Archive For The “News” Category
Fresh online food purchases are often a disappointment to consumers, according to a new survey of more than 1,100 online grocery shoppers.
Consumers were polled who have shopped online for groceries at least once in the previous 12 months . The survey was conducted by organic online grocery service Door to Door Organics.
23 percent said they don’t buy fresh grocery products (produce, meat, fish and dairy ) online. For those who do buy fresh produce and other fresh food online, 57 percent said they have been disappointed in the quality or freshness of those items at least once in the last year.
58 percent of consumers would feel better about the quality of the fresh foods they buy online if they knew the products were recently picked or packaged. Just over half of consumers said they would be more comfortable if the fresh products were sourced from a local farm, and 25 percent said they would feel more secure about the quality of fresh grocery products if they were purchasing from a specialty online grocer.
“Easing concerns about the quality and freshness of produce and other fresh grocery items has always been a top priority for online grocers, especially those like us who specialize in local and organic produce,” Chad Arnold, CEO of Door to Door Organics, said in the release. “Selecting produce, for example, can be a very sensory-oriented experience — consumers like to touch, feel, smell and even taste their selections before purchasing. Online grocery shopping limits that initial sensory experience, so we do everything we can to ensure they experience that same satisfaction each time they open their Door to Door Organics delivery box.”
The survey found that online shopping is increasing, with 54 percent of consumers responding they had increased online shopping in the past year, with less than 4 percent indicating the amount of online shopping has decreased. 42 percent reported their online food shopping remained about the same in the past year.
Survey respondents said they valued their time at $56 per hour and reported it takes them an average of 69 minutes each week to shop for groceries, according to the release.
“It’s becoming increasingly harder for consumers to find a ‘one-stop-shop’ that meets all their grocery shopping needs,” Arnold said in release. “Today’s grocery shopper appreciates variety, wants to have easy access to all kinds of produce and products, but also values convenience based on being busier than ever. This is one of the primary reasons why consumers are making online grocery shopping a more regular part of their week, and I don’t expect that trend to turn downward anytime soon.”
by Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. — Wisconsin’s cranberry industry is projected to produce more cranberries than any other state this fall, with a crop of 5 million barrels of fruit, according to crop projections announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistical Services (NASS). The projected bountiful crop, part of the more than 8.4 million barrels of cranberries expected in 2015 nationwide, would continue to challenge the industry with an oversupply of fruit.
“Our growers do a great job and we have much pride in our crop, but today’s news is bittersweet as our industry continues to work its way out of an oversupply,” said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association (WSCGA).
According to Lochner, the combined increase in supply and flat demand in the juice category is creating the market imbalance. He said the use of the latest science and technology by Wisconsin’s cranberry growers is resulting in stronger, healthier crops. That coupled with new U.S. and Canadian cranberry acreage that is now producing fruit and a very kind Mother Nature in recent years, has resulted in the large yields. He added that the industry’s focus now is to grow more and broader interest and demand from the international market.
In 2014, Wisconsin growers had a crop of 4.9 million barrels. The NASS projections, if realized, would result in the 2015 cranberry crop being 2 percent larger than last year’s crop. That projection is dependent on continued good growing weather, no damaging hail storms or major temperature drops leading up to the fall harvest, added Lochner.
Wisconsin will begin harvesting its cranberry crop in late September and continue through much of October to support fresh fruit needs for the early Canadian Thanksgiving (October 12th) and the U.S. holiday season. Other cranberries are frozen and stored for longer-term sales as frozen berries, sweetened dried and dried cranberries, juices, sauces and more. The U.S. Thanksgiving is November 26th.
“The oversupply is quite a challenge for all states that grow cranberries but especially here in Wisconsin where more than half of the world’s supply is grown,” said Lochner.
NASS, which bases its crop estimates on grower surveys nationwide, also made crop projections for other top cranberry producing states. Those projections are: Massachusetts at 2.1 million barrels, New Jersey at 585,000 barrels, Oregon at 504,000 barrels and Washington at 181,000 barrels. The nationwide forecast is expected to be nearly identical to 2014’s production.
by United Fresh Produce Association
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United Fresh Produce Association announces the release of the Broker/Shipper Transportation Agreement template. Crafted by members of the United Fresh Supply Chain Logistics Council in partnership with the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), the template is designed for members’ use when entering into the specific business relationship between shipping companies and third party transportation providers.
