The first imports of the Honeybear Brands 2019 Chilean Honeycrisp are leaving their southern hemisphere orchards and will begin to arrive at U.S. ports in early April and are expected to be delivered to retail supermarkets no later than April 15th. The crop represents the first fresh picked Honeycrisp apples to arrive at U.S. retail in this year.
Since Honeybear’s first Chilean Honeycrisp crop was planted in 2008 in the Araucania region of Southern Chile, production has grown to more than 400,000+ cases in 2019, making Honeybear Brands the leading importer of record, not just of Honeycrisp but all apples and pears out of South America. Likewise, Honeybear is also the leading organic Honeycrisp importer with supply doubling compared to 2018 as more acreage is transitioned from conventional to organic production.
Honeybear’s 2019 crop is both the largest production volume of high quality fruit to ever to come out of the company’s southern hemisphere orchards thanks to two key factors. Exceptional growing conditions with just the right balance of warm days, cooler nights and perfect rainfall have given the crop the classic traits of the perfect Honeycrisp: high color, firm texture and juicy, crisp bite. And the precision work of the company’s team on the ground in growing, picking and packing premium quality apples is second to none.
Honeybear Brands is a leading grower and developer of premium apple varieties. The company started as Wescott Agri Products, a family run apple orchard in the early 1970s. From that early start several generations ago, today Honeybear still employs the same hands-on, personal attention to each and every apple variety produced through the Honeybear Apple Varietal Development Program. Honeybear is the leading provider of Honeycrisp apples in the Northwest region and offers complete domestic and global supply integration from varietal development to growing, packing, shipping and retailer support. The company has close to one hundred varieties in various stages of commercial testing and is renowned for bringing retail star Pazazz to market.
California Valencia orange shipments for the season remain unchanged in the USDA latest forecast, while there is a mixture of changes in the estimates for Florida citrus shipments, depending on the items.
The USDA is forecasting the California Valencia orange shipments at 19 million 40-pound cartons, the same as the final utilized production of valencias in the 2017-18 season.
The state’s bearing acreage is 29,000, the same as the most recent season.
The growing season had mostly dry weather early, but rainy throughout February. The average number of fruit per tree, 573, is 9 percent greater than last season, and above the 5-year average of 568.
Data was collected from 349 groves, primarily in Tulare, Kern, Fresno, Ventura and San Diego counties.
Florida grapefruit shipments dropped 10 percent for the current growing season in Florida, while the orange volume remains steady.
The USDA reports Florida remains on pace to ship enough oranges to fill 77 million 90-pound boxes — the industry standard — during the current season.
Meanwhile, growers are on pace now to fill 5.4 million boxes of grapefruit, which is down from 6 million boxes projected in February.
Also, projections of specialty citrus such as tangelos and tangerines, which declined by 16.7 percent over the first 2 months of the year, fell another 5 percent in the latest forecast, from a projection of 1 million boxes in February to 950,000 boxes.
Despite the lower projections for grapefruit and specialty fruit, the industry appears headed to an improvement over the past two growing years.
Hurricane Irma in 2018 devastated the 2017-2018 crop, resulting in just 49.58 million boxes of oranges, grapefruit and other citrus.
During the 2016-2017 season, meanwhile, Florida had 68.7 million boxes of oranges.
The recent figures pale for an industry that two decades ago produced more than 200 million boxes of citrus a year. The industry continues to struggle against citrus greening disease, development pressures and a change in drinking habits.
Walmart will be adding hundreds of more truck drivers this year after adding 1400 drivers in 2018.
The company reports assessments, mentorship and a faster hiring process are all a part of new onboarding events that are filling critical new jobs created by Walmart’s business growth during an industry-wide driver shortage.
“These hiring events are both improving the skill level of our candidates and enriching their onboarding experience,” Lori Furnell, Walmart’s director of driver talent acquisition, said in a press release.
“We’re leaning heavily on the expertise of our Walmart road team and our certified driver trainers to grow our skilled fleet of professional drivers,” she said.
