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Weekly boat shipments between the Mexican ports of Veracruz and Altamira and the port of Philadelphia have been scheduled by Miramar, Fla.-based SeaLand of Miramar, FL.
The service will provide goods such as avocados, lemons and tomatoes, according to a Sealand news release. It is geared for producers and exporters of perishable goods to the U.S. and provides the economies of scale, security and reliability of an ocean service combined with expedited transit.
From Philadelphia, Mexican shippers can reach up to 40 percent of the U.S. population within a day’s drive by truck. The service features a six-day transit time, and its first sailing is planned for January 26 out of Veracruz.
The SeaLand Atlantico service will have the following port rotation: Veracruz-Altamira-Philadelphia, the release said.
“We are pleased to provide Mexican exporters an alternative to land transport with a high level of security and care for their products,” Jorge Monzalvo, SeaLand Mexico commercial manager, said in the release. “With the SeaLand Atlantico customers avoid transloading cargo, congestion at the border and limited truck power between countries.”
A federal judge approved a $25 million settlement that completes one chapter of a five-year long antitrust battle over the nation’s potato market being manipulated by a potato cartel.
Consumers will get $5.5 million and grocers $19.5 million. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted final approval of the settlement on December 14.
Potato buyer Brigiotta’s Farmland Produce and Garden Center of Jamestown, NY filed the class action against the United Potato Growers of America (UPGA), United Potato Growers of Idaho (UPGI) and a long list of member and nonmember growers in 2010. The lawsuit, and another filed by Associated Wholesale Grocers in 2013, claims the defendants conspired to inflate the price of potatoes “in classic cartel behavior,” that the cartel used physical and nonphysical intimidation to get independent growers to join, that it used high-tech methods of surveillance and physical “flyovers” to monitor members, and that the successful campaign led to an 80 percent control of the market.
Idaho grower Albert Wada, of Wada Farms Group, allegedly spearheaded the campaign, founding the United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho in 2004, later renaming it the United Potato Growers of Idaho. The organization’s purpose, as stated in its articles of incorporation, is to “stabilize potato prices and supplies in the state of Idaho and to work with similar cooperatives in other states having similar purposes,” according to the third amended complaint, a 107-page monster filed on Jan. 24, 2014.
United Potato Growers of America was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City. Members pay dues from $10,000 to $500,000 based on acreage, according to the complaint. The “cooperatives” were formed in response to declining prices. Growers reduced the supply of potatoes, in part, by changing their contracts with customers, basing orders on a specific number of acres of potatoes to be grown instead of a specific quantity of potatoes.
Here’s an update on California citrus shipments, Red River Valley potatoes, plus the government’s 2016 outlook for food prices.
About 84 million boxes of California navels, 8 percent more than last year, are expected to be harvested this season. The estimate remains unchanged from the preseason harvest. This is a pleasant surprise considering all of the fruit and vegetable shipments that have been disrupted this winter ranging from the California desert to Mexico and Florida.
California citrus – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
North Dakota growers, dealers, and processors held 19.5 million hundredweight (cwt.) of potatoes in storage on December 1, or 72 percent of production. Stocks one year earlier were considerably lower at 16.9 million cwt., which represented 71 percent of the total crop.
Minnesota held 12.5 million cwt., or 68 percent of production, that compares to 10 million cwt. and 61 percent in 2014. Total stocks are defined as all potatoes on hand, regardless of use, including those that will be lost through future shrinkage and dumping.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1700 to Chicago.
2016 Inflation Outlook
Fruit and vegetable retail prices should rise at a faster rate in 2016 than the previous year.
The USDA’s latest Food Price Outlook predicts retail inflation for fresh fruits for 2016 at 2.5% to 3.5%, compared to estimated deflation of -1.25 to -2.25 percent in 2015. The USDA said part of the reason for the decline in fruit prices in 2015 was linked to the supply and price of imports.
Fresh vegetable retail prices are projected to increase by 2 to 3 percent in 2016. That compares with modest projected inflation of 0.75 to 1.75 percemt for retail fresh vegetables in 2015.
Overall retail food inflation for 2016 is projected to rise in a normal range of between 2 to 3 percent, up from estimates of 2015 inflation of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, according to the USDA. Inflation for food away from home is projected in a range between 2.5 to 3.5 in 2016, up from 2.2 to 3.2 inflation projected for 2015.
Apple has announced a less known, but essential capability of the iPhone 6s, the Plum-O-Meter, an application created by Simon Gladman.
