Author Archive
January and February are typically peak volume months for Mexican vegetable shipments through Nogales, AZ. While volumes will soon start declining, there is still a substantial amount of produce crossing the border for shipments destined throughout much of the U.S. and Canada.
No doubt about it, Mexican tomatoes will continue to be the driving force for product grown in West Mexico and shipped through the port at Nogales. This is led in large part by vine ripe tomatoes, the product that drives Florida tomato shippers absolutely crazy, because the vine ripe are largely viewed as having much better flavor than the Florida grown mature green tomatoes. There also is decent volume with romas coming out of Mexico.
Besides tomatoes, there remains good volume with green bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon and various squash, ranging from zucchini to yellow, butternut, acorn and spaghetti. Most of the vegetable shipments will continue into late May or early June before hot weather in Mexico ends the season.
A trend often referred to as “protected agriculture” continues to grow in popularity in the farming areas of Mexico. Called “mesh houses,” or shade houses, vegetables receive more protection from Mother Nature’s weather whims. Better quality vegetables also reduce the chances of claims and rejections by produce haulers at destination. Among the more popular vegetables being grown this way are tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Squash and watermelons still are mostly grown in open fields.
Nogales vegetable shipments – grossing about $1300 to L.A., $3700 to Chicago.
April will be here before we know it, and this means increasing volumes for Florida produce shipments.
Southern Specialties announced the company has started shipping Florida grown blueberries. This year’s blueberry crop will include Farthing, Flicker, Chickadee and Meadowlark varieties. Florida blueberries, Southern Selects blackberries and premium Adelita variety raspberries are distributed from the company’s Pompano Beach, FL distribution facility.
“ This year’s Florida blueberry crop has nice bloom and great flavor,” said Alex Henderson, Key Account Manager for the company.
Southern Selects Florida blueberries will be available until the end of April when the company transitions its program to Georgia and the Carolinas. Southern Specialties ships blueberries year round.
Southern Specialties is a grower, importer, processor and shipper of a variety of specialty products grown in Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The company distributes from its Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters, and facilities in McAllen, Texas and Los Angeles, California.
Sweet Corn Shipments
Florida sweet corn shipments have been relatively light during the winter months, but loadings will be picking up significant as we enter April. The sweet corn harvest shifts from Homestead to the Belle Glade region about March 16-23. However, peak spring shipments probably won’t hit until around the middle of April. Heaviest volume should be from about April 11th to May 5th.
We will also be having updates soon on a variety of mixed Florida vegetables that will have similar shipping schedules as corn.
Florida produce – grossing about $3000 to New York City.
Desert produce shipments are winding down headed towards an earlier-than-normal finish out of the Arizona’s Yuma district and California’s Imperial Valley.
Volume is already very light on broccoli and cauliflower from the desert regions. Meanwhile, those same items are getting an early start from the Salinas Valley.
Salinas vegetable shipments started with very light volume a week ago, and it will the week of March 16th before broccoli and cauliflower start hitting good volume.
Meanwhile, a similar situation exits with lettuce ranging from Iceberg to romaine and leaf lettuce, which are winding down in the desert areas….To bridge the gap between the desert areas and Salinas, there is about a three-week shipping season out of the San Joaquin Valley’s Huron disrict. However, there’s going to be a shipping gap as Huron lettuce shipments won’t get underway until the week of March 23rd.
Meanwhile, shipping gaps with head lettuce, romaine and leaf that were common during the desert winter shipping season are expected to remain in play through March and into April as Salinas starts shipping.
California/Arizona desert vegetables – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Salinas/Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
By Larry Oscar
I guess it wouldn’t be normal if this year didn’t start off with some sort of rant about our screwed up government and the Bozo-in-chief in the White House, so here goes.
Most of us who enjoy movies can remember some of the more famous lines that good movies always seem to have. Take the movie Forest Gump. One famous line in this movie was “Stupid is, as stupid does.”
I can’t help but think back seven years ago to the presidential campaign when all we heard from the media was how smart Obama is and how he was a shining star of wisdom and intelligence. What a laugh! This clown can’t think his way out of a paper bag. I knew we were in trouble when he wouldn’t release his IQ or his grades. Obviously they are not something he is very proud of. After all, we wouldn’t want to destroy the myth would we. Funny how the truth eventually comes out.
