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In a recent article by Jessica Wohl of Reuters news service it is reported Walmart shoppers have saved $2.3 billion by buying produce at its stores in the first two years of its push to sell more healthful fare and more of it, the largest U.S. grocer reports.
Walmart shoppers saved $1.2 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables in 2012 and $1.1 billion in 2011, based on third-party verified pricing comparisons between its stores and those of unidentified rivals, the huge chain said. Keys to keeping a lid on prices were efforts such as buying more local produce and cutting supply chain costs.
Walmart reported in January 2011 that it wanted to improve the nutritional value of the food it sells, make healthier fare less expensive and make it easier for Americans to access such goods.
Customers of the world’s largest retailer are struggling to put healthful food on the table, especially with higher gasoline prices and payroll taxes.
“They’ve repeatedly told us that while they want to feed their families healthier food, they don’t always know how to do that and they worry that it is simply too expensive,” Leslie Dach, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs told Reuters.
Consumers and public health officials have been pressuring grocers, restaurants and food makers to sell more healthful food in an effort to address the nation’s obesity crisis. More than two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one-third of youth aged 2 to 19 are overweight or obese.
Food is a huge business for Wal-Mart, which has been lowering prices, along with its healthier makeover, to boost sales. Groceries, including goods such as paper towels, account for roughly 55 percent of Walmart’s sales.
Walmart and other chains in 2011 publicly committed to opening stores in designated rural and urban “food deserts” where access to groceries is limited. Ssome of those urban areas in Wal-Mart’s case, include markets where it has faced resistance to its big stores.
Walmart has opened 86 such food stores since 2011 and aims to open a total of 275 to 300 of them by the end of 2016.
I was in Florida March 1-3 and nearly froze my fanny. Apparently I wasn’t alone as reports are coming in that your loading opportunities with Florida green beans and sweet corn will be diminished in the weeks ahead.
Up to 25 percent of south Florida’s spring sweet corn was hit by freezing temperatures on the night of Monday, March 4th, including the Belle Glade area. Beans also suffered damage.
Temperatures plunged to degrees in some specific areas for several hours. Some growers already are talking of replanting in Palm Beach County, which has about 20,000-24,000 acres of corn. The harvest and shipments usually start in early April. More specific damage results and its affect on your loading opportunities should become clearer the week of March 11 – 15.
Temperatures dipped to 27-28 degrees in some areas, but two to five degrees warmer in other areas.
Florida blueberries also may be at risk, but information from intial reports were very sketchy, although early indications are for the most part “blues” dodged the bullet.
We’ll just have to wait to see if other veggies besides corn and beans were affected, not to mention tomatoes and citrus. Most Florida vegetables were maturing earlier than ususal – by one to two weeks, because it has been such a mild winter.
The stage of growth, plus the number of hours vegetables are subjected to freezing temperatures can greatly affect the amount of damage. One thing for sure, produce truckers will need to use caution when hauling Florida produce in the weeks ahead, being on the watch for freeze damage.
Florida produce grossing – about $1800 to Chicago.
Bully Dog’s manifold line continues to grow and we are excited to announce the release of the 85101 to replace OEM manifolds found on the Cummins ISX Signature 600 engines ’99-’03 (and ’99-07 in Australia) and the 85100 to replace the OEM manifold PN3078323 on the Cummins N-14.
What makes a Bully Dog Manifold better than OEM replacement?
Better Design
• Bully Dog manifolds are press fit together to prevent leakage
• We smooth out the sharp corners and eliminated bottlenecks to increase air-flow which results in increased engine performance
• Bully Dog manifolds are strengthened and reinforced to prevent cracking
• Tightly constructed for better fit
Higher Quality Materials:
• Bully Dog uses a special metal alloy that expands and contracts at the same rate to reduce leakage
Better Finishing Process:
• Bully Dog manifolds are hand ported to eliminate metal burrs that interfere with airflow
• Our manifolds are ceramic coated inside and out, reducing radiating temperatures by 300 degrees and exhaust gas temperatures up to 100 degrees
Better Quality Control Process:
• Bully Dog never cuts corners on quality. For every 25 units produced a sample is engineer tested to verify continued quality. If standards are not met the metal is melted down and its properties are readjusted.
