Author Archive
Califorina strawberries and asparagus are two items popular for Easter (which is March 31st) and good volume and shipments are expected leading up to this Christian observance.
Asparagus
California asparagus shippers started shipping last week and will be increasing throughout March. There also is decent volumes of Mexican asparagus crossing the border and will still be available for Easter before its seasonal finish. Most Mexican asparagus is crossing the border into the USA at Calexio, CA and at San Luis, AZ.
Asparagus loadings will be up this Easter because the holiday comes much earlier than the past two years.
Strawberries
California strawberries shipments have been in a bit of a lull from Southern areas of the state, but volume is picking up just in time for Easter movement. Excellent quality is reported.
Shipments of Florida strawberries are in a seasonal decline, with most hauls limited to Southeastern destinations for Easter. That means plenty of trucks loading California berries will be headed to the northeast.
Veggies
Light volume of broccoli and cauliflower is now being shipped out of the Salinas Valley….Lettuce shipments are providing much better volume (although not necessarily great for this time of the year) out of California’s Imperial Valley and the Yuma district in Arizona. Both of these areas combine are averaging around 2,000 truckloads per week.
Strawberries, asparagus and lettuce are comptabile items in a refrigerated trailer (see Transfresh mixer and loading guide ad on home page).
Southern California berries, asparagus – grossing about $5800 to New York City.
California desert vegetables – about $5400 to New York City.
Maturity and decay problems have been occurring with a significant amount of imported peaches and nectarines from Chile arriving at various USA ports. This is just a word of caution to check out the product before loading to help reduce you chances of a claim or rejected load. Make sure your cutomer knows the condition of the product going into the trailer. Chilean plum quality has been reported generally better than peaches and nectarines.
All three Chilean stone fruit items are expected to be providing good loading opportunties though March.
Total Chilean nectarine volumes have been around 10 percent less than last season through early March, while plum volumes are up 10 percent. This has presented a problem to those receivers you normally deliver to because different types of stone fruit have been maturing at different times in Chile and delaying fruit arriving at the same time at American ports.
Chilean peach volumes are down 10 percent compared to last year.
Peach and nectarine loadings will be on ending as March closes, while plums should be available for hauling into early April.
Chilean table grape shipments also have been off some this season. A total of about 1,400 truckloads of grapes are arriving by boat at various USA ports each week.
Port of Long Beach Chilean grapes – grossing about $4000 to Chicago.
A sluggish fresh potato market may be good for you as a consumer, but not so good as a produce hauler, if product isn’t being shipped. It also may not be so good for you as a tax payer as the government wants to keep spending more money if doesn’t have.
Despite threats and rumblings of dire consequences from the Administration and some in Congress, the sequester – a deadline for automatic federal spending cuts, hasn’t stopped the spending.
The lastest example is the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to purchase more than 30,000 50-pound bales of potatoes for school lunches and other federal assistance programs. Agricultural Marketing Service (part of the USDA) had asked for bids, specifing that 10 five-pound bags of russets as the desired pack. The deadline was March 5th.
The USDA plans to announce successful bids by March 12. Deliveries to Washington, California, and Arizona range from April 1 to May 31, according to the USDA.
This is small “potatoes” compared to some other fresh potato purchases by the USDA in the 2012-13 season. Last January, the government purchased over 500,000 50-pound bales for $5.49 million.
Last November, the USDA announced a $1.66 million purchase of potatoes for processing after making a $9.5-million purchase of processed potatoes in August.
Despite the bail outs by the USDA for fresh potato purchases. it has not had a pronounced effect on the market to date. Nor has the extra loadings believe to have had any positive effect on produce trucking rates.
Tomatoes
Meanwhile, if you prefer those Mexican vine ripe tomatoes over the mature green tomatoes grown in Florida and California, you’re going to be paying more for those Mexican vine ripes. As a tomato hauler, it remains whether the U.S. government imposed higher prices on Mexican vine ripes will decrease demand and loading opportunites.
The U.S. Department of Commerce published the final version of a newly renegotiated antidumping investigation suspension agreement with producers and exporters of fresh tomatoes from Mexico, which sharply increases the reference or floor prices at which Mexican tomatoes can be sold in the United States, effective immediately.
What you pay for Mexican vine ripe tomatoes will range from nearly 50 percent higher than under the previous agreement to nearly three times as high, depending upon the category of tomatoes.
The new agreement avoids termination of an agreement that has been in place for 16 years and a resumption of the anti-dumping investigation initiated in 1996 at the request of domestic (primarily Florida) tomato growers.
The popularity with consumers for vine-ripe tomatoes from Mexico are one reason why the tomato shipments and consumer purchases has grown so much in recent years in the United States.
Imports of Mexican tomato shipments are now entering a peak for the season.
Tomatoes and other Mexican veggies at Nogales – grossing about $3800 to Atlanta.
