Author Archive
DeltaTRAK will showcase the ThermoTrace Time Temperature Indicator (TTI) solution at the United Fresh show in San Diego, CA May 15th and 16th, (booth#1508). The TTI solution has been chosen as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist.
DeltaTRAK’s ThermoTrace TTI solution provides customers with a cost effective way to use 2D bar codes combined with chemical label technology to monitor accumulated temperature abuse of products as they travel through the cold chain. Recently selected as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist, the solution is unique in the marketplace and enhances our customer’s ability to add temperature information to the PTI guidelines for documentation.
DeltaTRAK’s FlashRF Data Central is a cloud-based solution that provides a system wide view and control of locally installed FlashLink RF 2.4 GHz wireless temperature/humidity monitoring networks. FlashRF Data Central is accessed through all modern web browsers and provides an easy-to-use interface that combines topical facility maps, logger temperature graphs and hierarchical facility network structures. Produce growers, shippers, processors and retailers can quickly access temperature data at any given time giving you better visibility of produce quality.
DeltaTRAK manufactures and sells a variety of data loggers and in-transit recorders to meet your cold chain management needs. Data loggers and in-transit recorders are an important part of any cold chain management solution. The ability to record temperature during transport helps to determine if a shipment of produce should be accepted or rejected. Data recorded during storage can help determine if a temperature-sensitive commodity is being stored at its optimum temperature for freshness.
For more information please contact your DeltaTRAK representative at salesinfo@deltatrak.com or by calling 800-962-6776/925-249-2250.
DeltaTRAK, Inc. is a leading innovator of Cold Chain Management and Food Safety, and Environment Monitoring Solutions.
Source: DeltaTRAK
Here’s a round up of some loading and coming loading opportunities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, where produce shipments have been slower gaining momentum due to temperatures below normal.
Florida
Tomato shipments have pretty much finished in the Immokalee area and have shifted to the Palmetto-Ruskin district. Loadings were very light at the beginning of May, but now volume is picking up. Due to weather conditions some disease problems have appeared, so be watchful what you are putting on the truck.
Florida watermelons like it hot and cool weather has put shipments behind schedule. Watermelon loadings should be hitting good volume by the end of May.
Mixed vegetables also continue to be shipped.
Georgia
Blueberry shipments continue to increase from Georgia as new acreage comes into production each year. In fact, the state is now one of the leading shippers of “blues.” Georgia should have about 70 million pounds of blueberries, which equals about 1,750 truckload equivalents.
Georgia has about 22,000 acres of blueberries. Shipments, which have been underway a couple of weeks, are now moving into volume.
Like other produce items, a cool spring has delayed Georgia peach shipments. There should be around 1.8 to 2 million, 25 pound cartons of peaches for hauling this season. Good quality and normal volume is predicted. Shipments should continue into mid-August.
Vidalia onion shipments are lower due to weather and disease, but moderate volume continues from Southeastern Georgia. Mixed veggies from Central and Southern Georgia also continue.
South Carolina
Despite cold and wet weather prections for South Carolina strawberries, shipments are good. Strawberry loadings usually end in May, but this year are expected to continue through June.
South Carolina peach loadings also look promising. Light shipments get underway in a few weeks. Florida mixed vegetable loads – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
When hauling the more perishable produce items such as strawberries, knowing your reefer unit, maintaining proper temperature and taking a pulp temperature at shipping point becomes even more critical. Doing things right results in delivering a better product to your customers, as well as reducing claims and load rejections.
These points are among some important findings in a study released last year, Comparison of Pallet Cover Systems to Maintain Strawberry Fruit Quality During Transport. As the title indicates, the study compares modified air controlled strawberry shipments using carbon dioxide (CO2).
Following up on that report, HaulProduce.com had an extensive interview with Rich Macleod of TransFresh Corp. of Salinas, whose product Tectrol came out looking pretty darn good when compared with competing companies offering controlled atmosphere bags covering palletized loads of strawberries.
The project was a combined effort of the University of California, Davis and the University of Florida in conjunction with the USDA.
“What this (study) demonstrates is when you put a bag over the pallet, you are going to get some in-transit warming,” Macleod observes. “It doesn’t matter whether it is a Tectrol (application) or somebody else’s bag because the warming is about the same for all of them.”
