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Waycross, GA – The Georgia Blueberry Commission will host its first-ever “Sweet Georgia Blues Recipe Contest” throughout the month of June in celebration of Georgia Blueberry Month.
Georgia Blueberry fans are invited to create and photograph an original recipe using Georgia Blueberries. Submissions will be posted on the Georgia Blueberry Commission’s website and Facebook page for voting.
Contestants are encouraged to share information about the contest with family and friends to gain more votes. Recipe submission and voting will begin on June 1 and continue through June 30. Winners will be announced on July 8th.
The recipe creator with the most votes will win $500. Contestants who receive the second and third most votes will receive a Sweet Georgia Blues Basket (includes blueberry jams, autographed cookbook, etc) and an autographed copy of Hugh Acheson’s A New Turn in the South Cookbook, respectively.
“June is the peak of our season and we want consumers to be as excited about Georgia Blueberry Month as we are,” explained Joe Cornelius, chairman of the Georgia Blueberry Commission. “Hosting this month-long recipe contest is a great way to do that. Plus, we’re looking forward to seeing all the new recipes we can try! ”
According to the Georgia Farm Gate Value Report, blueberries make up nearly 40% of all fruits grown in the state and have an estimated value of $134 million, compared to just $22 million a decade ago. Georgia is one of the largest blueberry-producing states in the United States and boasts the longest season from mid April to the end of July.
Full of antioxidants, Georgia Blueberries are a delicious way to lower cholesterol and decrease your risk of heart disease and cancer. They’re high in fiber, contain no fat and at just 80 calories per cup, Sweet Georgia Blues are an easy and convenient snack or an excellent addition to nearly any recipe.
For more information and contest rules, log onto www.GeorgiaBlueberries.org
About the Georgia Blueberry Commission
In 2008, the Georgia Department of Agriculture formed the Georgia Blueberry Commission as a program to support research, education and promotion on behalf of the state’s growers. Georgia claims the longest season in the U.S. lasting from mid-April through the end of July to enjoy fresh Georgia Blueberries – our very own “Sweet Georgia Blues.” For more information, recipes and background on Georgia Blueberries, log onto www.GeorgiaBlueberries.org
Source: Georgia Blueberry Commission
California’s Santa Maria district currently leads the state in strawberry volume with nearly 800 truck loads being shipped a week, but the Watsonville district will be catching up – and surpassing Santa Maria very soon. Meanwhile, Salinas Valley vegetables are continuing to increase is volume led by lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. The San Joaquin Valley in cranking up with everything from stone fruit to vegetables.
The Imperial and Coachella valleys are shipping melons and mixed veggies, plus Coachella table grapes are now being shipped in volume.
Some produce loads, particularly from more northern Calilforna shipping areas, are already exceeding a rate of $9,000 to the East Coast.
Mexican tomatoes are being shipped in volume from Baja peninsula via distribution centers around San Diego. Product ranges from romas to grape, cherry and vine ripe tomatoes.
Looking ahead, warm April temperatures have pushed the California pear crop about 10 days ahead of last year. Early variety pears from the Sacramento River district should get underway around July 2-3, followed by bartletts about July 5.
The projected California almond crop is expected to reach 2 billion pounds this year. This would fall short only to 2011’s 2.03 billion pound crop and is 6% higher than 2012’s output, which was about 1.89 billion pounds. Almonds are the state’s largest agricultural export, with California alone producing 80 percent of the world’s supply.
California almond shipments come from over 810,000 acres.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $9000 to Boston.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit – about $6,000 to Chicago.
North Carolina is shipping light to moderate amounts of greens ranging from cilantro to kale, plus cabbage. These items handle the colder weather better than a lot of other vegetables which would normally be shipping now, but are up to two weeks behind schedule.
In mid June there should be loadings of veggies such as sweet corn, bell peppers, and tomatoes, among others.
North Carolina continues, pretty much on a year around, to ship sweet potatoes.
