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Florida tomato volume is rebounding as the recovery from Hurricane Irma continues. Meanwhile, double digit freights on potatoes from some states in the Western U.S. are occurring.
Florida tomato shipments remain much lighter than normal thanks to Hurricane Irma last fall, that is fixing to change. Volume is gradually coming back as the replantings mature, but it will be around Christmas or perhaps early January before volumes return to normal. Irma dumped a ton of water of some fields, so use caution loading. There’s a chance of bacterial and general quality problems with some product, until a little later in the season.
North American Potato Shipping Update
North American fall potato shipments in the most recent USDA update is pegged 505 million cwt. (per hundredweight), down 1 percent from last year. Canadian growers harvested 106 million cwt., up slightly from 2016, and U.S. growers are expected to produce 399 million cwt., down 2 percent from 2016. U.S. growers planted 906,500 acres, down from 923,800 in 2016, and harvested 900,600 acres, off from 909,600 in 2016.
Canadian growers planted 345,800 acres and harvested 342,200, both amounts similar to the previous crop. The USDA reported yields per acre at 443 cwt. for growers in the U.S. and at 309 cwt. for growers in Canada.
Potato shipments for Christmas are getting underway and truck rates from both Idaho and Colorado have increased 10 to 20 percent to many markets. Wisconsin, which has the lowest volume of the three states, is not experiencing volatility in rates. Idaho is shipping moving nearly 1700 truckload equivalents of spuds a week, although a significant amount of this is going by rail. Colorado is shipping around 750 truckloads per week, while Wisconsin is loading about 400 truckloads. The Columbia Basin and Umatilla Basin on the Washington/Oregon border has similar volume (about 350 loads) to Colorado and rates have generally went up 10 to 15 percent recently.
Twin Falls area Idaho potatoes – grossing about $6300 to New York City.
San Luis Valley Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2000 to Dallas.
Stevens Point, Wisconsin area potatoes – grossing about $3300 to Atlanta.
Washington’s Columbian Basin potatoes – grossing bout $5100 to Chicago.
By NatureFresh Farms
Leamington, ON – This past PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans in October, NatureFresh Farms and Eminent Seeds NL reached a proprietary agreement within North America. NatureFresh Farms will exclusively grow and market Tomberry tomatoes in Canada, United States and Mexico. Jan van Heijningen, Director at Eminent Group, and John Ketler, Farm Manager at NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms, finalized the agreement during the tradeshow.
In spring of 2018 NatureFresh Farms will begin growing and commercially marketing this exciting new variety of tomato from its Leamington Ontario Greenhouse. Plans are to expand the production of the Tomberry tomato over the next few years, as the category grows to meet consumer demands for snacking tomatoes.
This past year NatureFresh Farms trial and development team has worked with Eminent NL Seeds to explore new tomato varieties that would fit the growing trend in the snacking category. Not only does the Tomberry deliver in flavor, it brings a new look and ingredient to the culinary world of food service. These attractive berries are very versatile in the use of salads, hot dishes, and visually appealing. The World’s Smallest Tomato, The Tomberry tomato is about 0.5 to 1 cm in diameter with an average fruit weight of 1 to 2 grams, perfect for snacking.
“The Tomberry is unique in size and has caught the interest of our retail partners,” explained Matt Quiring, Executive Retail Sales Manager. “The snacking trend in North America has exploded and we continue to search for new items that will help grow our snacking category. This pearl sized fruit’s unique size is something hard to miss and even more difficult to pass by without picking up. Once a consumer tries them, we are confident that they will be coming back for more. Visually, it is candy to the eyes. From a sensory standpoint, we can back that up.”
Over the next few months, NatureFresh Farms will be developing packaging and branding for a launch scheduled in spring 2018.
About NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms –
NatureFresh Farms has grown to become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable growers in North America growing operations in Leamington, ON and Delta. Family owned NatureFresh Farms ships Non-GMO greenhouse grown produce year-round to key retailers throughout North America.
By Branch
South Bay, FL — Branch: A Family of Farms, the country’s largest distributor of sweet corn, is thankful that their crops were not impacted by Hurricane Irma and they are excited about the many new varieties that they will be offering as they enter into another leaf season.
Branch Farms grows and ships a full assortment of leafy vegetables including; escarole, endive, Chinese cabbage, green and red leaf lettuce, kale, butter, Bibb, Boston, romaine lettuce, cilantro and also Italian and plain parsley.