Where Tectrol shined in the study was the quality of the berries upon arrival after the cross country hauls from California to the east coast.
But back to the issue of in-transit warming. Rich points out when a palletized load is entirely bagged, the driver has to account for warming when adjusting the refrigeration unit set points accordingly at a colder temperature than if the load were “naked.”
He says, “I believe you can run a fully bagged Tectrol load (of strawberries) at 30 degrees F. if your (reefer) unit is well calibrated and your unit was built within the past four years.”
However, realistically Macleod knows most drivers prefer a 36-degree F. setting. As they become more familar with these type of loads they find out one can drop the setting to 34 or even 32 degrees.
“They (drivers) should not have issues with warmer product, if it is bagged. And they should not have any issues with frozen product. There are a number of drivers that have been incredibly successful handling Tectrol loads at 32 degrees F., but they know their units inside out and have them calibrated. They know what the floors are and the coldest temperatures that unit will be. Thirty-two degrees is a reasonable compromise.”
Macleod stressed that even if the fruit has been properly pre-cooled, carriers have to realize those bagged pallets will increase the temperature.
In fact the study itself points out in shipments with non covered pallets, the clamshell packaged strawberries remained at 32 to 35 degrees F. However, pallets covered with bags resulted in the temperature increase of three to four degrees by the time it arrived at destination.
“The rise in temperature during shipments indicate the trailers were unable to maintain the recommended 32 degrees F….” the study states.
What can a driver do if the pallets are already covered with CO2 filled bags upon arrival at the dock?
Although it is too late for a visual inspection of what is being loaded by the driver, Macleod says, “a well run (shipping) company should allow the driver to take a pulp temperature and they (shipper) should provide tape to reseal that hole (made by the driver to take the pulp temperature). It is a common practice and shippers respect that.”
(This is Part 2 0f 5, 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.)
California
California cherry shipments kicked off the third week of April and volume is building. Decent loading opportunities are now just beginning to happen. Decent volume for deliveries in time for the Memorial Day holiday (May 25-27), with earlier varieties are expected. However, the later variety bing volume will be substantially less than a year ago.
The San Joaquin Valley southern region including Brooks and Tulare shipments will likely peak May 16-21. Overall peak shipments should be around May 25 to June 7. The bing cherry crop shipments are expected to be off by 30% to 50% from last year, due in large part to an alternate-bearing cycle.
California has had normal asparagus shipments during April, but loadings are expected lighter than usual now and this will probablycontinue through May.
Michigan
Like so many areas of the country, a colder than normal spring has Michigan asparagus shipments off to a slow to start. Significant increases in volume are not expected until the third week of May, two weeks or more behind schedule.
Florida
After recovering from an early March freeze, Florida sweet corn grower-shippers are finally entering peak spring shipments. Peak loadings normally start around mid-April.
Georgia
Georgia sweet corn shipments also are going to be a little later due to the cold growing season. Corn loadings from Georgia should start in late May, but decent shipments will not be happening until early June. Georgia’s shipments normally end after July 4.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2400 to New York City.
Central Florida vegetables – about $4000 to Boston.
Strawberries
While strawberry shipments from Ventura County are in a seasonal decline, berry volume from both the Santa Maria area and the Salinas/Watsonville district are on the rise.
Overall this season, I’ve been disappointed in the quality of California strawberries, both in taste and appearance. As long as your receiver knows what they are having delivered, then it should reduce your chances of claims or rejections. Hopefully quality will improve with the transition to northern shipping areas.
Studies have shown if your load has pallets with sealed bags from Tectrol with the CO2 modified atmosphere, you will have berries with better arrivals and extended shelf life.
California has refined growing methods on more than 40,000 acres and have improved yields by 44 percent since 1990, but you can’t control Mother Nature. About 90 percent of USA grown fresh strawberries are from California.
The Salinas/Watsonville district is easily the state’s most important when it comes to strawberry shipments, with loads amounting to nearly half of California’s production.
During a year, Salinas/Watsonville ships nearly 20,000 truck load equivalents of strawberries, with the Santa Maria district moving nearly 11,000 truck load equivalents and Southern Californa shipping over 12,000 truck load equivalents.