Georgia Vegetables
The Georgia Vidalia onion shipping season started out as a disaster due to disease problems caused by weather factors. Now Mother Nature has since shined on Southeastern Georgia, and suddenly, shippers have more onions than they know what to do with. The crop is now past the disease problems, quality is good, and shippers are shipping like crazy. Loadings are expected to continue into August.
Meanwhile, mixed vegetable loadings have got underway, primarily from Southern Georgia.
Mushrooms
Mushroom may not be at the top of your list when looking for produce loads, but it continues to grow in popularity. Pennsylvania is huge when it comes to growing and shipping mushrooms, along with California and Illinois. However, many states have mushroom growing facilities.
Sales of the 2011-12 U.S. mushroom crop totaled 900 million pounds, up 4 percent from the 2010-11 season.. This amounts to 22,500 truckload equivalents of mushrooms being hauled annually.
Vidalia onions – grossing about $2400 to Chicago.
San Jose, CA – The Mushroom Council’s inaugural “Swap It or Top It” summer promotion will kick off the summer grilling season on June 1. The contest challenges consumers to transform their typical summer grilling recipes into healthier versions, by adding mushrooms, for the chance to win $5,000.
“The Trend is to Blend” states Mushroom Council President, Bart Minor, “Mushrooms and meat are a natural pairing, this contest will elevate the concept with the consumer while increasing mushroom sales” continues Mr. Minor. Summer grilling represents a huge opportunity for increased mushroom consumption. It is the ideal time as consumers are looking for lighter fare, to create retail sales lift, increase shopper awareness and build shopper impulse purchases of mushrooms.
The contest is called “Swap It or Top It” because there are two cooking techniques with mushrooms that can add a healthy flair to summer favorites. Swapping, for example, is the technique of blending finely chopped mushrooms with ground meat before cooking. By swapping 50 percent of beef in a burger with fresh mushrooms, it’s possible to reduce intake of calories, fat and saturated fat by 24, 25 and 37 percent, respectively. The other technique is to top dishes with mushrooms to add more vegetables to the plate, such as topping a turkey burger with roasted brown mushrooms.
Vice president of sales and marketing for Premier Mushrooms, Bob Murphy, states “By supporting ‘Swap It or Top It’ retailers can uphold promoting healthier choices to consumers at their market, which consumers continue to demand.”
Retailers can support the promotion to lift sales by stocking participating mushroom products, offering participating mushroom growers premium shelf space and by promoting the program via the Council’s Point-of-Sale material.
The contest is in partnership with the Produce for Better Health Foundation and MyPlate will further amplify program awareness, while drawing in the consumer with the use of each logo on all Point-Of-Sale material.
Encouraging consumers to Swap It or Top It using mushrooms is an important nutritional message in the movement to promote healthier eating with Americans. The contest fully supports the MyPlate message of boosting consciousness around meal time. Creating a MyPlate burger will engage consumers with portion size awareness while developing healthy eating patterns.
Mushrooms provide vitamins and nutrients such as B vitamins, potassium (8% DV), ergothioneine and many more. Mushrooms are also the ONLY item in the produce aisle with naturally occurring vitamin D. Mushroom’s umami enhances the flavor of the meat pairing resulting in both a healthy AND delicious meal. Adding mushrooms to a grill night enhances the upscale feel while maintaining an affordable budget.
Categories for entry include: Swapability/Blendability, Best Topped Burger, and MyPlate Burger. Consumers can enter one, two or all three categories. The top two recipes in each category will be put to public vote to determine the grand prize winning recipes. With a total of $8,500 up for grabs, the grand prize winner will walk away with $5,000 in cash and gift cards. The contest begins Saturday, June 1 on MushroomInfo.com.
About The Mushroom Council:
The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. For more information on the Mushroom Council, visit mushroomcouncil.org.
Source: The Mushroom Council
While studies have shown transporting strawberries and some other produce items in a modified atmosphere extends the quality and lifespan of the items, how safe are these food items to eat that have been exposed to carbon dioxide (CO2) for nearly a week?