Better Results:
• Up to18% greater airflow (flow bench tested) for greater turbo response resulting in more horsepower and fuel economy
Want to find out more? Head to bigrig.bullydog.com.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for produce truckers this winter trying to load desert vegetables out of California’s Imperial Valley and the Yuma District of Arizona. But what’s new. It’s winter!
Rains are forecast for a wide area Friday and Saturday (March 8 and 9) as a cold front moves in Saturday and Sunday. Low temperatures will come on the heels of the wind and rains.
Strong gusty winds will kick up Friday, which can certainly beat up lettuce and other vegetables. The winds could hit 50 mph in Southeastern California and 40 mph elsewhere. There also may be localized heavy rains and flash flooding, especially in the Phoenix area north and eastward. The rains are slated to wind down Saturday, followed by colder weather.
Desert weather was warmer than usual in November and December with shipments coming ahead of schedule. Then freezing weather took place around New Year’s. This has resulted in shipping gaps, and making demand for trucks difficult to measure ahead of time.
At the very least, the rains are going to delay harvests – and shipments. Throwing in the possiblity of freeze damage and wind damage and there’s a lot of uncertainity for next week if you’re wanting to load product out the deserts of California and Arizona. Stay tuned for updates.
Desert veggies – grossing about $3,400 to Houston.
While tomato sales dropped sharply, the 2012 report card on retail fresh produce performance showed
There were big gains for berries, apples, grapes and value-added fruit from consumer purchased last year compared with 2011. However, tomato purchase dropped sharply, according to a report by the Nielsen Perishables Group. Overall produce purchases for 2012 were up 4.4 percent compared to the previous year. The average price for all produce items rose an average of one percent.
Nielsen statistics show that the top 10 produce categories — berries, packaged salad, apples, bananas, grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, citrus, value-added fruit and cooking vegetables — account for about 57 purchases of produce purchases in the USA.
Nine of those 10 categories showed volume growth in 2012.
The only three categories showing decline in volume was potatoes along with tomatoes and cooking vegetables, with year-over-year declines in overall purchases compared with 2011.
Conusmers buying tomatoes for 2012 fell 7.2 percent, pulled lower by a 8.9 percent drop in average prices despite a 2 percent increase in volume.
Potato purchases slipped 4 percent with volume off .4 percent despite a 3.6 percent drop in average potato prices.
Most Popular
Berries led volume growth in 2012, recording 10.5 percent gain in volume and a 2.1 percent increase in average prices helping contribute to a 12.8 percent increase in sales.
Berries continue to steal the spotlight for the fresh produce department with their strong performance, the report notes. Among the top 20 produce categories, berries were second in the number of new items added within the category in 2012.
Consumers now have more choices in berry package sizes, whether it is with 4-ounce, 6-ounce, 8-ounce or bigger packs.
Apples also proved to be popular in 2012. Even with a 7.3 percent increase in average prices, apple volume was able to increase 2.2 percent. Overall apple purchases for the year rose 9.7 percent. Even in the fourth quarter of 2012, despite short crops in Michigan and New York, overall apple shipments rose 1.2 percent.
Shipment of spring Texas sweet onions have been off the past two years and this year will be similar in at least one respect. Growers slashed acreage by 20 percent this season after poor returns the last two years. A trickling of sweet onion loadings will get underway within days, and finally move into pretty good volume by the week of March 25th.
Shipments original both out the Uvalde/Winter Garden area, as well as the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Decent volume should continue through April.
Mexico continues to ship onions across the border into South Texas, but the on-going violence in the Mexican drug wars had make it more difficult to get accurate information on when and how much volume will be shipped. The violence is so bad that Texans investing in Mexican farming operations are afraid to the travel to Mexico to check on the crops.