Blueberries
Although a few California growers began harvesting and shipping early blueberry varieties last March, the bulk of loadings occur in May and June, with the season ending by July.
California is now shipping blueberries and all the signs point to good volume and quality. The Golden state this year is expected to exceed the 1,100 truck load equivalents of “blues” shipped in 2012.
California is home to 80 blueberry producers and 20 handlers, and ranks fifth nationally blueberry shipments.
Blueberry volume is light, but seasonally increasing from the southern and central disticts of California. Raspberries are in light volume from Ventura County.
Salinas strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7500 to New York City.
HUNTS POINT WHOLESALE TERMINAL MARKET FACTS:
* Located on 113 acres in the South Bronx . Hunts Point is owned by New York City.
* Four primary rows with each being one-third of a mile long.
* 1 million square feet of interior space.
* Opened in 1967.
*Has operated as a co-op for about 20 years.
*Has elected board of directors representing about 50 produce companies on the market.
*Hunts Point employees over 3,500 workers.
*Hunts Point serves about 23 million people, mostly in the Northeast with produce from across the nation and from around the world .
*Hunts Point is the largest food distribution center in the world and also includes the Fulton Fish Market. Revenues exceed $2 billion a year.
*Negotiations between the market and NYC over the past 10 years to build a new facility have failed. Produce wholesalers cite needs for more and better cold storage. Rebuilding, renovation, and moving the market to New Jesery are often topics of discussion.
*Unloading delays are commong at Hunts Point in part due to lack of cold storage. Refrigerated trailers are often used as storage facilities. Truckers receive no detention for delayed unloading.
*Hunts Point receives $172.5 million in cash and tax breaks from New York City.
*Hunts Point leaders are in a “fight” with the NYC’s Business Integrity Commission, an agency created to root out organized crime in the carting industry. The commission has overstepped its authority and is interfering with business by setting operating hours and hitting delivery and storage trucks with parking tickets, produce house operators say. They feel the commission has over stepped its authority and its mission should only deal with organized crime.
Although it’s very doubtful any of the shippers in the Coachella Valley will be able to provide you with a full load of vegetables, there is decent volume with veggies being shipped in the weeks ahead.
Eggplant loadings have just started and should continue into late June. Shipments of beans started in mid April and was followed by bell peppers and corn, which should continue into the first week of June.
Mature-green tomatoes are just now starting and should last until the first or second week of June. Green tomatoes in the desert should continue until “greens” start out of the San Joaquin Valley.
In addition to corn, beans, eggplant and tomatoes, the Coachella Valley also is shipping bell peppers, seeded watermelons; cucumbers, and hard squash. May and June will be peak shipping months for most of these items.
Red grapefruit from the desert has been going on for several months and loadings should continue through May.
Grapes
Very light volume of Coachella Valley table grapes get underway this week, although it will be at least two more weeks before the is good volume.
Last year Coachella shipped about 5.6 million boxes of table grapes. This year, shippers believe there will around 5.8 million 6.2 million boxes shipped.
Coachella shippers are hopeful good volume will occur in time for the Memorial Day holiday (May 25-27).
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7300 to New York City.
Georgia shipments should start from the Fort Valley area in mid-May, about a week or two later than in recent years. Loadings should be more normal this season, with peak movement occurring in July and continuing until about August 10. The season then should conclude a week or so later.
Looking at Vidalia onions, too much rain, mostly in March, is resulting in a disease known as seed stems. This results in bolts, flower stalks and seeds showing up on the plants in the field. Seed stems cause the core of an onion to become hollow, which results in rapid deterioration of the entire onion. Most of this is problem is removed at the packing shed with grading, but keep an extra eye out for it when loading. A significant reduction in loading opportunities is expected because of the problem.
South Carolina peach shipments typically follow Georgia shipments, with only a few days or a week separating when the two areas start and finish.
Michigan
Michigan ranks third in the nation for asparagus shipments, annually producing 25 million pounds. The harvest is usually underway by May 1st, but cold weather has the crop behind schedule. Asparagus should finally be getting underway anytime now.
Michigan also is one of the leading shippers of blueberries., with loading opportunities normally from June to September, with the most volume occurring in July and August.