Rich Macleod, a scientist and basically the manager of the pallet divison for Transfresh Corp. feels this is a reasonable question for people to ask.
“The use of carbon dioxide in the handling of perishables is incredibally common,” Macleod states. He points to the use of CO2 in soda, which are the bubbles you see.
As for TransFresh, Macleod says the Organic Material Research Institute has certified the Tectrol application as organic. “So we are certified for use as an organic product,” he states. “The impact of CO2 in terms of maintaining the quality of the product….using a gas we breath in the environment, is an excellent trade off for what you get for enjoying more strawberries.”
As previously reported in this series, using the pallet covered system, Tectrol (CO2), results in less decay in strawberries (see chart).
Macleod, who started out as a lab assistant with a masters degree in post harvest science, sees the next step in research being to define what CO2 does for the nutrient value of strawberries. Such a study has never been done, he notes. He is hopeful such research will take place within the next five years.
While Tectrol’s primary use is with strawberries, it also is used with raspberries, blueberries and other items.
However, it also is found in containers on shipments by boat with items such as avocados, asparagus, and stone fruit for both imports and exports that are in transit eight to 10 days.
“Your cut salads are all cousins to the wrapped pallet program (with modified atmospheres). In fact, the cut salad program preceeded the pallet covered program,” Macleod says.
(This is Part 5 0f 6, featuring an interview with Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division North America for TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA. He has been with company since 1976, and has a masters degree in post harvest science from the University of California, Davis.)
Grower/shippers in California’s San Joaquin Valley report good shipments of quality California stone fruit in the last half of May and it should pick up even more with the month of June.
SOME PRODUCE RATES ON STONE FRUIT OUT OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY HAVE EXCEED $9,000 TO BOSTON DURING THE PAST WEEK.
Yellow and white peaches, as well as yellow and white nectarines have been moving for the past month.
Peak stone fruit shipments will be occurring the last half of June and July, with about average shipments seen for the season.
PEARS – California pear shipments will start the earlier than at least the past couple of years. Loadings are expected to get underway around July 9th.
Washington state
Northwest cherry shippers, for the first time in six years, expect good volume shipments for cherries in June. The first shipments of cherries in the state could start from June 1 through June 3.
Barring some bad weather (which would probably be rain), full bore cherry shipments should be occurring in time for the Fourth of the July for the first time since 2007.
The record shipments of 23 million 20-pound boxes of Northwest cherries last year was a 23% increase over the 2011 crop.
The Northwest will likely harvest a cherry crop in the 18 million to 20 million carton range in 2013.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit – grossing about $8,800 to Boston.
While total Florida spring produce volume is winding down, some other areas in the East are shipping, or will be soon.
Florida red potato shipments are about two weeks later than usual as a series of winter freezes and heavy spring rains damaged the crop and could cut yields by as much as 50% on the front end of the red potato season. Shipments got underway around Palatka, Fla. about the second week of May. South Florida red spud loadings finished up in mid-May around Lake Wales.
Watermelons shipments got off to a shaky start from Southern Florida, but quality has improved and product is coming in steady volume out of the Ft. Meyers and Arcadia areas. The harvest gradually moves northward over the next few weeks, before shifting to Georgia around June 15-20, about two weeks later than usual.
As Florida veggie loadings decline, the transition from central Florida to southern Georgia is bringing lighter-than-normal volume on some vegetables. which are behind two weeks or more due to weather.
Georgia bell peppers and cucumbers are still moving in light volume and decent shipments are not expected until early to mid-June. Squash and bean shipments from south Georgia are now ending.
Vidalia onions
While it was rough start for Vidalia onion shipments this year, with seed stem problems, better weather is making life easier for both shippers and truckers.
While no official crop estimates have been made, observers see total Vidalia onion loadings at around 4.5 million boxes this season.