The Plum-O-Meter allows fruit shoppers to weigh their plums by placing them on the screen of the application. Gladman says that Plum-O-Meter uses the advanced technology in the pressure-sensitive screen to act as a scale: the app signals which of the objects placed on the display is heavier.
This application can also weigh apples, lemons, coconuts or anything else relatively heavy. Gladman originally wanted to make the application for grapes but they were too light to activate the 3D Touch.
Preventing Heart Disease
It has been discovered that eating fruits and vegetables as a young adult will help prevent heart disease and coronary artery plaque 20 years later.
The researchers divided data from 2,506 study participants into three groups, based on their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. Women in the top third ate an average of nearly nine servings of daily fruits and vegetables and men averaged more than seven daily servings. In the bottom third, women consumed an average 3.3 daily servings and men 2.6 daily servings. All servings were based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
Researchers found that people who ate the most fruit and vegetable at the start of the study had 26 percent lower odds of developing calcified plaque 20 years later, compared to those who ate the least amount of fruits and vegetables.
Growing and shipping fruits and vegetables in winter is risky business and weather conditions too often play havoc. For example, cold weather in the California and Arizona deserts are disrupting vegetable shipments. In Florida, southern vegetables have been pounded by heavy rains, literally wiping out crops. Strawberry shipments further north in Florida are being hurt by heat.
Desert Vegetable Shipments
Cold weather in the early season and variable weather since then has slowed vegetable growth – and shipments of cauliflower, broccoli, Iceberg lettuce, leaf items or Brussels sprouts. With temperature highs varying as much as 20 degrees from day to day, problems happen. Then there are nightly lows around freezing, that curtail early morning harvests. The result is volume running 25 to 50 percent below normal, which will continue through the end of the year. Farming operations are having to remove the outer leaves of lettuce with ice damage.
California, Arizona desert vegetables grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
Florida Vegetable Shipments
South Florida’s Redlands growing region was hit with torrential rains in early December, resulting in severe damage to winter yellow squash, zucchini and green beans.
The 15 inches of rain that pounded Florida City and Homestead, Fla., also hurt tomatoes and sweet corn, but the squash and beans sustained the most severe damage with losses in the 60 to 70 percent range. The excessive water killed many plants and caused serious quality issues that prevented vegetables from being shipped for the Christmas holidays.
The region grows product primarily mid-November through mid-April, similar to Belle Glade, Fla., and Immokalee.
Belle Glade ships corn and beans while Immokalee ships beans, tomatoes and squash.
Florida Strawberry Shipments
Higher than normal temperatures in the Plant City, FL area has resulted in strawberry shipments facing shipping gaps. Volume is less than normal due to the heat. Although volume is starting to increase, it will probably be the second full week of January before loadings are up to where they should be.
Florida vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
The Port of Wilmington, Delaware last week received the first fresh fruit of the winter season for the United States, for distribution throughout the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The fruit arrived on The Pacific Mermaid, a refrigerated vessel operated by Trans Global Shipping N.V. of the Global Reefers service. The boat’s cargo had nearly 618,500 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and table grapes.
This was the sixth consecutive year Delaware has received the initial break bulk shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River, but in the U.S. The Port of Wilmington expects this season to receive at least two dozen more shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo and Caldera.
Over 50 percent of the Chilean fruit sent to U.S. markets travels through Delaware River ports, with Chile becoming Wilmington’s largest refrigerated storage customer during the Southern Hemisphere growing season.
Last season, the port handled over 18.65 million boxes of Chilean fruit, a 10 percent increase over the 2013-2014 season.
More than 2,000 people work at the port and more than 750 jobs are tied to the Chilean fruit trade, which generates about $40 million in personal income for those involved and $4 million in tax revenue.
Washington state has finished its apple harvest and is looking to ship 118.5 million boxes of fruit for the 2o15-16 shipping season, which would be the third largest on record.
If apple shipments hold for the season this would be about 15 percent smaller than last year’s monstrous 140 million boxes of apples.
As of December 1st, packing houses have shipped about 25 percent of the crop, a higher than average share by that point of the season.
The early 2015 harvest caused some extra overlap with 2014 storage apples, especially Red Delicious apples. The 2014 crop cleared warehouses at about the same pace as the 2012 crop, the previous record. The industry shipped 6.7 percent of the 2014 crop after September 1st this year, compared to 8 percent, of the 2012 crop after Sept. 1, 2013.