Last year one major Mexican onion grower was kidnapped by a Mexican gang and hasn’t been heard from since – even after a ransom was paid. More recently the son of another Mexican farmer was kidnaped, but finally was set free after his family paid a ranson. Really makes on want to truck in Mexico doesn’t it!!
California Avocado Loads
Avocado shipments from Southern Californi are expected to heavier than normal during March and April because of the larger crop this year. Loading opportunties are expect to be good by the middle of March with weekly volumes increasing through spring and into the peak summer months.
Shipments are expected to be helped by such events as March Madness, Easter in late March, plus Cinco de Mao, Mother’s Day and the more traditional American summer holidays of Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
Southern California avocado, berries and citrus – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
South Texas and Mexican produce – about $2800 to Chicago.
It’s no secret there’s plenty of USA potatoes available for hauling for the 2012-13 season, if shippers can find enough buyers for the huge crop. However, the huge volume for shipping exists as well in Canada, which is struggling to figure out what to do with all its spuds.
Statistics Canada reports there are about 4.8 million tons of potatoes that have been harvested from 360,899 acres in Canada. The crop is distributed throughout Canada with 37 percent in the Prairie provinces, 39 percent in the Atlantic Canada region, 22 percent in central Canada and 2 percent in British Columbia.
Fresh vs. Processing in Provinces
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Canada’s Potato Report for 2010-11,show potato shipments for fresh, processing and seed vary greatly depending upon the province. In New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, the majority of production goes to the processors. In Quebec and British Columbia the reverse is true, with most of the loads going to retailers, wholeslaers and foodservice buying and selling fresh. Saskatchewan is the only province where the majority of production is slated for the seed sector.
Canada Exports to the USA
Canada exported 1.25 million tons of fresh and processed potatoes to the USA, its most significant potato-export trading partner, for 2010-11. AAFC’s Canada’s Potato Market Intelligence Report 2012 said fresh table potatoes exported to the United States accounted for 433,208 tons. That figure is nearly offset by the fact fresh potatoes shipped from the USA to Canada totaled 425,492 tons. This quantity represents approximately 9 percent of the total of Canadian production of fresh potatoes.
The USA also is Canada’s most significant trading partner for the export of seed potatoes with 55,600 acres of seed potatoes.
This is normally the peak for arrivals of Chilean table grapes by boat at ports on both the east and west coasts led by Philadlephia, Wilimington, NC and Long Beach, CA. Howevever, loading opportunities are down some this year due to a smaller crop, combined with some quality problems, particularly with red grapes.
Arrivals should continue at USA ports until about the middle of April. Total Chilean exports are down by nearly 18 perecent this season, although exports to the USA are not down nearly this much.
Recent weeks have been showing a strong increase in arrivals, mainly in the later varieties, like the red colored crimson grape. However, the quality problems have been more associated with the earlier variety red colored flames. Loading opportunities should remain fairly good throughout the month of March, especially with retail orders remaining strong for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Passover.
About 1,000 truck load equivalents of Chilelan table grapes are arriving a USA ports by boat per week.
Chilean asian pears
Imports of Chilean yellow-skinned pears are now arriving at ports, with brown-skinned asian pear arrivals taking place by mid-March.
Mexican Mangoes
Similar to a lot of Mexican vegetables, Mexican mango arrivals at USA crossings have gotten off to a slower start this season. There’s also arrivals of mangoes by boat at various ports from Central America.
Mexican mango imports will likely break another record in 2013 as observers are predicting a 10-15 percent annual growth. Peak arrivals at border crossings, particularly in south Texas, should be in May.
There also are mangoes arriving by boat from Nicaragua, Gautemala beginning the middle of March.
Boat arrivals of mangoes from Peru should end by mid-March. Peru is expected to ship about 9 million boxes to the USA this season, up from 6 million boxes last year.