“Blues” shipments from Michigan totaled only 72 million pounds in 2011 and 87 million pounds in 2012. This year, it may return to a more normal loading amount at over 100 million pounds of blueberries.
It’s often observed you can haul onions on practically anything and driver Pelvis Bates of Newberry, SC is proof. HaulProduce.com met Pelvis several weeks ago as he was unstrapping a flatbed trailer with a load of onions.
He had delivered a load of steel from North Carolina to San Antonio. From there he deadheaded to south Texas where he picked up the onions around 10 p.m. on a Tuesday and was preparing to have them unloaded on the Atlanta State Farmers Market on the following Thursday afternoon.
His onion load was grossing 71,000 pounds, with the product on pallets on a 48-foot Great Dane flatbed. He was driving an International Pro Star Premium.
Pelvis drives for Senn Freight Lines Inc. of Augusta, GA, a company he says is owned by two brothers running 102 trucks.
This was the 45-year-old trucker’s first produce load in his relatively short career in trucking.
“They (shipper) told me to leave the front and back of the load open (with the rest of the load covered by strap held tarps) so the air could flow through it. This was to help prevent the onions from going bad,” he said.
Before entering trucking three years ago, Pelvis worked for a screen printing company. When that business folded, he received a severance pay and used some of the money to enroll in truck driving school.
His first job in trucking was with Swift Transportation pulling dry vans. He has been with Senn Freight about a year.
As Pelvis was unstrapping his load after the 1,300-mile haul, he says this is the first job he has had pulling a flatbed trailer.
“It is extra work unstringing the straps and and removing the tarps. When I first started doing this it took me two hours to strap a load. It now takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of strapping. These tarps weigh 180 pounds each. If it’s 100 degress out here, that is hard work,” states the 45-year-old.
Pelvis says one of the best things about trucking is it affords the opportunity to see a lot of the country. Becoming an owner operator has crossed his mind, but he quickly adds, “it’s too expensive. I don’t see how those guys do it.”
P
each season is upon us and that means a lot of produce truckers will be hauling this perishable fruit over the next few months.
Too many receivers, and consumers are dissatisfied with the quality of this stone fruit and much of the fault may lie with what has happened prior to the produce trucker picking up the fruit.
Rich Macleod of TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA created the Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide about 30 years ago and it still remains in demand from brokers, retailers and carriers needing accurate information regarding in- transit temperature settings and proper mixing of produce items in the same load.
For example, the guide recommends peaches be transported at 34 to 36 degrees F. and can be effectively shipped with many other fruit items and some vegetables.
“The temperature killing range for peaches is roughly 38 to 50 degrees F. Realistically, that is the (temperature) range where everything (in produce) is transported,” Macleod says.
He cites four specific factors which can hinder a good, quality arrival for peaches, even if the trucker maintains the proper temperature, has his reefer unit calibrated and trailer has features ranging from bulkhead, seals, and doors in good condition, among other things.
(1) Growers should not cross subliminal,or inadequate varieties of peaches and expect a good product.
(2) The peaches should not be harvested before they mature.
(3) After the peaches are harvested, there should be “intermitent” warming, where the fruit sets in a temperature range of 60 to 70 degrees F. for a day or so.
(4) Then the peaches should be cooled and packed with a pulp temperature of 36 degrees F.
“If you do all of these steps together, the probability is the quality is going to be pretty good,” Macleod states.
He says the peach growing and shipping industry is working to address these issues, but it often is easier said than done.
Obstacles or issues too often can waylay the best made plains. For example, due to weather factors, early variety peaches may end up overlapping with a later variety fruit. Another example deals with markets. A “hot” or high priced market for peach sellers may result in the product being picked before it is mature. Then suddenly there may be too many peaches on the market, the prices collapse and the product is held back with sellers hoping for better profits to be made.
Stone fruit held in storage or transported at the wrong temperature becomes “mealy or flavorless,” and turns brown on the inside, even though the outside of the fruit may look good.
“It’s called internal breakdown,” Macleod says.
About the time a produce operation may get all of the issues figured out, something may happen such as new managment coming in and the same old problems start all over gain. Meanwhile, the produce trucker may end up in the middle of a problem at destination that may not even be his or her fault.
(This is Part 1 0f 5, 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.)