The world is on fire with Islamic fanatics beheading and burning alive any and all people that don’t agree with their version of religion. Intolerance between nations, religions, and cultures is increasing daily. And what great leadership is the anointed one providing? Well, for starters he was at the National Prayer Breakfast recently. Now here he was, standing before people of all faiths, diverse cultures, and nationalities. People who had come together to demonstrate their respect and tolerance for each other’s faith, as is our tradition in this country. These are people who are not trying to kill and behead each other like they are in the rest of the world. Here was a golden opportunity to show the world why the United States is an exceptional and tolerant nation, and what does Bozo do? He gives a rant about the crusades that happened a thousand years ago.
Then he proceeds to lecture us about slavery. You just can’t make this stuff up folks. Some people, those that study history, think we are slowly and gradually entering World War III. And they may be right. What is happening in the Ukraine and with ISIS is very reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany just before WWII. If so, you
can expect a big announcement soon regarding a “Historically significant and glorious nuclear treaty with Iran.” This should just about complete the repetition of history.
It will be like Neville Chamberlain’s peace agreement with Hitler just before Germany invaded Poland. Meantime, “Nero golfs, while Rome burns.”
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.
Kansas Democrats and Republicans has agreed upon bipartisan legislation, which was recently been filed in hopes of making fresh food more affordable in the state.
Republican Senator Michael O’Donnell, and Democratic Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, both of Wichita, filed Senate Bill 263. The measure would eliminate the state tax on fruits and vegetables. The purpose is to encourage Kansans to eat healthier, plus it would support local farmers, as well small business owners who lose business across state lines.
Senator O’Donnell believes killing the sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables would improve the health of everyone. Research indicates a link between obesity and higher fruit and vegetable prices. The higher prices make it more challenging for many families to eat healthy.
At 6.15 percent, Kanas’ sales tax is second highest in the nation behind Mississippi. In addition to that, county and city governments can levy their own taxes, bringing the total as high as 9 percent in some areas.
Kansas has over 2.9 million residents and ranks 31st in population among the states. It ranks 15th in geographic size.
The most populous city in Kansas is Wichita (population 382,000), followed by Overland Park (174,000) and Kansas City (127,000) and Topeka (127,000).
by Justin Worland, Time.com
There’s a way to get school kids to eat more vegetables at lunch, and it has nothing to do with what’s on the menu. Just mess with their schedule, finds a new study published in the journal Preventive Medicine: Kids who have recess before lunch are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables than those who play after they eat.
The study looked at 2,500 kids in seven Utah elementary schools who participated in the National School Lunch Program, which serves balanced lunches that must include a serving of vegetables with each meal. Three schools switched their schedules to hold recess before lunch, while the other four schools kept recess after lunch. Researchers stood by the garbage cans and measured how many children threw away fruits and vegetables and found that the schedule swap boosted produce consumption by an impressive 54% for elementary school children.
That’s because young students tend to rush through their meals and skip the most nutritious parts when lunch is held before recess, the authors say. “Recess is a pretty big deal for most kids. If you have kids [choose] between playing and eating their veggies, the time spent playing is going to win most of the time,” said study author Joe Price, an economics professor at Brigham Young University, in a press release.
The first 20 years of NAFTA has had a big time impact on the fresh produce industry, and produce trucking.
Americans are now consuming twice the fruit and three times the vegetables from Mexico and Canada as they did before 1994, and it takes refrigerated equipment to deliver it to markets.
Likewise, U.S. growers and shippers more than tripled the amount of produce they export to Mexico during the first 19 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Part of the increase in Mexico’s produce imports from the U.S. is attributed to the rapid expansion of Mexico’s supermarkets. As of November 2014, H-E-B had 43 stores in five Mexican states, and Wal-Mart had 2,114 stores in Mexico.
The U.S. is now importing more cucumbers and mushrooms from Canada than it exports. Before NAFTA, the U.S. was a net exporter of those commodities to Canada.
“In 2011, Mexico and Canada combined supplied about 13 percent of the fresh or frozen fruit available in the U.S. and 17 percent of the available fresh or frozen vegetables. In 1990, these shares each equaled 6 percent,” according to the USDA’s report.
Details on specific U.S. production and import/export of specific commodities are included in the report. There are also discussions about retaliatory tariffs related to cross-border trucking requirements.