Mexican imported mangoes, plus other Mexican items crossing the border into Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $4000 to Philadelphia.
A very mild winter in Florida has Florida vegetables growing faster than normal, which could very well lead to spring truck shipments occurring sooner than usual.
For example, a bumper crop of spring bell peppers, is being forecast and could become available in mid-March, rather than its more normal start date of early April.
The Florida winter has been more like fall weather leading to larger plants and plans for high yields, which should translate into heavy shipments. Spring squash is another example of the benefits of favorable weather. Squash loadings from eastern Palm Beach County started in late February, as well as from southwest Florida near Fort Myers and in central Florida near Ruskin.
While squash supplies and loadings are not exceptionally heavy, this should change with increasing volume around the middle or end of March.
Shipments of strawberries from the Plant City area just west of Tampa continue. There have been some quality problems related to weather, but there’s also reports of some nice fruit being shipped. In other words, there are mixed reports and it probably depends upon which field the berries you are loading came from. Just a word of caution, and check the quality of strawberries waiting for you at the dock.
Central and South Florida veggies and strawberries – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.
Cargo Data Corp. of Ventura CA has a new radio frequency-based temperature monitoring system it claims can save up to 35 minutes of staff time per load for receivers whose perishables arrive with out-of-range temperatures.
The automated temperature monitoring system (ATMS) is designed to operate with many of the company’s digital temperature recorders already in use. It does not require intensive training or the use of smartphones or other expensive equipment, the news release states.
With the ATMS equipment, radio frequency technology captures, displays and archives temperature data within moments of a shipment’s arrival. The data is automatically posted to Cargo Data’s website.
In a recent study, Cargo Data found use of the ATMS system by a major grocery retailer in the eastern U.S. eliminated 35 minutes of staff time for each perishable shipment that arrived with out-of-range temperatures.
The ATMS requires the use of Cargo Data’s “Express” hand-held chart viewing device and the iMAT terminal data collection device.
In a recent article by Jessica Wohl of Reuters news service it is reported Walmart shoppers have saved $2.3 billion by buying produce at its stores in the first two years of its push to sell more healthful fare and more of it, the largest U.S. grocer reports.
Walmart shoppers saved $1.2 billion on fresh fruits and vegetables in 2012 and $1.1 billion in 2011, based on third-party verified pricing comparisons between its stores and those of unidentified rivals, the huge chain said. Keys to keeping a lid on prices were efforts such as buying more local produce and cutting supply chain costs.
Walmart reported in January 2011 that it wanted to improve the nutritional value of the food it sells, make healthier fare less expensive and make it easier for Americans to access such goods.
Customers of the world’s largest retailer are struggling to put healthful food on the table, especially with higher gasoline prices and payroll taxes.
“They’ve repeatedly told us that while they want to feed their families healthier food, they don’t always know how to do that and they worry that it is simply too expensive,” Leslie Dach, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs told Reuters.
Consumers and public health officials have been pressuring grocers, restaurants and food makers to sell more healthful food in an effort to address the nation’s obesity crisis. More than two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one-third of youth aged 2 to 19 are overweight or obese.
Food is a huge business for Wal-Mart, which has been lowering prices, along with its healthier makeover, to boost sales. Groceries, including goods such as paper towels, account for roughly 55 percent of Walmart’s sales.
Walmart and other chains in 2011 publicly committed to opening stores in designated rural and urban “food deserts” where access to groceries is limited. Ssome of those urban areas in Wal-Mart’s case, include markets where it has faced resistance to its big stores.
Walmart has opened 86 such food stores since 2011 and aims to open a total of 275 to 300 of them by the end of 2016.
I was in Florida March 1-3 and nearly froze my fanny. Apparently I wasn’t alone as reports are coming in that your loading opportunities with Florida green beans and sweet corn will be diminished in the weeks ahead.
Up to 25 percent of south Florida’s spring sweet corn was hit by freezing temperatures on the night of Monday, March 4th, including the Belle Glade area. Beans also suffered damage.