This winter’s forecast is predicted to be much cooler, which are ideal growing conditions for leafy greens in Florida. They are forecasting a strong season due to overall crop outlook as well as the improvements in varietal development and increased interest in local programs.
“We are extremely grateful to have escaped major damage unlike others who were impacted by the hurricane,” says Brett Bergmann, president of Branch. “As we look ahead to our leafy vegetable season, we expect to see increased demand due to excitement around our regional offerings, as well as advantages for our customers in freshness and overall delivered cost.”
Branch continues to invest in trialing new varieties to find better offerings each season, and will have multiple new varieties rolling out for the 2017 and 2018 season. The primary goal of the research and development of these varieties is to continue to improve upon the eating experience for the consumer, as well as improve upon how varieties perform in the Southern climates. They are especially excited about a new Endive variety that is in production this season. When trialed, they discovered this variety has shown better tolerance to heat and humid growing conditions, allowing their farmers to grow and pack a more superior product. Branch is also experimenting with a new pack on Cilantro, Curly and Plain Parsley. They plan to trial this in 2-3 markets this season and anticipate a wider expansion in the 2018 – 2019 season.
###
About Branch
Since 1957, our founding principles still drive us at Branch: integrity, quality, service – a commitment to our industry and the sustainability of our environment. As a family owned and operated business, we are a premier grower, packer, shipper of sweet corn in the United States also offering our customers green beans, leafy greens, radishes and celery.
Remote container management technology is being introduced by Sealand, providing exporters and importers the ability to monitor conditions of fruits and vegetables from inside the containers in which they are shipped.
SeaLand, Maersk Transport and Logistics division’s regional ocean carrier to the Americas, said in a news release the technology monitors temperature, humidity, oxygen levels and the location and ventilation of the containers in transit, whether on land or at sea.
“Moving fresh produce to and from markets in the Americas is an exciting and important business,” Sealand CEO Craig Mygatt said in the release. “Consumers today want access to fresh produce all year long. We’re making that possible whether it’s bananas and pineapples from Costa Rica and Panama to the U.S. or tropical and exotic fruits such as mangoes.
Porterville Citrus acquires packing operations of LoBue Citrus
Sunkist citrus shipments will increase this season, with a member of the cooperative acquiring another shipper.
Porterville Citrus of Terra Bella, CA is a Sunkist grower who has acquired the packing operations of LoBue Citrus of Lindsay, CA., according to a news release.
Under the terms, the LoBue family will continue to own and operate its 1,000-acre citrus farming operation.
“LoBue Citrus has a rich history in the industry, and we are pleased to be able to help them continue that legacy through our organization,” Jim Phillips, president of Porterville Citrus said. “The purchase also marks further growth for Porterville Citrus, positioning us for a strong season ahead.”
For the 2017-18 season, Porterville Citrus will integrate the LoBue Citrus packing facility in Lindsay into its operations and also add a large portion of the organization’s grower network. That will increase the navel orange, mandarin, lemon and specialty acreage of Porterville Citrus and the Sunkist cooperative as a whole”.
“It’s a great to start the season by adding more high quality volume to our mix,” Russ Hanlin, president and CEO of Sunkist Growers said.
An early start for West Mexican vegetables crossing the border at Nogales, AZ is a result of warm weather and good growing conditions. It is resulting in earlier-than-normal good supplies of winter produce items.
Good volume has started this week with vegetables ranging from green bell peppers to squash. Mexico’s biggest volume produce item, tomatoes, should start crossing the border at Nogales no later than the third week of December.
Of particular interest to many produce haulers should be the fact that there may be more loadings of Mexican vegetables at Nogales destined for the East Coast this season since weather factors in the East have delayed plantings.
Loading delays in Nogales has been an issue for years, but observers say the situation is improving at the Nogales-Mariposa Port of Entry, although more customs agents are still needed. A load of produce crossing the Mexican border into Arizona used to take six to eight hours, but this has reportedly been cut to two hours or less.
Here are examples of what some shippers of Mexican produce are doing.
Calavo Growers Inc. has shade house-grown tomatoes through mid-May and the Santa Paula, CA based company expects to increase its volume by 10 to 15 percent this season from Mexico.
Del Campo Supreme Inc. in Nogales, Ariz., will start shipping a full line of tomatoes, ranging from vine-ripes, beefsteak, tomatoes-on-the-vine and grape tomatoes, starting in mid-December. The tomatoes are grown in both shade house and green house facilities.