“This broker:shipper contract is the first of its kind to serve the produce industry,” said Ken Lund, Vice President, Support Operations, Allen Lund Company, Inc., “This template will save those Association members who use it many hours. It was put together by experts who worked hard to create a fair document to allow the parties to do more business together. I am very proud of the United Fresh Produce Association as they continue to provide tools for membership to help them be more effective and profitable.”
“In today’s age, transportation contracts are a necessity,” said James Lee, Vice President, Legal Affairs, Chop Tank Transport. “As produce is an exempt commodity, and produce transportation is unregulated per se, the importance of United Fresh Produce Association and TIA coming together to create a fair and ethical model contract to be used by both shippers and logistics providers cannot be stressed enough. I am proud to be even a small part of the membership from both organizations who contributed their time, energy, and expertise in order to make this happen.”
The Broker/Shipper Transportation Agreement template is a free resource for United Fresh members and can be downloaded at http://www.unitedfresh.org/resources. For more information or questions about the template, contact Dan Vaché, Vice President, Supply Chain Management and staff liaison to the United Fresh Supply Chain Logistics Council at dvache@unitedfresh.org or 425.629.6271.
by Northwest Cherry Growers
With the season drawing practically to a close, the Northwest Cherry Growers are reporting a preliminary count of cherry shipments totalling 20.52 million boxes (20-pound equivalent). That’s less than 00.25% variance from the NWCG round 3 crop estimate published on May 29th, though lower in May and higher in June volume than the curve projection anticipated. Not only was it the earliest crop in at least 20 years, but it was also bigger than all but two of them (2012, 2014) and over in 81 days.
June saw a record 12.6 million boxes, which included accelerated volume by growers working to stay ahead of the heat waves. The Northwest has seen high temperatures over the past few years, but the record-shattering heat was an entirely different event. Statistically speaking, a 1-in-400 years event. Early season weather challenges also reduced the northwest crop, including an estimated 300,000 boxes of Rainier cherries.
July was the smaller of the two months this season – something we haven’t seen since 2005 (7m June, 4.5m July) – but still delivered 7.4 million boxes. May shipped just over 380,000 boxes and August saw just over 70,000 boxes. An August total that low hasn’t been recorded since the 2000 season. Exports were strong this year, coming in just over 30% of the shipped crop.
Yakima Valley apples and stone fruit – grossing about $6500 to Boston.
Produce shipments are big business out of the Salinas Valley, according to a new report.
Agriculture pumped $8.1 billion into the economy of California’s Monterey County in 2014. The report, Economic Contributions of Monterey County Agriculture was prepared by Agricultural Impact Associates for Eric Lauritzen, the county’s agricultural commissioner. The last such analysis was for 2011.
California’s drought is now in its fourth year, but has had little effect thus far on total production in the county, compared to the Central San Joaquin Valley and its dependence on federal and state water projects. Agriculture’s share of Monterey’s direct economic output was unchanged from 2011 at 18.5 percent, but rose from $5.1 billion to $5.7 billion.
The $8.1 billion in 2014 impacts amounts to nearly $1 million every hour – $926,757, to be exact – according to the report. Farm production totaled about $7 billion; value-added food processing, $1.1 billion. Wineries accounted for nearly half of value-added.
Crop diversity has slowly declined since 2005, the report finds, making the region more vulnerable to fluctuations in the strawberry market, for one. That’s so even though as many crop types are grown in the area as ever.
“It means that a small number of crops have grown to represent larger pieces of the economic pie,” the report says. “Strawberry shipments for example, accounted for 10.7 percent of the county’s overall production value in 2004, but expanded to 19.9 percent a decade later.”
Nevertheless, Monterey’s diversity was rated higher than three other coastal counties: Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.
The agriculture industry employed 55,702 in 2014, or 23.7 percent of all local jobs, up from 45,140 and 20 percent.
Salinas Valley vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $5500 to Atlanta.