Temperatures plunged to degrees in some specific areas for several hours. Some growers already are talking of replanting in Palm Beach County, which has about 20,000-24,000 acres of corn. The harvest and shipments usually start in early April. More specific damage results and its affect on your loading opportunities should become clearer the week of March 11 – 15.
Temperatures dipped to 27-28 degrees in some areas, but two to five degrees warmer in other areas.
Florida blueberries also may be at risk, but information from intial reports were very sketchy, although early indications are for the most part “blues” dodged the bullet.
We’ll just have to wait to see if other veggies besides corn and beans were affected, not to mention tomatoes and citrus. Most Florida vegetables were maturing earlier than ususal – by one to two weeks, because it has been such a mild winter.
The stage of growth, plus the number of hours vegetables are subjected to freezing temperatures can greatly affect the amount of damage. One thing for sure, produce truckers will need to use caution when hauling Florida produce in the weeks ahead, being on the watch for freeze damage.
Florida produce grossing – about $1800 to Chicago.
Bully Dog’s manifold line continues to grow and we are excited to announce the release of the 85101 to replace OEM manifolds found on the Cummins ISX Signature 600 engines ’99-’03 (and ’99-07 in Australia) and the 85100 to replace the OEM manifold PN3078323 on the Cummins N-14.
What makes a Bully Dog Manifold better than OEM replacement?
Better Design
• Bully Dog manifolds are press fit together to prevent leakage
• We smooth out the sharp corners and eliminated bottlenecks to increase air-flow which results in increased engine performance
• Bully Dog manifolds are strengthened and reinforced to prevent cracking
• Tightly constructed for better fit
Higher Quality Materials:
• Bully Dog uses a special metal alloy that expands and contracts at the same rate to reduce leakage
Better Finishing Process:
• Bully Dog manifolds are hand ported to eliminate metal burrs that interfere with airflow
• Our manifolds are ceramic coated inside and out, reducing radiating temperatures by 300 degrees and exhaust gas temperatures up to 100 degrees
Better Quality Control Process:
• Bully Dog never cuts corners on quality. For every 25 units produced a sample is engineer tested to verify continued quality. If standards are not met the metal is melted down and its properties are readjusted.
Better Results:
• Up to18% greater airflow (flow bench tested) for greater turbo response resulting in more horsepower and fuel economy
Want to find out more? Head to bigrig.bullydog.com.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for produce truckers this winter trying to load desert vegetables out of California’s Imperial Valley and the Yuma District of Arizona. But what’s new. It’s winter!
Rains are forecast for a wide area Friday and Saturday (March 8 and 9) as a cold front moves in Saturday and Sunday. Low temperatures will come on the heels of the wind and rains.
Strong gusty winds will kick up Friday, which can certainly beat up lettuce and other vegetables. The winds could hit 50 mph in Southeastern California and 40 mph elsewhere. There also may be localized heavy rains and flash flooding, especially in the Phoenix area north and eastward. The rains are slated to wind down Saturday, followed by colder weather.
Desert weather was warmer than usual in November and December with shipments coming ahead of schedule. Then freezing weather took place around New Year’s. This has resulted in shipping gaps, and making demand for trucks difficult to measure ahead of time.
At the very least, the rains are going to delay harvests – and shipments. Throwing in the possiblity of freeze damage and wind damage and there’s a lot of uncertainity for next week if you’re wanting to load product out the deserts of California and Arizona. Stay tuned for updates.
Desert veggies – grossing about $3,400 to Houston.
While tomato sales dropped sharply, the 2012 report card on retail fresh produce performance showed
There were big gains for berries, apples, grapes and value-added fruit from consumer purchased last year compared with 2011. However, tomato purchase dropped sharply, according to a report by the Nielsen Perishables Group. Overall produce purchases for 2012 were up 4.4 percent compared to the previous year. The average price for all produce items rose an average of one percent.