During the 2016-17 season, Mexican growers exported approximately 1.2 billion pounds of round, roma, cherry and grape tomatoes to the U.S.
Some of the shippers for Mexican vegetables through Nogales are:
Big Chuy Distributing Co. Inc, Nogales, plus Ciruli Bros. LLC, Grower Alliance LLC, IPR Fresh, and Thomas Produce Sales Inc. all located in Rio Rico, AZ.
Here are some of the Mexican vegetables and when they will be shipped.
** Eggplant, and squash started in early November
**Beans will be in peak volume all of December
** Roma and beefsteak tomatoes start in mid December
** Hothouse-grown red, yellow and orange bell peppers and shade house-grown green bells are being shipped September through May
**Green bell peppers are shipped from mid November though April
Mexican veggies crossing at Nogales – grossing about $3600 to Chicago; $6500 to New York City.
California strawberry shipments in 2017 have already exceeded its 2016 record setter with a full month to go in the year.
By the middle of November California growers had packed 197.3 million crates statewide, exceeding the 196.8 million crates produced during all 12 months of 2016.
What is ironic about the shipping season is California experienced one of its rainiest winters on record in 2016-17, plus the heavy strawberry production area of the Salinas Valley, among others, had an exceptionally hot summer.
However, the rains helped to rinse away some of the salts that had built up in the top layer of soil during the drought.
Higher yields from newer strawberry varieties also contributed to the record crop. Growers planned to plant 36,141 acres of strawberries in 2017, off from 40,816 acres four years earlier.
California strawberry shipments take place the year around and basically follow the sun. During the peak shipping season, all of the state’s major growing regions — Oxnard, Orange County, Santa Maria and Watsonville are loading berries. Peak shipments are typically in the spring and early summer, but it came later this year due to spring rains.
Strawberry shipments in the early part of 2017 were adversely affected by big storms. The result was amazing with seasonal rainfall totals in many coastal areas being around 150 percent of normal. Luckily, growers for the most part avoided major damage from the storms.
A recent consumer survey revealed strawberries as America’s favorite fresh fruit. 32 percent of respondents identified strawberries as their favorite fruit, in the survey that did not provide a list of fruits from which to choose. Bananas (9 percent) placed second, while watermelons (8 percent) were the third favorite fruit in the U.S.
California is the leading strawberry shipping region in the world. The state also provides nearly 80 percent of the strawberries grown, packed, shipped and consumed in the U.S.
While California strawberries are currently coming mostly out of Santa Maria and Oxnard, this is a light volume time of the year. Mexican strawberry shipments are currently light as well, but is increasing in volume with the new shipping season.
Santa Maria strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $8000 to New York City.
A planned purchase of Associated Grocers of Florida for $180 million has been made by Supervalu.
AGF of Pompano Beach, serves independent retailers in South Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America and Asia, according to a news release. The company generated $650 million in revenue in its fiscal year ending last July.
Associated Grocers will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu when the deal is complete.
“Associated Grocers represents a great opportunity for us to further expand our wholesale business into another important region,” Mark Gross, president and CEO of Supervalu, said in the release.
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close by the end of 2017.
Quarterly report
Supervalu generated $3.8 billion in net sales in the second quarter, up 35 percent from last year, according to a news release. The increase in sales came mostly on the wholesale side of the business, which saw a major increase in the wake of Supervalu’s acquisition of Unified Grocers, a move the company made last summer.
Supervalu reported a net loss from continuing operations of $25 million, partly due to costs of integrating Unified Grocers.
Gross profit was $428 million, or 11.3 percent of net sales, down from 14.1 percent last year. The company stated the decrease is mostly due to Supervalu shifting its business segment mix toward wholesale.
On the retail side, same-store sales were down 3.5 percent. Second-quarter retail sales were $1.02 billion, down 1.1 percent from last year.
“We continue to make tremendous strides in driving our strategy, evidenced by another quarter of strong growth from our core wholesale business which now represents over 70 percent of net sales,” Gross said. “Additionally, our results now include the benefit of Unified Grocers, where I’m pleased the transition is going well. We have a lot to be excited about as we turn our focus toward the back half of our fiscal year.”
Florida fresh citrus shipments should increase this season, despite the state’s expected 27 percent plummet in volume from a year ago, according to a USDA estimate in November. This would cut the crop to 50 million boxes.