A word of caution for apple haulers this season, some Washington state apple growers are expressing concerns about storage quality due to water shortages and extra hot weather over the summer. This could require even more attention to detail for truckers to what’s being put in the truck at loading docks as the season progresses and apples have been in storage for a longer amount of time.
We’ll try to keep you apprised as the apple season moves forward.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6600 to Boston.
California grape shipments are in decline because of less late season volume and reports of growing quality problems. This has already resulted in many East Coast buyers turning to imported table grapes and this trend will continue to gather momentum as imported table grape volumes climb.
Through early December Peruvian grape shipments had totaled 2.1 million cases to the US East Coast, more than twice the tonnage that was shipped in the same period last year. In that same period, Peruvian exporters loaded 240,000 cases to the US West Coast and 450,000 cases to the Canadian market (at both east and west coast ports).
Imported seedless grapes are increasing in volume, but arrivals will remain light through December.
California grape shipments will soon be limited to destinations west of the Mississippi River.
San Joaquin Valley grapes – grossing about $4000 to both Chicago and Dallas.
Chilean Imported Fruit
Chilean imported cherry and blueberry arrivals are well below traditional levels in similar fashion to grapes. Chilean table grape shipments faced a delayed start due to weather factors and the first Chilean charter to the US East Coast didn’t arrive until December 14th . Its cargo, which will included table grapes and stonefruit, was expected to be the only Chilean fruit that makes distribution before the Christmas holiday.
West Mexico winter vegetable shipments are crossing the border into Nogales, AZ, although heavier volume typically doesn’t occur until January.
Shipping gaps of product from Mexico are not as common as they used to be thanks in part to signicant volume coming from vegetables grown under shade houses and in green houses.
Tomato shipments including romas, grape tomatoes and some round tomatoes are gradually increasing in December, with heaviest volume occurring January through March. Mexican red peppers are in very light volume, and similar to tomatoes, are not expected to have significant loadings until around Christmas.
Melons such as watermelons and honeydew are more unpredictable due to winter growing conditions south of the border, but light volumes are expected through the end of the year.
Cucumber shipments have been underway since mid-September, which were soon followed by zucchini, yellow and gray squash, English cucumbers started the third week of October and hard squash in early November. Loadings of those items as well as green beans, and eggplant were underway with the arrival of December.
Mexican vegetable shipments crossing at Nogales – grossing about $2800 to Chicago.
Keys to the Cart: Driving Hass Avocado Sales at Retail, unveils how avocado purchases impact the value of the retail market basket, and identifies key shoppers and purchase behaviors driving these results, according to a new study by the Hass Avocado Board.
For example, the retail market basket analysis shows that shoppers spend 65 percent more in-store overall when avocados are in the basket; and millennial shoppers spend 73 percent more in-store overall when avocados are in the basket.
“The study, based on IRI household panel data, yields actionable insights into how high-value shoppers, such as millennials, are driving the category by purchasing avocados more frequently and spending more each time,” Emiliano Escobedo, executive director of the Hass Avocado Board, said in a press release. “Equally as interesting is how regional segmentation sheds light on areas that may be poised to deliver the next big wave of category growth.”
When viewing information on total U.S. households, the study found that over half of U.S. households purchase avocados with an average of 33 days between purchases. On average, shoppers purchase avocados six times per year and spend $3.49 per purchase. This equates to an annual avocado dollar spend of $20.76 per household.
The study offers in-depth insight into various consumer groups and geographic regions:
- Millennial Avocado Buyers — Millennial households are more likely to buy avocados and spend more on avocados than non-millennials. Millennials spend 22 percent more per occasion. Millennial baskets with avocados are $76.36, which is $8.74 above the average basket with avocados and $10.08 greater than non-millennial baskets with avocados.
- Bulk and Bagged Avocado Buyers — Buyers who purchase both bulk and bagged avocados spend more each year and purchase more frequently than bulk-only and bagged-only buyers. Bagged-only buyers have the highest avocado market basket at $137.93; both buyers also drive a higher-than-average avocado basket at $81.22; and the avocado market basket for bulk-only buyers is slightly below the average at $61.57.
- Avocado Buyers in Geographic Regions — The retail market basket with avocados in Emerging Regions (Aggregate of Midsouth, Great Lakes, Northeast, Plains and Southeast) is higher than in Developed Regions (Aggregate of California, West and South Central). Emerging Region baskets with avocados are $69.11, which is $1.49 above the national average for baskets with avocados and $2.92 greater than Developed Regions. However, the annual avocado spend is increasing at a faster rate in the Emerging Regions.