Seed stem has adversely about 30% to 40% of Vidalia crops this year.
North Carolina
Sweet corn shipments should get under way in mid-June, at least two weeks later than normal. A similar situation exists with lettuce……Currently, cilantro and kale are being shipped.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2600 to New York City.
The Skagit Valley north of Seattle, WA has become an important produce shipping area over the past couple of decades and has particularly become known for its quality fresh potatoes. Thus, with the collapse May 24 of a bridge in the area on Interstate 5, it is going to mean problems for produce truckers, and Skagit Valley shippers, not to mention big rigs just passing through the area.
Both truckers and farmers are constantly facing new challenges and this is certainly another one.
The Skagit Valley has built an admirable reputation for growing and shipping conventional red, white, gold and purple potatoes as well as organic red and russet potatoes, that are shipped all over the country.
A temporary bridge is expected to be in place in a few weeks, but transportation over this portion of I-5 certainly will not be back to normal when Skagit Valley potato shipments get underway in August.
The bridge collapse sent cars and people into the river. Three people were sent to area hospitals for treatment, but there were no fatalities.
It has been reported that an oversized and overweight big rig struck a girder at the top of the bridge, causing the collapse.
Vancouver, B.C. – The outlook for British Columbia’s 2013 blueberry crop is strong, according to the British Columbia Blueberry Council. If current weather trends hold, picking could start as early as the first week of July, coming in a couple of weeks earlier than last year’s harvest.
Early varieties of blueberry are already in full bloom, with later varieties also progressing well. Although it’s too early in the season to predict the size of the harvest, the region has had great weather for pollination. While there have been reports of some farms experiencing a shortage of bees, British Columbia is expecting an ample supply of good quality blueberries for the 2013 season.
“The last couple of years have been record crops for BC, but picking has started late,” said Debbie Etsell, executive director of the BC Blueberry Council. “The combination of the mild winter and warm spring this year puts us on track for a harvest that is more typical, as far as timing goes, starting around the first or second week of July.”
About the British Columbia Blueberry Council
The British Columbia Blueberry Council represents over 800 blueberry growers, located in some of Canada’s most rich and fertile farmland. Plantings of premium quality highbush blueberries top 11,000 hectares in British Columbia and produce upwards of 55 million kilograms of blueberries annually. With more than $1 billion in sales in the past five years, Canada is the third largest national producer of sweet and juicy highbush blueberries in the world. Available fresh in B.C. from July through October, BC blueberries are also frozen, dried, juiced, puréed and powdered, available for year round-distribution throughout Canada and around the world.
Source: British Columbia Blueberry Council
Only a few weeks ago if someone predicted there would be 21% more USA fresh-market apples in storage than the year before, you’d been considered a little nuts. The same goes are anyone predicted there would be nearly 130 million boxes of apples shipped this season, especially after year’s damage to apple crops in Michigan and New York.
Washington state is on pace to ship 129.6 million boxes this season, shattering the previous record by more than 20 million boxes.
Consider this. Washington could ship 132,245 truckload equivalents of apples this season, which ends this summer. (divide 129.6 million boxes by 1,980 boxes of apples that make up a truck load.)
Washington grower-shippers and officials knew they’d have a big crop, but not this big. Following July hailstorms, the estimate was in the 100 million to 110 million box range.
Apparently the 2012 crop is no fluke. It seems every five to seven years, apple shipments have jumped to another level. In recent years loadings were in the 100- million to 109-million box range. Prior to this there were years where shipments settled into the 80-million box volume.
For the 2013-13 season, observers are already talking about shipments being in the 120-million box range. In other words, loadings hitting 120-million boxes is expected to become the new standard.
Michigan and New York apples
Apple shippers in Michigan and New York are expressing optimism about a big comeback from a disastrous freeze killing 2012-13 season that wiped out about 85% of Michigan’s crop and 52% of New York’s.
Early variety apple shipments are expected to get underway around the third week of August.