Walmart is raising driver wages, accounting for a one-cent-per-mile increase and additional pay for every arrival.
Walmart drivers will now earn on average $87,500 a year and with an all-in rate close to 89 cents per mile, according to the release.
Furnell said Walmart is transforming its hiring process to give applicants the opportunity to learn the “Walmart way.”
The release said two centralized locations — Casa Grande, AZ., and Lauren, S.C. — serve as week-long onboarding facilities for new hires to observe veteran drivers and then practice those skills “the Walmart way.”
Targeted one-on-one mentoring from veteran drivers has been introduced in the new way that Walmart hires, according to the company.
The revamped orientation initiatives have already cut in half the time between a candidate’s initial interview and a mandatory driving assessment, according to the release.
To be hired by Walmart, drivers must meet Walmart’s high minimum standards for its private fleet drivers, which includes 30 months of experience in the past three years and a clean safety record, according to the release.
Fewer shipments of spring vegetables this season and a delay in volume loadings is occurring in a key California growing region, the Salinas Valley.
Frequent and excessive rainfall are prime culprits.
At Pacific International Marketing of Salinas, plantings were interrupted in January and February. The disruptions in normal, consistent plant schedules for the early season is making forecasts challenging regarding yields and total volume.
Winter production challenges from the deserts of California and Arizona and Mexico has made the seasonal transition to Salinas more difficult to predict as well.
Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, CA reports winter rainfall in the Salinas area was has been about 130 percent above normal. This has resulted in some vegetable crops such as broccoli and cauliflower maturing slowly, with uneven growth. .
Duda Farm Fresh Foods of Salinas notes rains prevented farms from conducting necessary cultural practices, such as applying fertilizer.. Planting schedules also could throw off harvest and shipping schedules since multiple plantings were being done in one week during the breaks in weather rather than planting over several weeks
Salad Savoy Corp. of Salinas reports delays in planting have been one to two weeks depending on the crops.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
Henry Avocado Corp. of Escondido, CA., has moved about 7 miles across town to a spacious west side location after being on the east side of town for 94 years.
The two-story, 50,000-square-foot headquarters facility includes a packinghouse and distribution center. It is located in an industrial center and is close to two major thoroughfares — the Interstate 15 Freeway, which runs north and south, and State Route 78, which runs east and west.
The new building is 20 percent larger than the previous facility and has the latest processing, refrigeration and forced-air ripening elements in the industry.
The move allows the consolidation the administrative and processing machinery and personnel, all of which were in several buildings at the old location.
It includes 6,000 square feet of office space, 20 forced-air ripening rooms and 5 loading docks.
The facility also has a modern cold storage facility and a large yard for tractor trailers.
The move started in late summer and was just completed.
The company continues to operate a second 29,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Escondido.
Henry Avocado can ship 2 million cartons of avocados from the 2 facilities annually.
The original Escondido facility will be demolished to make room for a housing development, but the firm will continue to farm in the upper elevations.
The company, a year-round avocado grower-shipper, operates seven Primus Labs-certified distribution centers throughout the U.S. with a total of 100 ripening rooms.
Following 2 years of weather-related disappointing seasons, Southeastern blueberry shipments should more normal this season.
In March 2018 frosts hit fruit that had an early set due to a warmer than usual winter.
J&B Blueberry Farms Inc. of Manor, GA., picked only 200,000 pounds last season, off, down from the usual 1.25 million pounds of fresh blueberries from 170 acres.
Barring a late frost, the company expects a more typical harvest beginning about April 15th, with peak shipment coming in May before the season winds down in late June or early July.
Last season was the second in a row for low volume for Swain Foods of Patterson, GA. Production fell to 150,000 pounds last year. The grower-shipper markets fruit from a total of about 250 acres which includes his own farm as well as other growers.
Swain Foods expects to ship over 1 million pounds of fruit this season, beginning around the end of April, with highbush peaking in the first two weeks of May and rabbiteye in mid-June. The season should wrap up by mid-July.