DeltaTRAK will showcase the ThermoTrace Time Temperature Indicator (TTI) solution at the United Fresh show in San Diego, CA May 15th and 16th, (booth#1508). The TTI solution has been chosen as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist.
DeltaTRAK’s ThermoTrace TTI solution provides customers with a cost effective way to use 2D bar codes combined with chemical label technology to monitor accumulated temperature abuse of products as they travel through the cold chain. Recently selected as a United Fresh Best New Food Safety Product Finalist, the solution is unique in the marketplace and enhances our customer’s ability to add temperature information to the PTI guidelines for documentation.
DeltaTRAK’s FlashRF Data Central is a cloud-based solution that provides a system wide view and control of locally installed FlashLink RF 2.4 GHz wireless temperature/humidity monitoring networks. FlashRF Data Central is accessed through all modern web browsers and provides an easy-to-use interface that combines topical facility maps, logger temperature graphs and hierarchical facility network structures. Produce growers, shippers, processors and retailers can quickly access temperature data at any given time giving you better visibility of produce quality.
DeltaTRAK manufactures and sells a variety of data loggers and in-transit recorders to meet your cold chain management needs. Data loggers and in-transit recorders are an important part of any cold chain management solution. The ability to record temperature during transport helps to determine if a shipment of produce should be accepted or rejected. Data recorded during storage can help determine if a temperature-sensitive commodity is being stored at its optimum temperature for freshness.
For more information please contact your DeltaTRAK representative at salesinfo@deltatrak.com or by calling 800-962-6776/925-249-2250.
DeltaTRAK, Inc. is a leading innovator of Cold Chain Management and Food Safety, and Environment Monitoring Solutions.
Source: DeltaTRAK
Here’s a round up of some loading and coming loading opportunities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, where produce shipments have been slower gaining momentum due to temperatures below normal.
Florida
Tomato shipments have pretty much finished in the Immokalee area and have shifted to the Palmetto-Ruskin district. Loadings were very light at the beginning of May, but now volume is picking up. Due to weather conditions some disease problems have appeared, so be watchful what you are putting on the truck.
Florida watermelons like it hot and cool weather has put shipments behind schedule. Watermelon loadings should be hitting good volume by the end of May.
Mixed vegetables also continue to be shipped.
Georgia
Blueberry shipments continue to increase from Georgia as new acreage comes into production each year. In fact, the state is now one of the leading shippers of “blues.” Georgia should have about 70 million pounds of blueberries, which equals about 1,750 truckload equivalents.
Georgia has about 22,000 acres of blueberries. Shipments, which have been underway a couple of weeks, are now moving into volume.
Like other produce items, a cool spring has delayed Georgia peach shipments. There should be around 1.8 to 2 million, 25 pound cartons of peaches for hauling this season. Good quality and normal volume is predicted. Shipments should continue into mid-August.
Vidalia onion shipments are lower due to weather and disease, but moderate volume continues from Southeastern Georgia. Mixed veggies from Central and Southern Georgia also continue.
South Carolina
Despite cold and wet weather prections for South Carolina strawberries, shipments are good. Strawberry loadings usually end in May, but this year are expected to continue through June.
South Carolina peach loadings also look promising. Light shipments get underway in a few weeks. Florida mixed vegetable loads – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
When hauling the more perishable produce items such as strawberries, knowing your reefer unit, maintaining proper temperature and taking a pulp temperature at shipping point becomes even more critical. Doing things right results in delivering a better product to your customers, as well as reducing claims and load rejections.
These points are among some important findings in a study released last year, Comparison of Pallet Cover Systems to Maintain Strawberry Fruit Quality During Transport. As the title indicates, the study compares modified air controlled strawberry shipments using carbon dioxide (CO2).
Following up on that report, HaulProduce.com had an extensive interview with Rich Macleod of TransFresh Corp. of Salinas, whose product Tectrol came out looking pretty darn good when compared with competing companies offering controlled atmosphere bags covering palletized loads of strawberries.
The project was a combined effort of the University of California, Davis and the University of Florida in conjunction with the USDA.
“What this (study) demonstrates is when you put a bag over the pallet, you are going to get some in-transit warming,” Macleod observes. “It doesn’t matter whether it is a Tectrol (application) or somebody else’s bag because the warming is about the same for all of them.”