Washington state apples – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
Waycross, GA – The Georgia Blueberry Commission will host its first-ever “Sweet Georgia Blues Recipe Contest” throughout the month of June in celebration of Georgia Blueberry Month.
Georgia Blueberry fans are invited to create and photograph an original recipe using Georgia Blueberries. Submissions will be posted on the Georgia Blueberry Commission’s website and Facebook page for voting.
Contestants are encouraged to share information about the contest with family and friends to gain more votes. Recipe submission and voting will begin on June 1 and continue through June 30. Winners will be announced on July 8th.
The recipe creator with the most votes will win $500. Contestants who receive the second and third most votes will receive a Sweet Georgia Blues Basket (includes blueberry jams, autographed cookbook, etc) and an autographed copy of Hugh Acheson’s A New Turn in the South Cookbook, respectively.
“June is the peak of our season and we want consumers to be as excited about Georgia Blueberry Month as we are,” explained Joe Cornelius, chairman of the Georgia Blueberry Commission. “Hosting this month-long recipe contest is a great way to do that. Plus, we’re looking forward to seeing all the new recipes we can try! ”
According to the Georgia Farm Gate Value Report, blueberries make up nearly 40% of all fruits grown in the state and have an estimated value of $134 million, compared to just $22 million a decade ago. Georgia is one of the largest blueberry-producing states in the United States and boasts the longest season from mid April to the end of July.
Full of antioxidants, Georgia Blueberries are a delicious way to lower cholesterol and decrease your risk of heart disease and cancer. They’re high in fiber, contain no fat and at just 80 calories per cup, Sweet Georgia Blues are an easy and convenient snack or an excellent addition to nearly any recipe.
For more information and contest rules, log onto www.GeorgiaBlueberries.org
About the Georgia Blueberry Commission
In 2008, the Georgia Department of Agriculture formed the Georgia Blueberry Commission as a program to support research, education and promotion on behalf of the state’s growers. Georgia claims the longest season in the U.S. lasting from mid-April through the end of July to enjoy fresh Georgia Blueberries – our very own “Sweet Georgia Blues.” For more information, recipes and background on Georgia Blueberries, log onto www.GeorgiaBlueberries.org
Source: Georgia Blueberry Commission
California’s Santa Maria district currently leads the state in strawberry volume with nearly 800 truck loads being shipped a week, but the Watsonville district will be catching up – and surpassing Santa Maria very soon. Meanwhile, Salinas Valley vegetables are continuing to increase is volume led by lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. The San Joaquin Valley in cranking up with everything from stone fruit to vegetables.
The Imperial and Coachella valleys are shipping melons and mixed veggies, plus Coachella table grapes are now being shipped in volume.
Some produce loads, particularly from more northern Calilforna shipping areas, are already exceeding a rate of $9,000 to the East Coast.
Mexican tomatoes are being shipped in volume from Baja peninsula via distribution centers around San Diego. Product ranges from romas to grape, cherry and vine ripe tomatoes.
Looking ahead, warm April temperatures have pushed the California pear crop about 10 days ahead of last year. Early variety pears from the Sacramento River district should get underway around July 2-3, followed by bartletts about July 5.
The projected California almond crop is expected to reach 2 billion pounds this year. This would fall short only to 2011’s 2.03 billion pound crop and is 6% higher than 2012’s output, which was about 1.89 billion pounds. Almonds are the state’s largest agricultural export, with California alone producing 80 percent of the world’s supply.
California almond shipments come from over 810,000 acres.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $9000 to Boston.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit – about $6,000 to Chicago.
North Carolina is shipping light to moderate amounts of greens ranging from cilantro to kale, plus cabbage. These items handle the colder weather better than a lot of other vegetables which would normally be shipping now, but are up to two weeks behind schedule.
In mid June there should be loadings of veggies such as sweet corn, bell peppers, and tomatoes, among others.
North Carolina continues, pretty much on a year around, to ship sweet potatoes.