Citrus shipments have declined 13 percent between 2007 and 2012, mostly from Florida.The USDA’s Census of Agriculture shows that citrus acreage declined to 877,701 acres in 2012 due to primarily citrus greening in Florida. The disease affected nearly all citrus crops except tangerines.
What’s more, at just over 13,000 farms in 2012, the number of U.S. citrus orchards dropped a whopping 17% from 2007. As a percent of total fruit and tree nut acreage, citrus in 2012 accounted for 17 percent of total U.S. orchard acreage, down from 20 percent in 2007 and 24 percent in 2002.
U.S. grapefruit production tumbled from 156,869 acres in 2002 to 88,393 acres in 2012, while orange acreage slid from 987,743 in 2012 to 670,386 acres in 2012.
Headed the other way, U.S. citrus imports have increased over the last decade, rising from 419,053 metric tons in 2002 to 840,103 metric tons in 2014.
An exception in U.S. citrus acreage shows tangerines have experienced remarkable strength. The USDA reports tangerine acreage in the U.S. rose from 31,419 acres in 2002 to 36,965 acres in 2007 and 42,289 acres in 2012. In a 10-year period where total citrus acreage sank by 32 percent, tangerine acreage shot up 34 percent.
Most tangerine acreage increases have come from California, with a fourfold increase in acreage (8,058 acres in 2002 to 33,465 acres in 2012). The state now accounts for 80 percent of all mandarin acreage in the U.S. Slumping like other varieties, Florida’s tangerine acreage dropped 60 percent from 2002 and 2012.
Like Florida, will California eventually have to deal with the ravages of HLB? California continues to expand the quarantine for the citrus greening (Huanglongbing or HLB) carrying vector, the Asian Citrus Pysllid (ACP). The California Department of Food and Agriculture says ACP county-wide quarantines are now in place in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties, with portions of Fresno, Kern Madera, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Clara counties are also under quarantine.
Despite much research money devoted to the quest, there is no cure for citrus greening yet. Thankfully, the CDFA notes that “HLB has been detected just once in California – in 2012 on a single residential property in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County.”
Southern California citrus – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
Ambrosia and KIKU brand apples continue to be bright spots in the apple category according to the latest retail scan data available from Nielsen Perishables Group.
Data released recently shows that for the four weeks ending May 23, 2015, total U.S. sales of Ambrosia had the strongest growth rate (up 157 percent) among the top 10 apple varieties. Ambrosia was one of only two apples — the other being Honeycrisp — in the top 10 to show an increase in dollar volume performance.
The larger Ambrosia crop has provided savvy retailers with an opportunity to continue to sell this great apple longer into the season, says Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing at CMI. “The story is, consumers continue to seek out and buy Ambrosia as long as retailers carry it,” said Lutz. “When you look at the entire apple category and see that only two apples in the top 10 are showing sales increases, it really shows the emerging following Ambrosia has with consumers. This is exactly the type of growth we saw with Honeycrisp a few years back.”
The May scan data also revealed a second consecutive record sales month for KIKU brand apples. Boosted by imports from New Zealand, KIKU jumped into the top 15 powered by a 305 percent increase in sales, with volume increasing by 420 percent.
“Imported KIKU are clearly generating fresh sales for the apple category,” said Robb Myers, Director of Sales at CMI. “Of the top 15 apples nationally, KIKU’s performance increase was far and away the strongest in the category,” said Myers. He added, “This is great news because it shows how branded apples like KIKU can generate incremental sales for retailers even during the heart of the summer fruit season.”
Myers added that supplies of New Zealand KIKU will be available through the summer months into August. “We anticipated that the strong sales success of KIKU would continue, and we’ve been regularly receiving fresh imports to supply our customers in the U.S. market.” Total apple category volume moved up slightly by 2.3 percent during the month of May. However, declining retail prices offset the volume increase leading to an overall decline in apple category dollars of 6 percent.
by Columbia Marketing International
Demand is hot for Ambrosia™ apples this summer, as they continue to be one of the brightest items in supermarket produce departments. Recently released scan data from Nielsen Perishables Group revealed that for the most recent four week period through June 27, Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp were the only two apples in the top 10 varieties that generated an increase in sales dollars. All other top 10 varieties declined.