During the past decade Georgia has become a leading shipper of blueberries, but a recent freeze has raised concerns about volume for the upcoming season.
Estimates vary on how many South Georgia blueberries were damaged during a series of late February freezes, but much of the confusion is due to numerous micro climates that exist in the growing areas.
The freezes hit February 17-20 and during the early morning hours of February 20, temperatures fell into the low 20s for several hours in the Alma, Baxley, and Homerville, Ga., blueberry growing regions, damaging the early season part of the southern highbush crop.
Damage estimates range from 10 to 40 percent.
Georgia harvests and ships two blueberry crops.
Southern highbush blueberry shipments start in mid- to late April while the rabbit eye shipments usually begin in late May. Some growers ran frost protection because of the cold temperatures, resulting in ice damaging many limbs. Losses were higher for growers that didn’t irrigate.
It appears now Georgia “blues” may start shipping up to two weeks later – in late April.
Last year, Georgia shipped 56 million pounds of fresh berries, up from the 32 million shipped in 2013.
Homerville, which normally starts shipping around April 10 with an early variety, may not start loadings until April 20, with Alma and Baxley set to begin closer to May 1.
Otherwise, Georgia produce shipments are pretty quite right now with about the only loadings being with limited amounts of greens and carrots….Certainly no straight loads here. If you are coming out of Florida, you might pick up a pallet or two on your way north.
Here we take look at Washington apple shipments, Idaho and Oregon onion loads, Idaho potatoes, plus the outlook for California strawberry shipments coming for Easter.
Washington state ships approximately 60 percent of the apples in the United States, but it is responsible for over 90 percent of the apple exports. In a typical year, Washington exports one-third of its production outside of the United States. Needless to say, exporters were relieved to see the port labor dispute on the West Coast settled.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $1000 to Seattle, $5000 to Dallas.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Looking at the Twin Falls, ID area, potato shipments remain pretty steady from week to week and are averaging around 1800 truck load equivalents per week….Moving to western Idaho and eastern Oregon, there are about 300 truck loads of dry onions moving from storages per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Western Idaho and Malheur County, OR onions – grossing about $4700 to Atlanta.
California Strawberries
Easter Sunday is April 5th, and all three California berry growing regions will be up and running, and shipments should be good. Also, keep in mind the primary California strawberry shipping areas are cranking up a couple of weeks early this year because of excellent growing conditions.
Oxnard, which typically peaks from mid-March to mid-April is starting shipments about two weeks early. Santa Maria will also will have strawberry shipments for Easter, while Watsonville will play a supplemental role with light strawberry volume for the holiday…..Currently Oxnard not only has light volume with berries, but other items ranging from celery to romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County (Oxnard) produce – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
There is angst among some in the Canadian produce industry because the rules set up by an entity of America’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has changed some rules regarding protection they receive when there is a dispute involving a produce transaction. However, it could be worse. What if the Canadians had absolutely no protection against unfair practices, something U.S. produce truckers have never had.
The U.S. government recently took away a trading privilege from Canadian produce companies that has been available for more than 75 years. The result is fruit and vegetable producers risk losing thousands of dollars, closing their businesses, or moving across the border into the U.S.
Canadian produce companies that were owed money from U.S. companies could pay $100 to start a legal process, under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA). This would happen when U.S. companies didn’t pay their bills on time, at all, or when the company declared bankruptcy.
However, in October 2014, the United States withdrew Canada’s privileged access to PACA after the Canadian government neglected to implement the same privileges this side of the border. Now Canadian fruit and vegetable producers have to pay double the amount of money they’re owed to get access to the unpaid funds. If they’re owed $100,000 for cucumbers for example, they have to pay $200,000 as a bond to get the process started.
For decades, this writer has advocated owner operators, small fleets and large fleets hauling fresh fruits and vegetables be afforded similar protections the USDA’s PACA provides for the produce industry. This would be invaluable for produce truckers facing unfair claims or deductions or rejected loads. However, the produce industry has always fought against such measures and the PACA has certainly shown no interest.
About the only recourse for produce haulers is going through the court system, which can be costly, time consuming and particularly difficult considering the fact the problem may have taken place thousands miles from the trucker’s home base. Otherwise, hope and pray you have a good truck broker or shipper backing you when such issues arise. — Bill Martin
January and February are typically peak volume months for Mexican vegetable shipments through Nogales, AZ. While volumes will soon start declining, there is still a substantial amount of produce crossing the border for shipments destined throughout much of the U.S. and Canada.