In 2018, Georgia shipped 50 million pounds; 30 million in 2017 and 67 million in 2016.
The volumes are much less compared to 2015’s 85 million pounds.
Alma (GA) Nursery & Berry Farms, shipped only 700,000 pounds of fresh berries and 1 million pounds for the frozen market last year.
This season, the company looks to move 2.5 million pounds of fresh highbush and rabbiteye berries and 600,000 pounds of frozen fruit from about 400 acres. Shipments should start about April 5th, with peak loading coming around May 12th and the first week in June, before completing the season in late June.
If the weather cooperates, Alma Nursey & Berry Farms expects Georgia as a whole to ship around 100 million pounds of berries this season.
Florida Blueberry Shipments
Naturipe Farms of Grand Junction, MI has operations in Florida and started harvest the first half of March and ich.-based Naturipe Farms expects to start limited harvesting around March 11, loadings are now at a peak.
Wish Farms Inc. of Plant City, FL expects to ship about 4 million pounds this year from the 600 acres working with about 19 contract growers.
Harvest started in mid-March with peak shipments occurring the first week to 10 days of April. Blueberries picked and shipped north of Gainesville, FL should continue until Memorial Day.
Crystal Valley Foods, Miami, FL. was importing Chilean blueberries which overlapped a little with its new season for Florida berries. The company will be shipping Florida fruit through May. The company will be handling Georgia blueberries from April through June or early July, and Alabama product from May through June.
South Texas onion shipments have been increasing since there should be strong volume by mid-April.
Favorable weather and temperatures during the growing season have only dipped into the 30s a couple of times with no reports of freeze damage.
Early season shipments from the Lower Rio Grande Valley have been lighter due to a lot of rain and some cooler weather. The first Texas onions are usually loaded around St. Patrick’s Day.
Last year, onion acreage in the lower Rio Grande and the Winter Garden-Uvalde region was a little over 7,500 acres.
During the past few years, acreage has been increasing in by about 100 acres or 200 acres annually, but there is some thought that attrition and cutbacks by onion growers could cut acreage by 20 to 30 percent this season.
About 70 percent of the acreage is located in the Rio Grande Valley and 30 percent in the Winter Garden-Uvalde area. Valley shipments should continue into late May or early June.
Winter Garden and Uvalde onions will start by the end of April and run through June.
The Onion House of Weslaco, TX has spoke of a strong, quality crop, aided by a nice winter and a good spring. Most of the Texas onion shipments will occur from April through mid-May.
During 2018, there were adequate onion supplies from Mexico and south Texas, in addition to late-running volume from Washington and Idaho-eastern Oregon, which tended to flood the market.
This year an onion shortage in Holland and an expected quicker end to the Peruvian onion season has American growers more optimistic, since Mexico and then Texas’ onion crop will be the only fresh new crop of sweet onions available.
Last season there was a significant increase in truck rates for onion shipments as demand outstripped the supply of equipment. This season growers are reporting better truck supplies, although rate increases are expected moving into spring.
Well, here we are well into another year. We have a lot more people now that have moved to our lake in Northeastern Oklahoma, and they have come from all parts of the nation and all walks of life. They have brought with them their customs and the local culture from whence they came.
Some of them have found it hard to adjust to our frontier way of life. Oklahoma is just a bit over 100 years old . We have our own way of doing things and our own outlook on life. For the most part we are individual self-reliant people who want to be left alone. The pioneer spirit and that culture of freedom rings true for all Native American people. And in Oklahoma that is our native culture.
That is one reason we see things so different than many of the other more populous states. One thing we are not very good at is following the crowd. We are independent thinkers. Which is one reason we are slower to adopt change. It is also why we don’t suffer the problems that other states get themselves into.
The common sense of the people in Oklahoma is without question. “Look before you leap “ has been a very common practice among our people. It is for that reason we are not in the financial trouble many states are in. We are leaders in many other ways. While we are a heavy oil and gas producing state we are also the third leading producer of wind powered energy.