The primary culprit is Hurricane Irma that hit Florida September 10th.
Florida grapefruit shipments are forecast to be 4.65 million boxes, down 40 percent from last year. The November forecast in down from the last one issued in October, but many in the Florida citrus industry believe actual harvest numbers will be even lower.
For long haul truckers of refrigerated products, this may not be all bad news. For example, DLF International Inc. of Vero Beach, FL expects to ship more fruit to the fresh market this season. The company’s October fresh volume doubled over the same period a year ago. At the same time it will be sending less product to processors.
Florida Classic Growers of Dundee, FL is the marketing arm of the Dundee Citrus Growers Association. It actually has more citrus than a year ago. The company has been shipping sunburst tangerines, which should continue into December. The firm’s grapefruit loadings got underway in early November and should continue into January. Florida navels and hamlin oranges began in early November, and may last through December. The valencia harvest for the cooperative should start in January and continue into June.
Seald Sweet LLC of Vero Beach is starting valencia shipments earlier than normal to help make up for early and mid-season varieties that had a shorter than usual season. Seald Sweet, which lost at least 30 percent of its oranges to the hurricane expects to ship a higher percentage of its citrus to the fresh market.
At IMG Citrus Inc. of Vero Beach, 35 percent of its fruit was lost to the storm. IMG had planned a volume increase prior to the hurricane because of maturing groves and the acquisition of additional acreage. Following Irma, IMG, sees its shipments declining 10 to 15 percent from a year ago. The company expects light volumes until the end of the year, but good volume coming with the New Year.
Pleasanton, Calif., — DeltaTrak® announces the addition of a new data security feature to the FlashLink BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) Wireless Monitoring Solution.
According to Frederick Wu, President and CEO of DeltaTrak, “With the new security feature, shippers have the option to require receivers to enter an access code before they can see or download data from the BLE loggers. This gives them that extra layer of data security.” A smartphone app sends information from a mobile device to the BLE Web Application where it can be viewed remotely by authorized users.
This solution is ideal for three types of applications which include 24/7 facility monitoring, pre-cooling operations, and delivery routes. With the FlashLink BLE loggers, customers have secure access to data, immediate alert notifications, and reports in PDF and CSV formats.
The FlashLink BLE logger helps suppliers maintain continuous visibility of temperature and humidity during facility monitoring and pre-cooling operations. It is especially ideal for 24/7 facility monitoring, such as cold storage warehouses, distribution centers, greenhouses, temperature controlled processing, packing and staging areas. Alert notifications are sent to personnel which allow them to take quick corrective action before products are compromised by changes in temperature conditions.
With the FlashLink BLE Wireless Monitoring Solution, pre-cooling operations will improve efficiency, increase pallet throughput and extend product shelf life. The loggers monitor produce in cooling tunnels and when required temperatures are reached alerts are sent via email or SMS notifications. Instead of pre-cooling based on time and relying on staff to take pulp temperature, this automates tracking and provides real-time temperature conditions during the process. Data can be analyzed by personnel to identify strengths and weaknesses of their operation, and assure that products are adequately cooled, while eliminating the problem of pallets not being cooled long enough.
For delivery routes, receivers can also read temperature history data from the FlashLink BLE Logger without opening the vehicle doors or locating the logger inside the truck. As soon as a vehicle arrives, the smart phone application accesses data from the logger from up to ~100 feet / 30 meters away, so information is available immediately upon arrival.
FlashLink BLE Logger settings are customizable, including device name, logging interval, and high/low alarm limits. All data is available in the cloud, where temperature and location are reviewed remotely for tracking shipments in progress, making cold chain management decisions and reports for audits, HACCP and FSMA documentation.
Good supplies of fresh vegetables and citrus is being predicted by observers from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas as they gear up for the holiday season.
Among the dozens of different vegetables are kale, cilantro and cabbage as well as mustard, collard and turnip greens. As far as citrus is concerned, grapefruit shipments got underway in early November, and several varieties of oranges should be ready by early December.
Vegetable shipper Frontera Produce Ltd., of Edinburg, Texas, began loading cabbage, its biggest vegetable item of the winter, last week. The company started its jalapeno pepper shipments in late October and the product should be available through mid-December, depending upon the weather.