Weekly boat shipments between the Mexican ports of Veracruz and Altamira and the port of Philadelphia have been scheduled by Miramar, Fla.-based SeaLand of Miramar, FL.
The service will provide goods such as avocados, lemons and tomatoes, according to a Sealand news release. It is geared for producers and exporters of perishable goods to the U.S. and provides the economies of scale, security and reliability of an ocean service combined with expedited transit.
From Philadelphia, Mexican shippers can reach up to 40 percent of the U.S. population within a day’s drive by truck. The service features a six-day transit time, and its first sailing is planned for January 26 out of Veracruz.
The SeaLand Atlantico service will have the following port rotation: Veracruz-Altamira-Philadelphia, the release said.
“We are pleased to provide Mexican exporters an alternative to land transport with a high level of security and care for their products,” Jorge Monzalvo, SeaLand Mexico commercial manager, said in the release. “With the SeaLand Atlantico customers avoid transloading cargo, congestion at the border and limited truck power between countries.”
A federal judge approved a $25 million settlement that completes one chapter of a five-year long antitrust battle over the nation’s potato market being manipulated by a potato cartel.
Consumers will get $5.5 million and grocers $19.5 million. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted final approval of the settlement on December 14.
Potato buyer Brigiotta’s Farmland Produce and Garden Center of Jamestown, NY filed the class action against the United Potato Growers of America (UPGA), United Potato Growers of Idaho (UPGI) and a long list of member and nonmember growers in 2010. The lawsuit, and another filed by Associated Wholesale Grocers in 2013, claims the defendants conspired to inflate the price of potatoes “in classic cartel behavior,” that the cartel used physical and nonphysical intimidation to get independent growers to join, that it used high-tech methods of surveillance and physical “flyovers” to monitor members, and that the successful campaign led to an 80 percent control of the market.
Idaho grower Albert Wada, of Wada Farms Group, allegedly spearheaded the campaign, founding the United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho in 2004, later renaming it the United Potato Growers of Idaho. The organization’s purpose, as stated in its articles of incorporation, is to “stabilize potato prices and supplies in the state of Idaho and to work with similar cooperatives in other states having similar purposes,” according to the third amended complaint, a 107-page monster filed on Jan. 24, 2014.
United Potato Growers of America was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City. Members pay dues from $10,000 to $500,000 based on acreage, according to the complaint. The “cooperatives” were formed in response to declining prices. Growers reduced the supply of potatoes, in part, by changing their contracts with customers, basing orders on a specific number of acres of potatoes to be grown instead of a specific quantity of potatoes.
Here’s an update on California citrus shipments, Red River Valley potatoes, plus the government’s 2016 outlook for food prices.
About 84 million boxes of California navels, 8 percent more than last year, are expected to be harvested this season. The estimate remains unchanged from the preseason harvest. This is a pleasant surprise considering all of the fruit and vegetable shipments that have been disrupted this winter ranging from the California desert to Mexico and Florida.
California citrus – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
North Dakota growers, dealers, and processors held 19.5 million hundredweight (cwt.) of potatoes in storage on December 1, or 72 percent of production. Stocks one year earlier were considerably lower at 16.9 million cwt., which represented 71 percent of the total crop.
Minnesota held 12.5 million cwt., or 68 percent of production, that compares to 10 million cwt. and 61 percent in 2014. Total stocks are defined as all potatoes on hand, regardless of use, including those that will be lost through future shrinkage and dumping.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1700 to Chicago.
2016 Inflation Outlook
Fruit and vegetable retail prices should rise at a faster rate in 2016 than the previous year.
The USDA’s latest Food Price Outlook predicts retail inflation for fresh fruits for 2016 at 2.5% to 3.5%, compared to estimated deflation of -1.25 to -2.25 percent in 2015. The USDA said part of the reason for the decline in fruit prices in 2015 was linked to the supply and price of imports.
Fresh vegetable retail prices are projected to increase by 2 to 3 percent in 2016. That compares with modest projected inflation of 0.75 to 1.75 percemt for retail fresh vegetables in 2015.
Overall retail food inflation for 2016 is projected to rise in a normal range of between 2 to 3 percent, up from estimates of 2015 inflation of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, according to the USDA. Inflation for food away from home is projected in a range between 2.5 to 3.5 in 2016, up from 2.2 to 3.2 inflation projected for 2015.
Apple has announced a less known, but essential capability of the iPhone 6s, the Plum-O-Meter, an application created by Simon Gladman.