Where Tectrol shined in the study was the quality of the berries upon arrival after the cross country hauls from California to the east coast.
But back to the issue of in-transit warming. Rich points out when a palletized load is entirely bagged, the driver has to account for warming when adjusting the refrigeration unit set points accordingly at a colder temperature than if the load were “naked.”
He says, “I believe you can run a fully bagged Tectrol load (of strawberries) at 30 degrees F. if your (reefer) unit is well calibrated and your unit was built within the past four years.”
However, realistically Macleod knows most drivers prefer a 36-degree F. setting. As they become more familar with these type of loads they find out one can drop the setting to 34 or even 32 degrees.
“They (drivers) should not have issues with warmer product, if it is bagged. And they should not have any issues with frozen product. There are a number of drivers that have been incredibly successful handling Tectrol loads at 32 degrees F., but they know their units inside out and have them calibrated. They know what the floors are and the coldest temperatures that unit will be. Thirty-two degrees is a reasonable compromise.”
Macleod stressed that even if the fruit has been properly pre-cooled, carriers have to realize those bagged pallets will increase the temperature.
In fact the study itself points out in shipments with non covered pallets, the clamshell packaged strawberries remained at 32 to 35 degrees F. However, pallets covered with bags resulted in the temperature increase of three to four degrees by the time it arrived at destination.
“The rise in temperature during shipments indicate the trailers were unable to maintain the recommended 32 degrees F….” the study states.
What can a driver do if the pallets are already covered with CO2 filled bags upon arrival at the dock?
Although it is too late for a visual inspection of what is being loaded by the driver, Macleod says, “a well run (shipping) company should allow the driver to take a pulp temperature and they (shipper) should provide tape to reseal that hole (made by the driver to take the pulp temperature). It is a common practice and shippers respect that.”
(This is Part 2 0f 5, 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.)
California
California cherry shipments kicked off the third week of April and volume is building. Decent loading opportunities are now just beginning to happen. Decent volume for deliveries in time for the Memorial Day holiday (May 25-27), with earlier varieties are expected. However, the later variety bing volume will be substantially less than a year ago.
The San Joaquin Valley southern region including Brooks and Tulare shipments will likely peak May 16-21. Overall peak shipments should be around May 25 to June 7. The bing cherry crop shipments are expected to be off by 30% to 50% from last year, due in large part to an alternate-bearing cycle.
California has had normal asparagus shipments during April, but loadings are expected lighter than usual now and this will probablycontinue through May.
Michigan
Like so many areas of the country, a colder than normal spring has Michigan asparagus shipments off to a slow to start. Significant increases in volume are not expected until the third week of May, two weeks or more behind schedule.
Florida
After recovering from an early March freeze, Florida sweet corn grower-shippers are finally entering peak spring shipments. Peak loadings normally start around mid-April.
Georgia
Georgia sweet corn shipments also are going to be a little later due to the cold growing season. Corn loadings from Georgia should start in late May, but decent shipments will not be happening until early June. Georgia’s shipments normally end after July 4.
South Georgia vegetables – grossing about $2400 to New York City.
Central Florida vegetables – about $4000 to Boston.
Strawberries
While strawberry shipments from Ventura County are in a seasonal decline, berry volume from both the Santa Maria area and the Salinas/Watsonville district are on the rise.
Overall this season, I’ve been disappointed in the quality of California strawberries, both in taste and appearance. As long as your receiver knows what they are having delivered, then it should reduce your chances of claims or rejections. Hopefully quality will improve with the transition to northern shipping areas.
Studies have shown if your load has pallets with sealed bags from Tectrol with the CO2 modified atmosphere, you will have berries with better arrivals and extended shelf life.
California has refined growing methods on more than 40,000 acres and have improved yields by 44 percent since 1990, but you can’t control Mother Nature. About 90 percent of USA grown fresh strawberries are from California.
The Salinas/Watsonville district is easily the state’s most important when it comes to strawberry shipments, with loads amounting to nearly half of California’s production.
During a year, Salinas/Watsonville ships nearly 20,000 truck load equivalents of strawberries, with the Santa Maria district moving nearly 11,000 truck load equivalents and Southern Californa shipping over 12,000 truck load equivalents.