Georgia Vegetables
The Georgia Vidalia onion shipping season started out as a disaster due to disease problems caused by weather factors. Now Mother Nature has since shined on Southeastern Georgia, and suddenly, shippers have more onions than they know what to do with. The crop is now past the disease problems, quality is good, and shippers are shipping like crazy. Loadings are expected to continue into August.
Meanwhile, mixed vegetable loadings have got underway, primarily from Southern Georgia.
Mushrooms
Mushroom may not be at the top of your list when looking for produce loads, but it continues to grow in popularity. Pennsylvania is huge when it comes to growing and shipping mushrooms, along with California and Illinois. However, many states have mushroom growing facilities.
Sales of the 2011-12 U.S. mushroom crop totaled 900 million pounds, up 4 percent from the 2010-11 season.. This amounts to 22,500 truckload equivalents of mushrooms being hauled annually.
Vidalia onions – grossing about $2400 to Chicago.
San Jose, CA – The Mushroom Council’s inaugural “Swap It or Top It” summer promotion will kick off the summer grilling season on June 1. The contest challenges consumers to transform their typical summer grilling recipes into healthier versions, by adding mushrooms, for the chance to win $5,000.
“The Trend is to Blend” states Mushroom Council President, Bart Minor, “Mushrooms and meat are a natural pairing, this contest will elevate the concept with the consumer while increasing mushroom sales” continues Mr. Minor. Summer grilling represents a huge opportunity for increased mushroom consumption. It is the ideal time as consumers are looking for lighter fare, to create retail sales lift, increase shopper awareness and build shopper impulse purchases of mushrooms.
The contest is called “Swap It or Top It” because there are two cooking techniques with mushrooms that can add a healthy flair to summer favorites. Swapping, for example, is the technique of blending finely chopped mushrooms with ground meat before cooking. By swapping 50 percent of beef in a burger with fresh mushrooms, it’s possible to reduce intake of calories, fat and saturated fat by 24, 25 and 37 percent, respectively. The other technique is to top dishes with mushrooms to add more vegetables to the plate, such as topping a turkey burger with roasted brown mushrooms.
Vice president of sales and marketing for Premier Mushrooms, Bob Murphy, states “By supporting ‘Swap It or Top It’ retailers can uphold promoting healthier choices to consumers at their market, which consumers continue to demand.”
Retailers can support the promotion to lift sales by stocking participating mushroom products, offering participating mushroom growers premium shelf space and by promoting the program via the Council’s Point-of-Sale material.
The contest is in partnership with the Produce for Better Health Foundation and MyPlate will further amplify program awareness, while drawing in the consumer with the use of each logo on all Point-Of-Sale material.
Encouraging consumers to Swap It or Top It using mushrooms is an important nutritional message in the movement to promote healthier eating with Americans. The contest fully supports the MyPlate message of boosting consciousness around meal time. Creating a MyPlate burger will engage consumers with portion size awareness while developing healthy eating patterns.
Mushrooms provide vitamins and nutrients such as B vitamins, potassium (8% DV), ergothioneine and many more. Mushrooms are also the ONLY item in the produce aisle with naturally occurring vitamin D. Mushroom’s umami enhances the flavor of the meat pairing resulting in both a healthy AND delicious meal. Adding mushrooms to a grill night enhances the upscale feel while maintaining an affordable budget.
Categories for entry include: Swapability/Blendability, Best Topped Burger, and MyPlate Burger. Consumers can enter one, two or all three categories. The top two recipes in each category will be put to public vote to determine the grand prize winning recipes. With a total of $8,500 up for grabs, the grand prize winner will walk away with $5,000 in cash and gift cards. The contest begins Saturday, June 1 on MushroomInfo.com.
About The Mushroom Council:
The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. For more information on the Mushroom Council, visit mushroomcouncil.org.
Source: The Mushroom Council
While studies have shown transporting strawberries and some other produce items in a modified atmosphere extends the quality and lifespan of the items, how safe are these food items to eat that have been exposed to carbon dioxide (CO2) for nearly a week?