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.
Califorina strawberries and asparagus are two items popular for Easter (which is March 31st) and good volume and shipments are expected leading up to this Christian observance.
Asparagus
California asparagus shippers started shipping last week and will be increasing throughout March. There also is decent volumes of Mexican asparagus crossing the border and will still be available for Easter before its seasonal finish. Most Mexican asparagus is crossing the border into the USA at Calexio, CA and at San Luis, AZ.
Asparagus loadings will be up this Easter because the holiday comes much earlier than the past two years.
Strawberries
California strawberries shipments have been in a bit of a lull from Southern areas of the state, but volume is picking up just in time for Easter movement. Excellent quality is reported.
Shipments of Florida strawberries are in a seasonal decline, with most hauls limited to Southeastern destinations for Easter. That means plenty of trucks loading California berries will be headed to the northeast.
Veggies
Light volume of broccoli and cauliflower is now being shipped out of the Salinas Valley….Lettuce shipments are providing much better volume (although not necessarily great for this time of the year) out of California’s Imperial Valley and the Yuma district in Arizona. Both of these areas combine are averaging around 2,000 truckloads per week.
Strawberries, asparagus and lettuce are comptabile items in a refrigerated trailer (see Transfresh mixer and loading guide ad on home page).
Southern California berries, asparagus – grossing about $5800 to New York City.
California desert vegetables – about $5400 to New York City.
Maturity and decay problems have been occurring with a significant amount of imported peaches and nectarines from Chile arriving at various USA ports. This is just a word of caution to check out the product before loading to help reduce you chances of a claim or rejected load. Make sure your cutomer knows the condition of the product going into the trailer. Chilean plum quality has been reported generally better than peaches and nectarines.
All three Chilean stone fruit items are expected to be providing good loading opportunties though March.
Total Chilean nectarine volumes have been around 10 percent less than last season through early March, while plum volumes are up 10 percent. This has presented a problem to those receivers you normally deliver to because different types of stone fruit have been maturing at different times in Chile and delaying fruit arriving at the same time at American ports.
Chilean peach volumes are down 10 percent compared to last year.
Peach and nectarine loadings will be on ending as March closes, while plums should be available for hauling into early April.
Chilean table grape shipments also have been off some this season. A total of about 1,400 truckloads of grapes are arriving by boat at various USA ports each week.
Port of Long Beach Chilean grapes – grossing about $4000 to Chicago.
A sluggish fresh potato market may be good for you as a consumer, but not so good as a produce hauler, if product isn’t being shipped. It also may not be so good for you as a tax payer as the government wants to keep spending more money if doesn’t have.
Despite threats and rumblings of dire consequences from the Administration and some in Congress, the sequester – a deadline for automatic federal spending cuts, hasn’t stopped the spending.
The lastest example is the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to purchase more than 30,000 50-pound bales of potatoes for school lunches and other federal assistance programs. Agricultural Marketing Service (part of the USDA) had asked for bids, specifing that 10 five-pound bags of russets as the desired pack. The deadline was March 5th.
The USDA plans to announce successful bids by March 12. Deliveries to Washington, California, and Arizona range from April 1 to May 31, according to the USDA.
This is small “potatoes” compared to some other fresh potato purchases by the USDA in the 2012-13 season. Last January, the government purchased over 500,000 50-pound bales for $5.49 million.
Last November, the USDA announced a $1.66 million purchase of potatoes for processing after making a $9.5-million purchase of processed potatoes in August.
Despite the bail outs by the USDA for fresh potato purchases. it has not had a pronounced effect on the market to date. Nor has the extra loadings believe to have had any positive effect on produce trucking rates.
Tomatoes
Meanwhile, if you prefer those Mexican vine ripe tomatoes over the mature green tomatoes grown in Florida and California, you’re going to be paying more for those Mexican vine ripes. As a tomato hauler, it remains whether the U.S. government imposed higher prices on Mexican vine ripes will decrease demand and loading opportunites.
The U.S. Department of Commerce published the final version of a newly renegotiated antidumping investigation suspension agreement with producers and exporters of fresh tomatoes from Mexico, which sharply increases the reference or floor prices at which Mexican tomatoes can be sold in the United States, effective immediately.
What you pay for Mexican vine ripe tomatoes will range from nearly 50 percent higher than under the previous agreement to nearly three times as high, depending upon the category of tomatoes.
The new agreement avoids termination of an agreement that has been in place for 16 years and a resumption of the anti-dumping investigation initiated in 1996 at the request of domestic (primarily Florida) tomato growers.
The popularity with consumers for vine-ripe tomatoes from Mexico are one reason why the tomato shipments and consumer purchases has grown so much in recent years in the United States.
Imports of Mexican tomato shipments are now entering a peak for the season.
Tomatoes and other Mexican veggies at Nogales – grossing about $3800 to Atlanta.
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.