The Plum-O-Meter allows fruit shoppers to weigh their plums by placing them on the screen of the application. Gladman says that Plum-O-Meter uses the advanced technology in the pressure-sensitive screen to act as a scale: the app signals which of the objects placed on the display is heavier.
This application can also weigh apples, lemons, coconuts or anything else relatively heavy. Gladman originally wanted to make the application for grapes but they were too light to activate the 3D Touch.
Preventing Heart Disease
It has been discovered that eating fruits and vegetables as a young adult will help prevent heart disease and coronary artery plaque 20 years later.
The researchers divided data from 2,506 study participants into three groups, based on their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. Women in the top third ate an average of nearly nine servings of daily fruits and vegetables and men averaged more than seven daily servings. In the bottom third, women consumed an average 3.3 daily servings and men 2.6 daily servings. All servings were based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
Researchers found that people who ate the most fruit and vegetable at the start of the study had 26 percent lower odds of developing calcified plaque 20 years later, compared to those who ate the least amount of fruits and vegetables.
Growing and shipping fruits and vegetables in winter is risky business and weather conditions too often play havoc. For example, cold weather in the California and Arizona deserts are disrupting vegetable shipments. In Florida, southern vegetables have been pounded by heavy rains, literally wiping out crops. Strawberry shipments further north in Florida are being hurt by heat.
Desert Vegetable Shipments
Cold weather in the early season and variable weather since then has slowed vegetable growth – and shipments of cauliflower, broccoli, Iceberg lettuce, leaf items or Brussels sprouts. With temperature highs varying as much as 20 degrees from day to day, problems happen. Then there are nightly lows around freezing, that curtail early morning harvests. The result is volume running 25 to 50 percent below normal, which will continue through the end of the year. Farming operations are having to remove the outer leaves of lettuce with ice damage.
California, Arizona desert vegetables grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
Florida Vegetable Shipments
South Florida’s Redlands growing region was hit with torrential rains in early December, resulting in severe damage to winter yellow squash, zucchini and green beans.
The 15 inches of rain that pounded Florida City and Homestead, Fla., also hurt tomatoes and sweet corn, but the squash and beans sustained the most severe damage with losses in the 60 to 70 percent range. The excessive water killed many plants and caused serious quality issues that prevented vegetables from being shipped for the Christmas holidays.
The region grows product primarily mid-November through mid-April, similar to Belle Glade, Fla., and Immokalee.
Belle Glade ships corn and beans while Immokalee ships beans, tomatoes and squash.
Florida Strawberry Shipments
Higher than normal temperatures in the Plant City, FL area has resulted in strawberry shipments facing shipping gaps. Volume is less than normal due to the heat. Although volume is starting to increase, it will probably be the second full week of January before loadings are up to where they should be.
Florida vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
The Port of Wilmington, Delaware last week received the first fresh fruit of the winter season for the United States, for distribution throughout the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The fruit arrived on The Pacific Mermaid, a refrigerated vessel operated by Trans Global Shipping N.V. of the Global Reefers service. The boat’s cargo had nearly 618,500 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and table grapes.
This was the sixth consecutive year Delaware has received the initial break bulk shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River, but in the U.S. The Port of Wilmington expects this season to receive at least two dozen more shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo and Caldera.
Over 50 percent of the Chilean fruit sent to U.S. markets travels through Delaware River ports, with Chile becoming Wilmington’s largest refrigerated storage customer during the Southern Hemisphere growing season.
Last season, the port handled over 18.65 million boxes of Chilean fruit, a 10 percent increase over the 2013-2014 season.
More than 2,000 people work at the port and more than 750 jobs are tied to the Chilean fruit trade, which generates about $40 million in personal income for those involved and $4 million in tax revenue.
Washington state has finished its apple harvest and is looking to ship 118.5 million boxes of fruit for the 2o15-16 shipping season, which would be the third largest on record.
If apple shipments hold for the season this would be about 15 percent smaller than last year’s monstrous 140 million boxes of apples.
As of December 1st, packing houses have shipped about 25 percent of the crop, a higher than average share by that point of the season.
The early 2015 harvest caused some extra overlap with 2014 storage apples, especially Red Delicious apples. The 2014 crop cleared warehouses at about the same pace as the 2012 crop, the previous record. The industry shipped 6.7 percent of the 2014 crop after September 1st this year, compared to 8 percent, of the 2012 crop after Sept. 1, 2013.