Blueberries
Although a few California growers began harvesting and shipping early blueberry varieties last March, the bulk of loadings occur in May and June, with the season ending by July.
California is now shipping blueberries and all the signs point to good volume and quality. The Golden state this year is expected to exceed the 1,100 truck load equivalents of “blues” shipped in 2012.
California is home to 80 blueberry producers and 20 handlers, and ranks fifth nationally blueberry shipments.
Blueberry volume is light, but seasonally increasing from the southern and central disticts of California. Raspberries are in light volume from Ventura County.
Salinas strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7500 to New York City.
HUNTS POINT WHOLESALE TERMINAL MARKET FACTS:
* Located on 113 acres in the South Bronx . Hunts Point is owned by New York City.
* Four primary rows with each being one-third of a mile long.
* 1 million square feet of interior space.
* Opened in 1967.
*Has operated as a co-op for about 20 years.
*Has elected board of directors representing about 50 produce companies on the market.
*Hunts Point employees over 3,500 workers.
*Hunts Point serves about 23 million people, mostly in the Northeast with produce from across the nation and from around the world .
*Hunts Point is the largest food distribution center in the world and also includes the Fulton Fish Market. Revenues exceed $2 billion a year.
*Negotiations between the market and NYC over the past 10 years to build a new facility have failed. Produce wholesalers cite needs for more and better cold storage. Rebuilding, renovation, and moving the market to New Jesery are often topics of discussion.
*Unloading delays are commong at Hunts Point in part due to lack of cold storage. Refrigerated trailers are often used as storage facilities. Truckers receive no detention for delayed unloading.
*Hunts Point receives $172.5 million in cash and tax breaks from New York City.
*Hunts Point leaders are in a “fight” with the NYC’s Business Integrity Commission, an agency created to root out organized crime in the carting industry. The commission has overstepped its authority and is interfering with business by setting operating hours and hitting delivery and storage trucks with parking tickets, produce house operators say. They feel the commission has over stepped its authority and its mission should only deal with organized crime.
Although it’s very doubtful any of the shippers in the Coachella Valley will be able to provide you with a full load of vegetables, there is decent volume with veggies being shipped in the weeks ahead.
Eggplant loadings have just started and should continue into late June. Shipments of beans started in mid April and was followed by bell peppers and corn, which should continue into the first week of June.
Mature-green tomatoes are just now starting and should last until the first or second week of June. Green tomatoes in the desert should continue until “greens” start out of the San Joaquin Valley.
In addition to corn, beans, eggplant and tomatoes, the Coachella Valley also is shipping bell peppers, seeded watermelons; cucumbers, and hard squash. May and June will be peak shipping months for most of these items.
Red grapefruit from the desert has been going on for several months and loadings should continue through May.
Grapes
Very light volume of Coachella Valley table grapes get underway this week, although it will be at least two more weeks before the is good volume.
Last year Coachella shipped about 5.6 million boxes of table grapes. This year, shippers believe there will around 5.8 million 6.2 million boxes shipped.
Coachella shippers are hopeful good volume will occur in time for the Memorial Day holiday (May 25-27).
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7300 to New York City.
Georgia shipments should start from the Fort Valley area in mid-May, about a week or two later than in recent years. Loadings should be more normal this season, with peak movement occurring in July and continuing until about August 10. The season then should conclude a week or so later.
Looking at Vidalia onions, too much rain, mostly in March, is resulting in a disease known as seed stems. This results in bolts, flower stalks and seeds showing up on the plants in the field. Seed stems cause the core of an onion to become hollow, which results in rapid deterioration of the entire onion. Most of this is problem is removed at the packing shed with grading, but keep an extra eye out for it when loading. A significant reduction in loading opportunities is expected because of the problem.
South Carolina peach shipments typically follow Georgia shipments, with only a few days or a week separating when the two areas start and finish.
Michigan
Michigan ranks third in the nation for asparagus shipments, annually producing 25 million pounds. The harvest is usually underway by May 1st, but cold weather has the crop behind schedule. Asparagus should finally be getting underway anytime now.
Michigan also is one of the leading shippers of blueberries., with loading opportunities normally from June to September, with the most volume occurring in July and August.