Frontera volume should increase slightly on jalapenos, with shipments on other commodities remaining similar to a year ago. The firm began cilantro shipments the first week of November and will continue until mid-April.
Crescent Fruit & Vegetable LLC is a sister company of Frontera, which will load about the same volume of onions and watermelons as last year.
Another South Texas shipper, Grow Farms Texas LLC, located in Donna, will ship green, red and napa cabbage this winter, along with squash, eggplant, cucumbers and jalapenos and Anaheim chili peppers. Grow Farms will be loading green bell peppers until the first frost.
Rio Fresh Inc., of San Juan, Texas, was shipping about 20 wet vegetables by late October and early November that included herbs, parsley and beets. In early December the company should be shipping specialty vegetables such as bok choy, napa cabbage, leeks and spinach.
Citrus Shipments
Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus acreage for the 2017-18 shipping season should be similar to a year ago when it totaled 27,000 acres, with about 70 percent of this acreage being rio red grapefruit.
Grapefruit acreage in South Texas is expected to increase by 4,000 acres within 12 to 18 months.
South Texas and imported Mexican produce – grossing about $3100 to Chicago.
Florida tomato volume is rebounding as the recovery from Hurricane Irma continues. Meanwhile, double digit freights on potatoes from some states in the Western U.S. are occurring.
Florida tomato shipments remain much lighter than normal thanks to Hurricane Irma last fall, that is fixing to change. Volume is gradually coming back as the replantings mature, but it will be around Christmas or perhaps early January before volumes return to normal. Irma dumped a ton of water of some fields, so use caution loading. There’s a chance of bacterial and general quality problems with some product, until a little later in the season.
North American Potato Shipping Update
North American fall potato shipments in the most recent USDA update is pegged 505 million cwt. (per hundredweight), down 1 percent from last year. Canadian growers harvested 106 million cwt., up slightly from 2016, and U.S. growers are expected to produce 399 million cwt., down 2 percent from 2016. U.S. growers planted 906,500 acres, down from 923,800 in 2016, and harvested 900,600 acres, off from 909,600 in 2016.
Canadian growers planted 345,800 acres and harvested 342,200, both amounts similar to the previous crop. The USDA reported yields per acre at 443 cwt. for growers in the U.S. and at 309 cwt. for growers in Canada.
Potato shipments for Christmas are getting underway and truck rates from both Idaho and Colorado have increased 10 to 20 percent to many markets. Wisconsin, which has the lowest volume of the three states, is not experiencing volatility in rates. Idaho is shipping moving nearly 1700 truckload equivalents of spuds a week, although a significant amount of this is going by rail. Colorado is shipping around 750 truckloads per week, while Wisconsin is loading about 400 truckloads. The Columbia Basin and Umatilla Basin on the Washington/Oregon border has similar volume (about 350 loads) to Colorado and rates have generally went up 10 to 15 percent recently.
Twin Falls area Idaho potatoes – grossing about $6300 to New York City.
San Luis Valley Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2000 to Dallas.
Stevens Point, Wisconsin area potatoes – grossing about $3300 to Atlanta.
Washington’s Columbian Basin potatoes – grossing bout $5100 to Chicago.
By NatureFresh Farms
Leamington, ON – This past PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans in October, NatureFresh Farms and Eminent Seeds NL reached a proprietary agreement within North America. NatureFresh Farms will exclusively grow and market Tomberry tomatoes in Canada, United States and Mexico. Jan van Heijningen, Director at Eminent Group, and John Ketler, Farm Manager at NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms, finalized the agreement during the tradeshow.
In spring of 2018 NatureFresh Farms will begin growing and commercially marketing this exciting new variety of tomato from its Leamington Ontario Greenhouse. Plans are to expand the production of the Tomberry tomato over the next few years, as the category grows to meet consumer demands for snacking tomatoes.
This past year NatureFresh Farms trial and development team has worked with Eminent NL Seeds to explore new tomato varieties that would fit the growing trend in the snacking category. Not only does the Tomberry deliver in flavor, it brings a new look and ingredient to the culinary world of food service. These attractive berries are very versatile in the use of salads, hot dishes, and visually appealing. The World’s Smallest Tomato, The Tomberry tomato is about 0.5 to 1 cm in diameter with an average fruit weight of 1 to 2 grams, perfect for snacking.