No doubt about it, Mexican tomatoes will continue to be the driving force for product grown in West Mexico and shipped through the port at Nogales. This is led in large part by vine ripe tomatoes, the product that drives Florida tomato shippers absolutely crazy, because the vine ripe are largely viewed as having much better flavor than the Florida grown mature green tomatoes. There also is decent volume with romas coming out of Mexico.
Besides tomatoes, there remains good volume with green bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon and various squash, ranging from zucchini to yellow, butternut, acorn and spaghetti. Most of the vegetable shipments will continue into late May or early June before hot weather in Mexico ends the season.
A trend often referred to as “protected agriculture” continues to grow in popularity in the farming areas of Mexico. Called “mesh houses,” or shade houses, vegetables receive more protection from Mother Nature’s weather whims. Better quality vegetables also reduce the chances of claims and rejections by produce haulers at destination. Among the more popular vegetables being grown this way are tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Squash and watermelons still are mostly grown in open fields.
Nogales vegetable shipments – grossing about $1300 to L.A., $3700 to Chicago.
April will be here before we know it, and this means increasing volumes for Florida produce shipments.
Southern Specialties announced the company has started shipping Florida grown blueberries. This year’s blueberry crop will include Farthing, Flicker, Chickadee and Meadowlark varieties. Florida blueberries, Southern Selects blackberries and premium Adelita variety raspberries are distributed from the company’s Pompano Beach, FL distribution facility.
“ This year’s Florida blueberry crop has nice bloom and great flavor,” said Alex Henderson, Key Account Manager for the company.
Southern Selects Florida blueberries will be available until the end of April when the company transitions its program to Georgia and the Carolinas. Southern Specialties ships blueberries year round.
Southern Specialties is a grower, importer, processor and shipper of a variety of specialty products grown in Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The company distributes from its Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters, and facilities in McAllen, Texas and Los Angeles, California.
Sweet Corn Shipments
Florida sweet corn shipments have been relatively light during the winter months, but loadings will be picking up significant as we enter April. The sweet corn harvest shifts from Homestead to the Belle Glade region about March 16-23. However, peak spring shipments probably won’t hit until around the middle of April. Heaviest volume should be from about April 11th to May 5th.
We will also be having updates soon on a variety of mixed Florida vegetables that will have similar shipping schedules as corn.
Florida produce – grossing about $3000 to New York City.
Desert produce shipments are winding down headed towards an earlier-than-normal finish out of the Arizona’s Yuma district and California’s Imperial Valley.
Volume is already very light on broccoli and cauliflower from the desert regions. Meanwhile, those same items are getting an early start from the Salinas Valley.
Salinas vegetable shipments started with very light volume a week ago, and it will the week of March 16th before broccoli and cauliflower start hitting good volume.
Meanwhile, a similar situation exits with lettuce ranging from Iceberg to romaine and leaf lettuce, which are winding down in the desert areas….To bridge the gap between the desert areas and Salinas, there is about a three-week shipping season out of the San Joaquin Valley’s Huron disrict. However, there’s going to be a shipping gap as Huron lettuce shipments won’t get underway until the week of March 23rd.
Meanwhile, shipping gaps with head lettuce, romaine and leaf that were common during the desert winter shipping season are expected to remain in play through March and into April as Salinas starts shipping.
California/Arizona desert vegetables – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Salinas/Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
By Larry Oscar
I guess it wouldn’t be normal if this year didn’t start off with some sort of rant about our screwed up government and the Bozo-in-chief in the White House, so here goes.
Most of us who enjoy movies can remember some of the more famous lines that good movies always seem to have. Take the movie Forest Gump. One famous line in this movie was “Stupid is, as stupid does.”
I can’t help but think back seven years ago to the presidential campaign when all we heard from the media was how smart Obama is and how he was a shining star of wisdom and intelligence. What a laugh! This clown can’t think his way out of a paper bag. I knew we were in trouble when he wouldn’t release his IQ or his grades. Obviously they are not something he is very proud of. After all, we wouldn’t want to destroy the myth would we. Funny how the truth eventually comes out.