Rich Macleod, a scientist and basically the manager of the pallet divison for Transfresh Corp. feels this is a reasonable question for people to ask.
“The use of carbon dioxide in the handling of perishables is incredibally common,” Macleod states. He points to the use of CO2 in soda, which are the bubbles you see.
As for TransFresh, Macleod says the Organic Material Research Institute has certified the Tectrol application as organic. “So we are certified for use as an organic product,” he states. “The impact of CO2 in terms of maintaining the quality of the product….using a gas we breath in the environment, is an excellent trade off for what you get for enjoying more strawberries.”
As previously reported in this series, using the pallet covered system, Tectrol (CO2), results in less decay in strawberries (see chart).
Macleod, who started out as a lab assistant with a masters degree in post harvest science, sees the next step in research being to define what CO2 does for the nutrient value of strawberries. Such a study has never been done, he notes. He is hopeful such research will take place within the next five years.
While Tectrol’s primary use is with strawberries, it also is used with raspberries, blueberries and other items.
However, it also is found in containers on shipments by boat with items such as avocados, asparagus, and stone fruit for both imports and exports that are in transit eight to 10 days.
“Your cut salads are all cousins to the wrapped pallet program (with modified atmospheres). In fact, the cut salad program preceeded the pallet covered program,” Macleod says.
(This is Part 5 0f 6, featuring an interview with Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division North America for TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA. He has been with company since 1976, and has a masters degree in post harvest science from the University of California, Davis.)
Grower/shippers in California’s San Joaquin Valley report good shipments of quality California stone fruit in the last half of May and it should pick up even more with the month of June.
SOME PRODUCE RATES ON STONE FRUIT OUT OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY HAVE EXCEED $9,000 TO BOSTON DURING THE PAST WEEK.
Yellow and white peaches, as well as yellow and white nectarines have been moving for the past month.
Peak stone fruit shipments will be occurring the last half of June and July, with about average shipments seen for the season.
PEARS – California pear shipments will start the earlier than at least the past couple of years. Loadings are expected to get underway around July 9th.
Washington state
Northwest cherry shippers, for the first time in six years, expect good volume shipments for cherries in June. The first shipments of cherries in the state could start from June 1 through June 3.
Barring some bad weather (which would probably be rain), full bore cherry shipments should be occurring in time for the Fourth of the July for the first time since 2007.
The record shipments of 23 million 20-pound boxes of Northwest cherries last year was a 23% increase over the 2011 crop.
The Northwest will likely harvest a cherry crop in the 18 million to 20 million carton range in 2013.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit – grossing about $8,800 to Boston.
While total Florida spring produce volume is winding down, some other areas in the East are shipping, or will be soon.
Florida red potato shipments are about two weeks later than usual as a series of winter freezes and heavy spring rains damaged the crop and could cut yields by as much as 50% on the front end of the red potato season. Shipments got underway around Palatka, Fla. about the second week of May. South Florida red spud loadings finished up in mid-May around Lake Wales.
Watermelons shipments got off to a shaky start from Southern Florida, but quality has improved and product is coming in steady volume out of the Ft. Meyers and Arcadia areas. The harvest gradually moves northward over the next few weeks, before shifting to Georgia around June 15-20, about two weeks later than usual.
As Florida veggie loadings decline, the transition from central Florida to southern Georgia is bringing lighter-than-normal volume on some vegetables. which are behind two weeks or more due to weather.
Georgia bell peppers and cucumbers are still moving in light volume and decent shipments are not expected until early to mid-June. Squash and bean shipments from south Georgia are now ending.
Vidalia onions
While it was rough start for Vidalia onion shipments this year, with seed stem problems, better weather is making life easier for both shippers and truckers.
While no official crop estimates have been made, observers see total Vidalia onion loadings at around 4.5 million boxes this season.
Seed stem has adversely about 30% to 40% of Vidalia crops this year.