“The Tomberry is unique in size and has caught the interest of our retail partners,” explained Matt Quiring, Executive Retail Sales Manager. “The snacking trend in North America has exploded and we continue to search for new items that will help grow our snacking category. This pearl sized fruit’s unique size is something hard to miss and even more difficult to pass by without picking up. Once a consumer tries them, we are confident that they will be coming back for more. Visually, it is candy to the eyes. From a sensory standpoint, we can back that up.”
Over the next few months, NatureFresh Farms will be developing packaging and branding for a launch scheduled in spring 2018.
About NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms –
NatureFresh Farms has grown to become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable growers in North America growing operations in Leamington, ON and Delta. Family owned NatureFresh Farms ships Non-GMO greenhouse grown produce year-round to key retailers throughout North America.
By Branch
South Bay, FL — Branch: A Family of Farms, the country’s largest distributor of sweet corn, is thankful that their crops were not impacted by Hurricane Irma and they are excited about the many new varieties that they will be offering as they enter into another leaf season.
Branch Farms grows and ships a full assortment of leafy vegetables including; escarole, endive, Chinese cabbage, green and red leaf lettuce, kale, butter, Bibb, Boston, romaine lettuce, cilantro and also Italian and plain parsley.
This winter’s forecast is predicted to be much cooler, which are ideal growing conditions for leafy greens in Florida. They are forecasting a strong season due to overall crop outlook as well as the improvements in varietal development and increased interest in local programs.
“We are extremely grateful to have escaped major damage unlike others who were impacted by the hurricane,” says Brett Bergmann, president of Branch. “As we look ahead to our leafy vegetable season, we expect to see increased demand due to excitement around our regional offerings, as well as advantages for our customers in freshness and overall delivered cost.”
Branch continues to invest in trialing new varieties to find better offerings each season, and will have multiple new varieties rolling out for the 2017 and 2018 season. The primary goal of the research and development of these varieties is to continue to improve upon the eating experience for the consumer, as well as improve upon how varieties perform in the Southern climates. They are especially excited about a new Endive variety that is in production this season. When trialed, they discovered this variety has shown better tolerance to heat and humid growing conditions, allowing their farmers to grow and pack a more superior product. Branch is also experimenting with a new pack on Cilantro, Curly and Plain Parsley. They plan to trial this in 2-3 markets this season and anticipate a wider expansion in the 2018 – 2019 season.
###
About Branch
Since 1957, our founding principles still drive us at Branch: integrity, quality, service – a commitment to our industry and the sustainability of our environment. As a family owned and operated business, we are a premier grower, packer, shipper of sweet corn in the United States also offering our customers green beans, leafy greens, radishes and celery.
Remote container management technology is being introduced by Sealand, providing exporters and importers the ability to monitor conditions of fruits and vegetables from inside the containers in which they are shipped.
SeaLand, Maersk Transport and Logistics division’s regional ocean carrier to the Americas, said in a news release the technology monitors temperature, humidity, oxygen levels and the location and ventilation of the containers in transit, whether on land or at sea.
“Moving fresh produce to and from markets in the Americas is an exciting and important business,” Sealand CEO Craig Mygatt said in the release. “Consumers today want access to fresh produce all year long. We’re making that possible whether it’s bananas and pineapples from Costa Rica and Panama to the U.S. or tropical and exotic fruits such as mangoes.
Porterville Citrus acquires packing operations of LoBue Citrus
Sunkist citrus shipments will increase this season, with a member of the cooperative acquiring another shipper.
Porterville Citrus of Terra Bella, CA is a Sunkist grower who has acquired the packing operations of LoBue Citrus of Lindsay, CA., according to a news release.
Under the terms, the LoBue family will continue to own and operate its 1,000-acre citrus farming operation.
“LoBue Citrus has a rich history in the industry, and we are pleased to be able to help them continue that legacy through our organization,” Jim Phillips, president of Porterville Citrus said. “The purchase also marks further growth for Porterville Citrus, positioning us for a strong season ahead.”
For the 2017-18 season, Porterville Citrus will integrate the LoBue Citrus packing facility in Lindsay into its operations and also add a large portion of the organization’s grower network. That will increase the navel orange, mandarin, lemon and specialty acreage of Porterville Citrus and the Sunkist cooperative as a whole”.
“It’s a great to start the season by adding more high quality volume to our mix,” Russ Hanlin, president and CEO of Sunkist Growers said.
An early start for West Mexican vegetables crossing the border at Nogales, AZ is a result of warm weather and good growing conditions. It is resulting in earlier-than-normal good supplies of winter produce items.
