harvesting now underway in Watsonville where loadings are ramping up.
Santa Maria strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7100 to New York City.
(Fort Valley, Georgia) – 2019 Georgia peach shipments officially kicked off on May 20th and this season is shaping up to be one of the best with enough volume to consistently supply its receivers over the 15-week availability period.
The Genuine Georgia Group expects to pack approximately 3 million boxes of peaches this season.
“We’re excited for a strong season with our customers. Everyone knows a Georgia peach can’t be beat and this season, we’ve been blessed by mother nature,” notes Duke Lane III, partner with Genuine Georgia. “The cool Spring has set us up for a successful Summer. It’s given us healthy, flavorful, unmatched sugary sweet Georgia peaches.”
Offering fresh peaches packaged bulk by the pound (volume-filled or tray pack) as well as convenient Grab-and-Go 2-pound bags, there’s a compelling opportunity for each retail partner to shine.
A recent Nielsen study on peach trends and opportunities (December 2018) demonstrated that 2018 was the first year that fixed weight produce items outsold loose produce. It also revealed that the top performing retailers in the country carried multiple skus – 2 times more than the lowest performing peach retailers.
“We see that when retailers carry multiple peach skus, mixing bulk with our grab-and-go bags, they instantly maximize sales opportunities by capturing different consumers at point of purchase,” notes Will McGehee, partner at Genuine Georgia. “It’s this kind of savvy partner that we expect to see shine this peach season.”
For more information about the Genuine Georgia Group, go to www.genuinega.com or call 478-822-9210.
CITRUSDAL, South Africa – Now in its 20th year serving the U.S. with fresh citrus during the summer months, Summer Citrus from South Africa is looking for an improved export season to the America with removal of water restrictions.
South Africa exports citrus to the U.S. from June to October.
The group is looking to increase exports to the U.S. of easy peelers and mandarins. South Africa is the second largest exporter of citrus globally and the ultimate goal for the overall program in 2019 is to increase market share for the country’s fruit in the U.S.
After emerging from a three year drought, the growers of SCSA are looking for the “first proper citrus crop without any water restrictions,” underlining the association’s excitement around the potential of the upcoming season.
About Summer Citrus from South Africa (SCSA)
Summer Citrus from South Africa represents a group of South African citrus growers who consolidate their logistics, marketing and sales efforts to bring the finest citrus fruit to market during the U.S. summer season. Established in 1999 and re-branded for expanded marketing efforts in 2016, the group provides Navels, Midknights, East Peelers, Star Ruby Grapefruit and Cara-Cara oranges for the U.S. market.
The cost of eating out is rising faster than eating at home.
The latest USDA Economic Research Service food price outlook reports restaurant food prices in October were up 2.5 percent higher than year-ago.
By contrast, the USDA reports food purchased at grocery stores was just 0.1 percent higher compared to a year ago.
“Between the 1970s and early 2000s, food-at-home prices and food-away-from-home prices increased at similar rates,” the report said. “Since 2009, however, food-at-home and food-away-from-home price growth has diverged.”
While grocery prices have shown signs of price deflation in recent years, restaurant prices have steadily increased.
In part, the different price responses are attributed to variations in the cost structure of restaurants versus supermarkets or grocery stores. Labor and rental costs are a bigger factor with restaurants than grocers.
For this reason, decreasing farm-level and wholesale food prices, which have exerted downward pressure on food-at-home prices, have had less of an impact on restaurant menu prices.
Outlook
For 2018, the USDA notes retail food prices are expected to change between zero to 1 percent, below the 20-year historical average of 2.1 percent.
The USDA said while fats and oils, pork, nonalcoholic beverages, dairy, and processed fruits and vegetables could potentially decline in price, prices for beef and veal, poultry, fish and seafood, eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables are expected to increase.
“Due to deflation in 2016 and 2017, expected price increases would still leave overall price levels in 2018 lower than in 2015,” the USDA said.
For 2019, the USDA said retail prices are expected to rise between 1 and 2 percent, which would mean the fourth year in a row with lower-than-average inflation.
Fruits and Vegetables
Retail prices for fresh fruits in October were down 1.5 percent compared with October 2017, with apple prices off 3.6 percent and banana prices were off 0.7 percent.
The USDA expects fresh fruit prices to increase 1 to 2 percent in 2018 and increase 2 to 3 percent in 2019.
Retail fresh vegetable prices in October were 0.7 percent higher than in October 2017. Fresh vegetable prices are expected to change between zero and 1 percent in 2018 and increase an additional 2.5 to 3.5 percent in 2019.
The cost of eating out is rising faster than eating at home.