North Carolina
Sweet corn shipments should get under way in mid-June, at least two weeks later than normal. A similar situation exists with lettuce……Currently, cilantro and kale are being shipped.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2600 to New York City.
The Skagit Valley north of Seattle, WA has become an important produce shipping area over the past couple of decades and has particularly become known for its quality fresh potatoes. Thus, with the collapse May 24 of a bridge in the area on Interstate 5, it is going to mean problems for produce truckers, and Skagit Valley shippers, not to mention big rigs just passing through the area.
Both truckers and farmers are constantly facing new challenges and this is certainly another one.
The Skagit Valley has built an admirable reputation for growing and shipping conventional red, white, gold and purple potatoes as well as organic red and russet potatoes, that are shipped all over the country.
A temporary bridge is expected to be in place in a few weeks, but transportation over this portion of I-5 certainly will not be back to normal when Skagit Valley potato shipments get underway in August.
The bridge collapse sent cars and people into the river. Three people were sent to area hospitals for treatment, but there were no fatalities.
It has been reported that an oversized and overweight big rig struck a girder at the top of the bridge, causing the collapse.
Vancouver, B.C. – The outlook for British Columbia’s 2013 blueberry crop is strong, according to the British Columbia Blueberry Council. If current weather trends hold, picking could start as early as the first week of July, coming in a couple of weeks earlier than last year’s harvest.
Early varieties of blueberry are already in full bloom, with later varieties also progressing well. Although it’s too early in the season to predict the size of the harvest, the region has had great weather for pollination. While there have been reports of some farms experiencing a shortage of bees, British Columbia is expecting an ample supply of good quality blueberries for the 2013 season.
“The last couple of years have been record crops for BC, but picking has started late,” said Debbie Etsell, executive director of the BC Blueberry Council. “The combination of the mild winter and warm spring this year puts us on track for a harvest that is more typical, as far as timing goes, starting around the first or second week of July.”
About the British Columbia Blueberry Council
The British Columbia Blueberry Council represents over 800 blueberry growers, located in some of Canada’s most rich and fertile farmland. Plantings of premium quality highbush blueberries top 11,000 hectares in British Columbia and produce upwards of 55 million kilograms of blueberries annually. With more than $1 billion in sales in the past five years, Canada is the third largest national producer of sweet and juicy highbush blueberries in the world. Available fresh in B.C. from July through October, BC blueberries are also frozen, dried, juiced, puréed and powdered, available for year round-distribution throughout Canada and around the world.
Source: British Columbia Blueberry Council
Only a few weeks ago if someone predicted there would be 21% more USA fresh-market apples in storage than the year before, you’d been considered a little nuts. The same goes are anyone predicted there would be nearly 130 million boxes of apples shipped this season, especially after year’s damage to apple crops in Michigan and New York.
Washington state is on pace to ship 129.6 million boxes this season, shattering the previous record by more than 20 million boxes.
Consider this. Washington could ship 132,245 truckload equivalents of apples this season, which ends this summer. (divide 129.6 million boxes by 1,980 boxes of apples that make up a truck load.)
Washington grower-shippers and officials knew they’d have a big crop, but not this big. Following July hailstorms, the estimate was in the 100 million to 110 million box range.
Apparently the 2012 crop is no fluke. It seems every five to seven years, apple shipments have jumped to another level. In recent years loadings were in the 100- million to 109-million box range. Prior to this there were years where shipments settled into the 80-million box volume.
For the 2013-13 season, observers are already talking about shipments being in the 120-million box range. In other words, loadings hitting 120-million boxes is expected to become the new standard.
Michigan and New York apples
Apple shippers in Michigan and New York are expressing optimism about a big comeback from a disastrous freeze killing 2012-13 season that wiped out about 85% of Michigan’s crop and 52% of New York’s.
Early variety apple shipments are expected to get underway around the third week of August.
Washington state apples – grossing about $6600 to New York City.