According to Robb Myers, Vice President of Sales for CMI, the data shows that consumers continue to look for highly flavored apples like Ambrosia™. “It’s pretty impressive when you consider that in the top 10 selling apple varieties nationally, only Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp generated dollar increases. Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp–that’s pretty good company.”
Myers said a big part of the sales increase is a result of a longer Ambrosia™ domestic season for CMI as well as a strong import season for Chilean grown Ambrosia™ He added, “Our goal was to align sales of our stronger late-storage Ambrosia™ with imported products to ensure continuity of supply right through the new crop out of Washington in early September.”
There is still room for incremental Ambrosia™ growth according to Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI. “The Nielsen data shows that during the most recent four weeks, only about 50% of supermarkets carried Ambrosia™,” said Lutz.
“It’s quite remarkable that only half the retailers in the country are carrying one of the hottest selling apples in the category. In a year where cherry sales are down, generating incremental apple category dollars with Ambrosia is an easy win.”
Lutz says that supplies are excellent and CMI will be running Ambrosia™ promotions with retailers through the month of August rolling into new crop at the beginning of September.
Nearly all vendors for Wal-Mart Stores will begin facing fees for stocking their items in new stores and for warehousing inventory. This is seen as raising pressure on suppliers as the world’s largest retailer battles higher costs from wage hikes to it one-half million employees.
Wal-Mart began informing suppliers about the fees and other changes to supplier agreements recently, and the changes, which also include amended payment terms, will affect 10,000 suppliers to its U.S. stores.
In the past, Wal-Mart has imposed such fees, but did not apply fees uniformly. Some but not all suppliers were charged
The new agreements mean a larger number of vendors will likely start paying fees, passing some of the retailer’s costs onto suppliers,
As an example, Wal-Mart is seeking to charge a food supplier 10 percent of the value of inventory shipped to new stores and to new warehouses, both one-time charges, and 1 percent to hold inventory in existing warehouses, according to a copy of amended terms seen by Reuters.
It is not clear from the document whether the one-time charges apply only to the initial shipment or cover a certain period of time. Currently, the supplier is not charged anything, the document shows.
It is not the way Wal-Mart has done business in the past, and this approach suggests that they are seeking areas to offset their increased investment in wages, as well as offset their lack of organic revenue growth.
By DeltaTrak
Pleasanton, California – DeltaTrak® Inc., a leading innovator of cold chain and environmental monitoring solutions, and Modality Solutions, a cold chain management engineering firm, are pleased to announce an expanded partnership. With Modality’s insight in thermal packaging, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt expertise, transport validation, and logistics solutions, combined with DeltaTrak’s certified temperature monitoring solutions, the relationship is a perfect integration of cold chain logistics capabilities.
The partnership gives customers full access to auditing assessments and gap analysis for GDP/GMP compliance audits, cargo security audits, cold chain risk assessments, and environmental assessments. Customers will also have access to engineering and consulting services for cold chain procedures, controlled environment logistics processes, biopharma product transportation, and formulations for transport.
“Having a value-added partner like Modality Solutions provides DeltaTrak clients with an applications solutions partner,” said DeltaTrak’s President, Frederick Wu. “Their implementation services ensure a compliant transition of technology, including qualification/validation, change control, and corrective/preventive actions (CAPA) management. Modality can also identify and validate new global routes and shipping lanes, and help with audit preparations and assistance on CAPAs from previous audits.”
“Any temperature excursion, either above or below the approved temperature, can result in quality issues and potential loss of products,” said Modality Solutions President, Gary Hutchinson. “Partnering with DeltaTrak allows us to offer cost-effective monitoring solutions and FlashTrak Telematics technology to help improve cold chain management from manufacturing to distribution.”
DeltaTrak®, founded in 1989, offers end-to-end cold chain management, environmental monitoring, and food safety solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, life sciences and chemical industries. DeltaTrak® provides high quality instruments, cloud-based software and services, and traceability during the storage, transport and handling of temperature sensitive commodities.
Founded in 2011, Modality Solution’s key areas of service include: regulatory compliance, cold chain thermal packaging design/qualification and controlled environment logistics solutions, transport simulation testing, streamlining development cycle times for route-to-market applications, and transport validation strategies to support global regulatory applications.