A word of caution for apple haulers this season, some Washington state apple growers are expressing concerns about storage quality due to water shortages and extra hot weather over the summer. This could require even more attention to detail for truckers to what’s being put in the truck at loading docks as the season progresses and apples have been in storage for a longer amount of time.
We’ll try to keep you apprised as the apple season moves forward.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6600 to Boston.
California grape shipments are in decline because of less late season volume and reports of growing quality problems. This has already resulted in many East Coast buyers turning to imported table grapes and this trend will continue to gather momentum as imported table grape volumes climb.Through early December Peruvian grape shipments had totaled 2.1 million cases to the US East Coast, more than twice the tonnage that was shipped in the same period last year. In that same period, Peruvian exporters loaded 240,000 cases to the US West Coast and 450,000 cases to the Canadian market (at both east and west coast ports).
Imported seedless grapes are increasing in volume, but arrivals will remain light through December.
California grape shipments will soon be limited to destinations west of the Mississippi River.
San Joaquin Valley grapes – grossing about $4000 to both Chicago and Dallas.
Chilean Imported Fruit
Chilean imported cherry and blueberry arrivals are well below traditional levels in similar fashion to grapes. Chilean table grape shipments faced a delayed start due to weather factors and the first Chilean charter to the US East Coast didn’t arrive until December 14th . Its cargo, which will included table grapes and stonefruit, was expected to be the only Chilean fruit that makes distribution before the Christmas holiday.
West Mexico winter vegetable shipments are crossing the border into Nogales, AZ, although heavier volume typically doesn’t occur until January.
Shipping gaps of product from Mexico are not as common as they used to be thanks in part to signicant volume coming from vegetables grown under shade houses and in green houses.
Tomato shipments including romas, grape tomatoes and some round tomatoes are gradually increasing in December, with heaviest volume occurring January through March. Mexican red peppers are in very light volume, and similar to tomatoes, are not expected to have significant loadings until around Christmas.
Melons such as watermelons and honeydew are more unpredictable due to winter growing conditions south of the border, but light volumes are expected through the end of the year.
Cucumber shipments have been underway since mid-September, which were soon followed by zucchini, yellow and gray squash, English cucumbers started the third week of October and hard squash in early November. Loadings of those items as well as green beans, and eggplant were underway with the arrival of December.
Mexican vegetable shipments crossing at Nogales – grossing about $2800 to Chicago.
Keys to the Cart: Driving Hass Avocado Sales at Retail, unveils how avocado purchases impact the value of the retail market basket, and identifies key shoppers and purchase behaviors driving these results, according to a new study by the Hass Avocado Board.
For example, the retail market basket analysis shows that shoppers spend 65 percent more in-store overall when avocados are in the basket; and millennial shoppers spend 73 percent more in-store overall when avocados are in the basket.
“The study, based on IRI household panel data, yields actionable insights into how high-value shoppers, such as millennials, are driving the category by purchasing avocados more frequently and spending more each time,” Emiliano Escobedo, executive director of the Hass Avocado Board, said in a press release. “Equally as interesting is how regional segmentation sheds light on areas that may be poised to deliver the next big wave of category growth.”
When viewing information on total U.S. households, the study found that over half of U.S. households purchase avocados with an average of 33 days between purchases. On average, shoppers purchase avocados six times per year and spend $3.49 per purchase. This equates to an annual avocado dollar spend of $20.76 per household.
The study offers in-depth insight into various consumer groups and geographic regions:
- Millennial Avocado Buyers — Millennial households are more likely to buy avocados and spend more on avocados than non-millennials. Millennials spend 22 percent more per occasion. Millennial baskets with avocados are $76.36, which is $8.74 above the average basket with avocados and $10.08 greater than non-millennial baskets with avocados.
- Bulk and Bagged Avocado Buyers — Buyers who purchase both bulk and bagged avocados spend more each year and purchase more frequently than bulk-only and bagged-only buyers. Bagged-only buyers have the highest avocado market basket at $137.93; both buyers also drive a higher-than-average avocado basket at $81.22; and the avocado market basket for bulk-only buyers is slightly below the average at $61.57.
- Avocado Buyers in Geographic Regions — The retail market basket with avocados in Emerging Regions (Aggregate of Midsouth, Great Lakes, Northeast, Plains and Southeast) is higher than in Developed Regions (Aggregate of California, West and South Central). Emerging Region baskets with avocados are $69.11, which is $1.49 above the national average for baskets with avocados and $2.92 greater than Developed Regions. However, the annual avocado spend is increasing at a faster rate in the Emerging Regions.