The world is on fire with Islamic fanatics beheading and burning alive any and all people that don’t agree with their version of religion. Intolerance between nations, religions, and cultures is increasing daily. And what great leadership is the anointed one providing? Well, for starters he was at the National Prayer Breakfast recently. Now here he was, standing before people of all faiths, diverse cultures, and nationalities. People who had come together to demonstrate their respect and tolerance for each other’s faith, as is our tradition in this country. These are people who are not trying to kill and behead each other like they are in the rest of the world. Here was a golden opportunity to show the world why the United States is an exceptional and tolerant nation, and what does Bozo do? He gives a rant about the crusades that happened a thousand years ago.
Then he proceeds to lecture us about slavery. You just can’t make this stuff up folks. Some people, those that study history, think we are slowly and gradually entering World War III. And they may be right. What is happening in the Ukraine and with ISIS is very reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany just before WWII. If so, you
can expect a big announcement soon regarding a “Historically significant and glorious nuclear treaty with Iran.” This should just about complete the repetition of history.
It will be like Neville Chamberlain’s peace agreement with Hitler just before Germany invaded Poland. Meantime, “Nero golfs, while Rome burns.”
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.
Kansas Democrats and Republicans has agreed upon bipartisan legislation, which was recently been filed in hopes of making fresh food more affordable in the state.
Republican Senator Michael O’Donnell, and Democratic Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, both of Wichita, filed Senate Bill 263. The measure would eliminate the state tax on fruits and vegetables. The purpose is to encourage Kansans to eat healthier, plus it would support local farmers, as well small business owners who lose business across state lines.
Senator O’Donnell believes killing the sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables would improve the health of everyone. Research indicates a link between obesity and higher fruit and vegetable prices. The higher prices make it more challenging for many families to eat healthy.
At 6.15 percent, Kanas’ sales tax is second highest in the nation behind Mississippi. In addition to that, county and city governments can levy their own taxes, bringing the total as high as 9 percent in some areas.
Kansas has over 2.9 million residents and ranks 31st in population among the states. It ranks 15th in geographic size.
The most populous city in Kansas is Wichita (population 382,000), followed by Overland Park (174,000) and Kansas City (127,000) and Topeka (127,000).
by Justin Worland, Time.com
There’s a way to get school kids to eat more vegetables at lunch, and it has nothing to do with what’s on the menu. Just mess with their schedule, finds a new study published in the journal Preventive Medicine: Kids who have recess before lunch are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables than those who play after they eat.
The study looked at 2,500 kids in seven Utah elementary schools who participated in the National School Lunch Program, which serves balanced lunches that must include a serving of vegetables with each meal. Three schools switched their schedules to hold recess before lunch, while the other four schools kept recess after lunch. Researchers stood by the garbage cans and measured how many children threw away fruits and vegetables and found that the schedule swap boosted produce consumption by an impressive 54% for elementary school children.
That’s because young students tend to rush through their meals and skip the most nutritious parts when lunch is held before recess, the authors say. “Recess is a pretty big deal for most kids. If you have kids [choose] between playing and eating their veggies, the time spent playing is going to win most of the time,” said study author Joe Price, an economics professor at Brigham Young University, in a press release.
The first 20 years of NAFTA has had a big time impact on the fresh produce industry, and produce trucking.
Americans are now consuming twice the fruit and three times the vegetables from Mexico and Canada as they did before 1994, and it takes refrigerated equipment to deliver it to markets.
Likewise, U.S. growers and shippers more than tripled the amount of produce they export to Mexico during the first 19 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Part of the increase in Mexico’s produce imports from the U.S. is attributed to the rapid expansion of Mexico’s supermarkets. As of November 2014, H-E-B had 43 stores in five Mexican states, and Wal-Mart had 2,114 stores in Mexico.
The U.S. is now importing more cucumbers and mushrooms from Canada than it exports. Before NAFTA, the U.S. was a net exporter of those commodities to Canada.
“In 2011, Mexico and Canada combined supplied about 13 percent of the fresh or frozen fruit available in the U.S. and 17 percent of the available fresh or frozen vegetables. In 1990, these shares each equaled 6 percent,” according to the USDA’s report.
Details on specific U.S. production and import/export of specific commodities are included in the report. There are also discussions about retaliatory tariffs related to cross-border trucking requirements.