Good volume has started this week with vegetables ranging from green bell peppers to squash. Mexico’s biggest volume produce item, tomatoes, should start crossing the border at Nogales no later than the third week of December.
Of particular interest to many produce haulers should be the fact that there may be more loadings of Mexican vegetables at Nogales destined for the East Coast this season since weather factors in the East have delayed plantings.
Loading delays in Nogales has been an issue for years, but observers say the situation is improving at the Nogales-Mariposa Port of Entry, although more customs agents are still needed. A load of produce crossing the Mexican border into Arizona used to take six to eight hours, but this has reportedly been cut to two hours or less.
Here are examples of what some shippers of Mexican produce are doing.
Calavo Growers Inc. has shade house-grown tomatoes through mid-May and the Santa Paula, CA based company expects to increase its volume by 10 to 15 percent this season from Mexico.
Del Campo Supreme Inc. in Nogales, Ariz., will start shipping a full line of tomatoes, ranging from vine-ripes, beefsteak, tomatoes-on-the-vine and grape tomatoes, starting in mid-December. The tomatoes are grown in both shade house and green house facilities.
During the 2016-17 season, Mexican growers exported approximately 1.2 billion pounds of round, roma, cherry and grape tomatoes to the U.S.
Some of the shippers for Mexican vegetables through Nogales are:
Big Chuy Distributing Co. Inc, Nogales, plus Ciruli Bros. LLC, Grower Alliance LLC, IPR Fresh, and Thomas Produce Sales Inc. all located in Rio Rico, AZ.
Here are some of the Mexican vegetables and when they will be shipped.
** Eggplant, and squash started in early November
**Beans will be in peak volume all of December
** Roma and beefsteak tomatoes start in mid December
** Hothouse-grown red, yellow and orange bell peppers and shade house-grown green bells are being shipped September through May
**Green bell peppers are shipped from mid November though April
Mexican veggies crossing at Nogales – grossing about $3600 to Chicago; $6500 to New York City.
California strawberry shipments in 2017 have already exceeded its 2016 record setter with a full month to go in the year.
By the middle of November California growers had packed 197.3 million crates statewide, exceeding the 196.8 million crates produced during all 12 months of 2016.
What is ironic about the shipping season is California experienced one of its rainiest winters on record in 2016-17, plus the heavy strawberry production area of the Salinas Valley, among others, had an exceptionally hot summer.
However, the rains helped to rinse away some of the salts that had built up in the top layer of soil during the drought.
Higher yields from newer strawberry varieties also contributed to the record crop. Growers planned to plant 36,141 acres of strawberries in 2017, off from 40,816 acres four years earlier.
California strawberry shipments take place the year around and basically follow the sun. During the peak shipping season, all of the state’s major growing regions — Oxnard, Orange County, Santa Maria and Watsonville are loading berries. Peak shipments are typically in the spring and early summer, but it came later this year due to spring rains.
Strawberry shipments in the early part of 2017 were adversely affected by big storms. The result was amazing with seasonal rainfall totals in many coastal areas being around 150 percent of normal. Luckily, growers for the most part avoided major damage from the storms.
A recent consumer survey revealed strawberries as America’s favorite fresh fruit. 32 percent of respondents identified strawberries as their favorite fruit, in the survey that did not provide a list of fruits from which to choose. Bananas (9 percent) placed second, while watermelons (8 percent) were the third favorite fruit in the U.S.
California is the leading strawberry shipping region in the world. The state also provides nearly 80 percent of the strawberries grown, packed, shipped and consumed in the U.S.
While California strawberries are currently coming mostly out of Santa Maria and Oxnard, this is a light volume time of the year. Mexican strawberry shipments are currently light as well, but is increasing in volume with the new shipping season.
Santa Maria strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $8000 to New York City.
A planned purchase of Associated Grocers of Florida for $180 million has been made by Supervalu.
AGF of Pompano Beach, serves independent retailers in South Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America and Asia, according to a news release. The company generated $650 million in revenue in its fiscal year ending last July.
Associated Grocers will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu when the deal is complete.
“Associated Grocers represents a great opportunity for us to further expand our wholesale business into another important region,” Mark Gross, president and CEO of Supervalu, said in the release.
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close by the end of 2017.