Our state also has an abundance of lakes and water resources. That is often a shock to those who live in coastal states. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the phrase “Where do you sail in Oklahoma?” In fact, the Catalina Nationals will be held this summer on Lake Fort Gibson for the second time. I travelled in 48 of our 50 states in my travels. During all of those travels I found no other state that had a better quality of life than we do here in Oklahoma.
One thing that has made Oklahoma a great place to live is our work ethic. We have always been a people that has a “can do” attitude. A strong work ethic and family oriented value system has been a hallmark of the Oklahoma people. My grandfather, Earnest A. Hetherington, owned a farm just west of Cushing, Oklahoma. He fathered and raised 8 children in the middle of the Great Depression and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.
Yet he never took a single dime of government handout money. It was a matter of pride with him. Compare that with today’s new millennial generation of over emotional whiners and complainers. There is a stark contrast to be made here. It is my belief that the move to a dependant society in our country is due in large part to single parent families.
It was my father that told me to “suck it up, nobody owes you a thing.” If I had been raised only by my mother I would have grown up thinking that we were all just going to dance in the daises and sing kumbaya. The ethics parents pass on to their children does matter. In a world that is growing more emotional and intolerant of others beliefs you can expect change agents to cause a higher degree of social upheaval. Our close link to the values of our forefathers has kept the people of Oklahoma more grounded in reality than other states.
Regardless of the situation you can count on Oklahomans to survive. We have survived floods, tornados, droughts, fires, and even a losing season at OU in our past, and we are still standing tall. So bring on 2019, hoist a few beers, grit your teeth, and hang on.
(Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.)
PennRose Farms of Wimauma, FL., has added two more growers to its network in the U.S. and Mexico.
Moore Farms of Manor, GA, and Patterson Farm of China Grove, N.C., has joined PennRose Farms, as exclusive suppliers, according to a news release. Moore Farms grows bell peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, specialty peppers, cabbages and eggplants. Patterson Farm launches its season in June with shipments of bell peppers, specialty peppers and cucumbers, continuing through October.
“Our spring, summer and fall vegetable lineups bring substantially greater value for our customers with the addition of these growers who share our vision of quality, safety, sustainability and service,” Jason Wyatt, director of sales and business development at PennRose Farms said in the release. “As a grower-owned company, we will continue investing in innovative and long-term supply chains.”
Chuck Ciruli, managing partner of PennRose Farms, welcomed Moore Farms and Patterson Farm to the company in the release. Patterson will have a key role in expanding year-round distribution as a local producer with retail and foodservice customers.
Imports of Mexican mangoes for the 2019 season are finally moving into good volume following a slow start in January and February.
Overall volume from Mexico through mid-May will be 11 percent less than last year — about 27.9 million 8.8-pound boxes, according to the National Mango Board of Orlando, FL.
The Mexican mango season began the second week of January and should continue into early October.
As of the week ending February 9th, Mexican growers had shipped approximately 608,336 boxes to the U.S. this season. During the same period last year, Mexico had shipped about 1.5 million boxes.
Vision Import Group of Hackensack, NJ started its Mexican mango imports in early March when it completed its Peruvian mango imports.
Freska Produce International LLC of Oxnard, CA was shipping limited supplies of Mexican mangos in the middle of February, and was trailing last season’s imports by about 1 million pounds due to weather factors during the growing season.
Amazon Produce Network of Vineland, NJ received its first Mexican mangoes February 11th, which was showing some quality problems, but improvements have come with arrivals of the tropical fruit since then. Heavy volume with quality Mexican product was expected for April and May. By then Amazon also will be imported mangoes from Guatemala, Coast Rica and Nicragua.
Ciruli Bros. LLC of Rio Rico, AZ received its initial Mexican mangoes coming through South Texas and Nogales, AZ in early March. Imports were expected to be good until the week before Easter (April 21st), picking slows because of labor challenges during Holy Week. Normal imports were expected in time for Cinco de Mayo, May 5th.