Nielsen statistics show that the top 10 produce categories — berries, packaged salad, apples, bananas, grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, citrus, value-added fruit and cooking vegetables — account for about 57 purchases of produce purchases in the USA.
Nine of those 10 categories showed volume growth in 2012.
The only three categories showing decline in volume was potatoes along with tomatoes and cooking vegetables, with year-over-year declines in overall purchases compared with 2011.
Conusmers buying tomatoes for 2012 fell 7.2 percent, pulled lower by a 8.9 percent drop in average prices despite a 2 percent increase in volume.
Potato purchases slipped 4 percent with volume off .4 percent despite a 3.6 percent drop in average potato prices.
Most Popular
Berries led volume growth in 2012, recording 10.5 percent gain in volume and a 2.1 percent increase in average prices helping contribute to a 12.8 percent increase in sales.
Berries continue to steal the spotlight for the fresh produce department with their strong performance, the report notes. Among the top 20 produce categories, berries were second in the number of new items added within the category in 2012.
Consumers now have more choices in berry package sizes, whether it is with 4-ounce, 6-ounce, 8-ounce or bigger packs.
Apples also proved to be popular in 2012. Even with a 7.3 percent increase in average prices, apple volume was able to increase 2.2 percent. Overall apple purchases for the year rose 9.7 percent. Even in the fourth quarter of 2012, despite short crops in Michigan and New York, overall apple shipments rose 1.2 percent.
Shipment of spring Texas sweet onions have been off the past two years and this year will be similar in at least one respect. Growers slashed acreage by 20 percent this season after poor returns the last two years. A trickling of sweet onion loadings will get underway within days, and finally move into pretty good volume by the week of March 25th.
Shipments original both out the Uvalde/Winter Garden area, as well as the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Decent volume should continue through April.
Mexico continues to ship onions across the border into South Texas, but the on-going violence in the Mexican drug wars had make it more difficult to get accurate information on when and how much volume will be shipped. The violence is so bad that Texans investing in Mexican farming operations are afraid to the travel to Mexico to check on the crops.
Last year one major Mexican onion grower was kidnapped by a Mexican gang and hasn’t been heard from since – even after a ransom was paid. More recently the son of another Mexican farmer was kidnaped, but finally was set free after his family paid a ranson. Really makes on want to truck in Mexico doesn’t it!!
California Avocado Loads
Avocado shipments from Southern Californi are expected to heavier than normal during March and April because of the larger crop this year. Loading opportunties are expect to be good by the middle of March with weekly volumes increasing through spring and into the peak summer months.
Shipments are expected to be helped by such events as March Madness, Easter in late March, plus Cinco de Mao, Mother’s Day and the more traditional American summer holidays of Memorial Day, Flag Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
Southern California avocado, berries and citrus – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
South Texas and Mexican produce – about $2800 to Chicago.
It’s no secret there’s plenty of USA potatoes available for hauling for the 2012-13 season, if shippers can find enough buyers for the huge crop. However, the huge volume for shipping exists as well in Canada, which is struggling to figure out what to do with all its spuds.
Statistics Canada reports there are about 4.8 million tons of potatoes that have been harvested from 360,899 acres in Canada. The crop is distributed throughout Canada with 37 percent in the Prairie provinces, 39 percent in the Atlantic Canada region, 22 percent in central Canada and 2 percent in British Columbia.
Fresh vs. Processing in Provinces
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Canada’s Potato Report for 2010-11,show potato shipments for fresh, processing and seed vary greatly depending upon the province. In New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, the majority of production goes to the processors. In Quebec and British Columbia the reverse is true, with most of the loads going to retailers, wholeslaers and foodservice buying and selling fresh. Saskatchewan is the only province where the majority of production is slated for the seed sector.