“Blues” shipments from Michigan totaled only 72 million pounds in 2011 and 87 million pounds in 2012. This year, it may return to a more normal loading amount at over 100 million pounds of blueberries.
It’s often observed you can haul onions on practically anything and driver Pelvis Bates of Newberry, SC is proof. HaulProduce.com met Pelvis several weeks ago as he was unstrapping a flatbed trailer with a load of onions.
He had delivered a load of steel from North Carolina to San Antonio. From there he deadheaded to south Texas where he picked up the onions around 10 p.m. on a Tuesday and was preparing to have them unloaded on the Atlanta State Farmers Market on the following Thursday afternoon.
His onion load was grossing 71,000 pounds, with the product on pallets on a 48-foot Great Dane flatbed. He was driving an International Pro Star Premium.
Pelvis drives for Senn Freight Lines Inc. of Augusta, GA, a company he says is owned by two brothers running 102 trucks.
This was the 45-year-old trucker’s first produce load in his relatively short career in trucking.
“They (shipper) told me to leave the front and back of the load open (with the rest of the load covered by strap held tarps) so the air could flow through it. This was to help prevent the onions from going bad,” he said.
Before entering trucking three years ago, Pelvis worked for a screen printing company. When that business folded, he received a severance pay and used some of the money to enroll in truck driving school.
His first job in trucking was with Swift Transportation pulling dry vans. He has been with Senn Freight about a year.
As Pelvis was unstrapping his load after the 1,300-mile haul, he says this is the first job he has had pulling a flatbed trailer.
“It is extra work unstringing the straps and and removing the tarps. When I first started doing this it took me two hours to strap a load. It now takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of strapping. These tarps weigh 180 pounds each. If it’s 100 degress out here, that is hard work,” states the 45-year-old.
Pelvis says one of the best things about trucking is it affords the opportunity to see a lot of the country. Becoming an owner operator has crossed his mind, but he quickly adds, “it’s too expensive. I don’t see how those guys do it.”
Peach season is upon us and that means a lot of produce truckers will be hauling this perishable fruit over the next few months.
Too many receivers, and consumers are dissatisfied with the quality of this stone fruit and much of the fault may lie with what has happened prior to the produce trucker picking up the fruit.
Rich Macleod of TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA created the Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide about 30 years ago and it still remains in demand from brokers, retailers and carriers needing accurate information regarding in- transit temperature settings and proper mixing of produce items in the same load.
For example, the guide recommends peaches be transported at 34 to 36 degrees F. and can be effectively shipped with many other fruit items and some vegetables.
“The temperature killing range for peaches is roughly 38 to 50 degrees F. Realistically, that is the (temperature) range where everything (in produce) is transported,” Macleod says.
He cites four specific factors which can hinder a good, quality arrival for peaches, even if the trucker maintains the proper temperature, has his reefer unit calibrated and trailer has features ranging from bulkhead, seals, and doors in good condition, among other things.
(1) Growers should not cross subliminal,or inadequate varieties of peaches and expect a good product.
(2) The peaches should not be harvested before they mature.
(3) After the peaches are harvested, there should be “intermitent” warming, where the fruit sets in a temperature range of 60 to 70 degrees F. for a day or so.
(4) Then the peaches should be cooled and packed with a pulp temperature of 36 degrees F.
“If you do all of these steps together, the probability is the quality is going to be pretty good,” Macleod states.
He says the peach growing and shipping industry is working to address these issues, but it often is easier said than done.
Obstacles or issues too often can waylay the best made plains. For example, due to weather factors, early variety peaches may end up overlapping with a later variety fruit. Another example deals with markets. A “hot” or high priced market for peach sellers may result in the product being picked before it is mature. Then suddenly there may be too many peaches on the market, the prices collapse and the product is held back with sellers hoping for better profits to be made.
Stone fruit held in storage or transported at the wrong temperature becomes “mealy or flavorless,” and turns brown on the inside, even though the outside of the fruit may look good.
“It’s called internal breakdown,” Macleod says.
About the time a produce operation may get all of the issues figured out, something may happen such as new managment coming in and the same old problems start all over gain. Meanwhile, the produce trucker may end up in the middle of a problem at destination that may not even be his or her fault.
(This is Part 1 0f 5, 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.)