Quarterly report
Supervalu generated $3.8 billion in net sales in the second quarter, up 35 percent from last year, according to a news release. The increase in sales came mostly on the wholesale side of the business, which saw a major increase in the wake of Supervalu’s acquisition of Unified Grocers, a move the company made last summer.
Supervalu reported a net loss from continuing operations of $25 million, partly due to costs of integrating Unified Grocers.
Gross profit was $428 million, or 11.3 percent of net sales, down from 14.1 percent last year. The company stated the decrease is mostly due to Supervalu shifting its business segment mix toward wholesale.
On the retail side, same-store sales were down 3.5 percent. Second-quarter retail sales were $1.02 billion, down 1.1 percent from last year.
“We continue to make tremendous strides in driving our strategy, evidenced by another quarter of strong growth from our core wholesale business which now represents over 70 percent of net sales,” Gross said. “Additionally, our results now include the benefit of Unified Grocers, where I’m pleased the transition is going well. We have a lot to be excited about as we turn our focus toward the back half of our fiscal year.”
Florida fresh citrus shipments should increase this season, despite the state’s expected 27 percent plummet in volume from a year ago, according to a USDA estimate in November. This would cut the crop to 50 million boxes.
The primary culprit is Hurricane Irma that hit Florida September 10th.
Florida grapefruit shipments are forecast to be 4.65 million boxes, down 40 percent from last year. The November forecast in down from the last one issued in October, but many in the Florida citrus industry believe actual harvest numbers will be even lower.
For long haul truckers of refrigerated products, this may not be all bad news. For example, DLF International Inc. of Vero Beach, FL expects to ship more fruit to the fresh market this season. The company’s October fresh volume doubled over the same period a year ago. At the same time it will be sending less product to processors.
Florida Classic Growers of Dundee, FL is the marketing arm of the Dundee Citrus Growers Association. It actually has more citrus than a year ago. The company has been shipping sunburst tangerines, which should continue into December. The firm’s grapefruit loadings got underway in early November and should continue into January. Florida navels and hamlin oranges began in early November, and may last through December. The valencia harvest for the cooperative should start in January and continue into June.
Seald Sweet LLC of Vero Beach is starting valencia shipments earlier than normal to help make up for early and mid-season varieties that had a shorter than usual season. Seald Sweet, which lost at least 30 percent of its oranges to the hurricane expects to ship a higher percentage of its citrus to the fresh market.
At IMG Citrus Inc. of Vero Beach, 35 percent of its fruit was lost to the storm. IMG had planned a volume increase prior to the hurricane because of maturing groves and the acquisition of additional acreage. Following Irma, IMG, sees its shipments declining 10 to 15 percent from a year ago. The company expects light volumes until the end of the year, but good volume coming with the New Year.
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Good supplies of fresh vegetables and citrus is being predicted by observers from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas as they gear up for the holiday season.
Among the dozens of different vegetables are kale, cilantro and cabbage as well as mustard, collard and turnip greens. As far as citrus is concerned, grapefruit shipments got underway in early November, and several varieties of oranges should be ready by early December.
Vegetable shipper Frontera Produce Ltd., of Edinburg, Texas, began loading cabbage, its biggest vegetable item of the winter, last week. The company started its jalapeno pepper shipments in late October and the product should be available through mid-December, depending upon the weather.
Frontera volume should increase slightly on jalapenos, with shipments on other commodities remaining similar to a year ago. The firm began cilantro shipments the first week of November and will continue until mid-April.
Crescent Fruit & Vegetable LLC is a sister company of Frontera, which will load about the same volume of onions and watermelons as last year.
Another South Texas shipper, Grow Farms Texas LLC, located in Donna, will ship green, red and napa cabbage this winter, along with squash, eggplant, cucumbers and jalapenos and Anaheim chili peppers. Grow Farms will be loading green bell peppers until the first frost.
Rio Fresh Inc., of San Juan, Texas, was shipping about 20 wet vegetables by late October and early November that included herbs, parsley and beets. In early December the company should be shipping specialty vegetables such as bok choy, napa cabbage, leeks and spinach.
Citrus Shipments
Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus acreage for the 2017-18 shipping season should be similar to a year ago when it totaled 27,000 acres, with about 70 percent of this acreage being rio red grapefruit.
Grapefruit acreage in South Texas is expected to increase by 4,000 acres within 12 to 18 months.
South Texas and imported Mexican produce – grossing about $3100 to Chicago.