Canada Exports to the USA
Canada exported 1.25 million tons of fresh and processed potatoes to the USA, its most significant potato-export trading partner, for 2010-11. AAFC’s Canada’s Potato Market Intelligence Report 2012 said fresh table potatoes exported to the United States accounted for 433,208 tons. That figure is nearly offset by the fact fresh potatoes shipped from the USA to Canada totaled 425,492 tons. This quantity represents approximately 9 percent of the total of Canadian production of fresh potatoes.
The USA also is Canada’s most significant trading partner for the export of seed potatoes with 55,600 acres of seed potatoes.
This is normally the peak for arrivals of Chilean table grapes by boat at ports on both the east and west coasts led by Philadlephia, Wilimington, NC and Long Beach, CA. Howevever, loading opportunities are down some this year due to a smaller crop, combined with some quality problems, particularly with red grapes.
Arrivals should continue at USA ports until about the middle of April. Total Chilean exports are down by nearly 18 perecent this season, although exports to the USA are not down nearly this much.
Recent weeks have been showing a strong increase in arrivals, mainly in the later varieties, like the red colored crimson grape. However, the quality problems have been more associated with the earlier variety red colored flames. Loading opportunities should remain fairly good throughout the month of March, especially with retail orders remaining strong for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Passover.
About 1,000 truck load equivalents of Chilelan table grapes are arriving a USA ports by boat per week.
Chilean asian pears
Imports of Chilean yellow-skinned pears are now arriving at ports, with brown-skinned asian pear arrivals taking place by mid-March.
Mexican Mangoes
Similar to a lot of Mexican vegetables, Mexican mango arrivals at USA crossings have gotten off to a slower start this season. There’s also arrivals of mangoes by boat at various ports from Central America.
Mexican mango imports will likely break another record in 2013 as observers are predicting a 10-15 percent annual growth. Peak arrivals at border crossings, particularly in south Texas, should be in May.
There also are mangoes arriving by boat from Nicaragua, Gautemala beginning the middle of March.
Boat arrivals of mangoes from Peru should end by mid-March. Peru is expected to ship about 9 million boxes to the USA this season, up from 6 million boxes last year.
Mexican imported mangoes, plus other Mexican items crossing the border into Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $4000 to Philadelphia.
A very mild winter in Florida has Florida vegetables growing faster than normal, which could very well lead to spring truck shipments occurring sooner than usual.
For example, a bumper crop of spring bell peppers, is being forecast and could become available in mid-March, rather than its more normal start date of early April.
The Florida winter has been more like fall weather leading to larger plants and plans for high yields, which should translate into heavy shipments. Spring squash is another example of the benefits of favorable weather. Squash loadings from eastern Palm Beach County started in late February, as well as from southwest Florida near Fort Myers and in central Florida near Ruskin.
While squash supplies and loadings are not exceptionally heavy, this should change with increasing volume around the middle or end of March.
Shipments of strawberries from the Plant City area just west of Tampa continue. There have been some quality problems related to weather, but there’s also reports of some nice fruit being shipped. In other words, there are mixed reports and it probably depends upon which field the berries you are loading came from. Just a word of caution, and check the quality of strawberries waiting for you at the dock.
Central and South Florida veggies and strawberries – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.
Cargo Data Corp. of Ventura CA has a new radio frequency-based temperature monitoring system it claims can save up to 35 minutes of staff time per load for receivers whose perishables arrive with out-of-range temperatures.
The automated temperature monitoring system (ATMS) is designed to operate with many of the company’s digital temperature recorders already in use. It does not require intensive training or the use of smartphones or other expensive equipment, the news release states.
With the ATMS equipment, radio frequency technology captures, displays and archives temperature data within moments of a shipment’s arrival. The data is automatically posted to Cargo Data’s website.
In a recent study, Cargo Data found use of the ATMS system by a major grocery retailer in the eastern U.S. eliminated 35 minutes of staff time for each perishable shipment that arrived with out-of-range temperatures.
The ATMS requires the use of Cargo Data’s “Express” hand-held chart viewing device and the iMAT terminal data collection device.