During the past decade Georgia has become a leading shipper of blueberries, but a recent freeze has raised concerns about volume for the upcoming season.
Estimates vary on how many South Georgia blueberries were damaged during a series of late February freezes, but much of the confusion is due to numerous micro climates that exist in the growing areas.
The freezes hit February 17-20 and during the early morning hours of February 20, temperatures fell into the low 20s for several hours in the Alma, Baxley, and Homerville, Ga., blueberry growing regions, damaging the early season part of the southern highbush crop.
Damage estimates range from 10 to 40 percent.
Georgia harvests and ships two blueberry crops.
Southern highbush blueberry shipments start in mid- to late April while the rabbit eye shipments usually begin in late May. Some growers ran frost protection because of the cold temperatures, resulting in ice damaging many limbs. Losses were higher for growers that didn’t irrigate.
It appears now Georgia “blues” may start shipping up to two weeks later – in late April.
Last year, Georgia shipped 56 million pounds of fresh berries, up from the 32 million shipped in 2013.
Homerville, which normally starts shipping around April 10 with an early variety, may not start loadings until April 20, with Alma and Baxley set to begin closer to May 1.
Otherwise, Georgia produce shipments are pretty quite right now with about the only loadings being with limited amounts of greens and carrots….Certainly no straight loads here. If you are coming out of Florida, you might pick up a pallet or two on your way north.
Here we take look at Washington apple shipments, Idaho and Oregon onion loads, Idaho potatoes, plus the outlook for California strawberry shipments coming for Easter.
Washington state ships approximately 60 percent of the apples in the United States, but it is responsible for over 90 percent of the apple exports. In a typical year, Washington exports one-third of its production outside of the United States. Needless to say, exporters were relieved to see the port labor dispute on the West Coast settled.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $1000 to Seattle, $5000 to Dallas.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Looking at the Twin Falls, ID area, potato shipments remain pretty steady from week to week and are averaging around 1800 truck load equivalents per week….Moving to western Idaho and eastern Oregon, there are about 300 truck loads of dry onions moving from storages per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Western Idaho and Malheur County, OR onions – grossing about $4700 to Atlanta.
California Strawberries
Easter Sunday is April 5th, and all three California berry growing regions will be up and running, and shipments should be good. Also, keep in mind the primary California strawberry shipping areas are cranking up a couple of weeks early this year because of excellent growing conditions.
Oxnard, which typically peaks from mid-March to mid-April is starting shipments about two weeks early. Santa Maria will also will have strawberry shipments for Easter, while Watsonville will play a supplemental role with light strawberry volume for the holiday…..Currently Oxnard not only has light volume with berries, but other items ranging from celery to romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County (Oxnard) produce – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
There is angst among some in the Canadian produce industry because the rules set up by an entity of America’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has changed some rules regarding protection they receive when there is a dispute involving a produce transaction. However, it could be worse. What if the Canadians had absolutely no protection against unfair practices, something U.S. produce truckers have never had.
The U.S. government recently took away a trading privilege from Canadian produce companies that has been available for more than 75 years. The result is fruit and vegetable producers risk losing thousands of dollars, closing their businesses, or moving across the border into the U.S.
Canadian produce companies that were owed money from U.S. companies could pay $100 to start a legal process, under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA). This would happen when U.S. companies didn’t pay their bills on time, at all, or when the company declared bankruptcy.
However, in October 2014, the United States withdrew Canada’s privileged access to PACA after the Canadian government neglected to implement the same privileges this side of the border. Now Canadian fruit and vegetable producers have to pay double the amount of money they’re owed to get access to the unpaid funds. If they’re owed $100,000 for cucumbers for example, they have to pay $200,000 as a bond to get the process started.
For decades, this writer has advocated owner operators, small fleets and large fleets hauling fresh fruits and vegetables be afforded similar protections the USDA’s PACA provides for the produce industry. This would be invaluable for produce truckers facing unfair claims or deductions or rejected loads. However, the produce industry has always fought against such measures and the PACA has certainly shown no interest.
About the only recourse for produce haulers is going through the court system, which can be costly, time consuming and particularly difficult considering the fact the problem may have taken place thousands miles from the trucker’s home base. Otherwise, hope and pray you have a good truck broker or shipper backing you when such issues arise. — Bill Martin