Archive For The “News” Category
While Maine cranberry shipments are not considered to be a major player among states that have cranberries, this season it did produce an estimated 2 million pounds of fruit.
Although this year’s cranberry harvest was good, prices were unusually low, making for a “depressing” market, according to a cranberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “The price was … horrendous for water-harvested berries,” said Charles Armstrong, of the extension.
About 84 percent of all cranberries in Maine are wet harvested, which involves flooding the bog and collecting the ripe berries when they float to the surface. According to Armstrong, the “break-even point” for wet harvesting requires getting about 35 to 40 cents per pound for the berries. For the 2015 season, however, the price dipped to between 12 and 20 cents a pound. In contrast, at $1.50 to $2.50 per pound, prices were good for dry harvested berries, which are picked by hand or raked mechanically.
But only about 16 percent of Maine’s crop is dry harvested because the market for fresh cranberries it is relatively small compared to the market for processed cranberries, which are wet harvested for making juice and cranberry sauce.
Some growers cut their losses and did not harvest this year because of the low prices. About five of the approximately 30 cranberry growers in Maine declined to harvest a total of about 25 acres. The biggest costs in cranberry farming are associated with trucking and processing the fruit . Fuel and manpower are other costs avoided by not harvesting.
Canned pumpkin has become scarce in supermarkets in Illinois. This is a huge concern for Thanksgiving.
Nestlé, whose Libby brand of pumpkin filling is the largest in Illinois, has said their yields of sugar pumpkins have declined as much as a third this year, due to the amount of rain in the summer. Pumpkins require 90 to 120 frost-free days and, since they are a warm-season annual, are harvested from September through October.
Once Nestlé ships all their canned pumpkin, used specifically for pies, they will not have any to distribute until the new year. However, there is concern that the issue may be more long-term and there may also be a shortage in 2016.
Illinois is, by far, the top sugar pumpkin producing state in the nation, with more than 19,800 acres harvested in 2014.
Canadian Cranberry Shipments
Amid a record season for Canadian cranberry shipments, most of Canada’s cranberry production is exported to the United States. In recent years, Quebec surpassed British Columbia as Canada’s biggest cranberry producer. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. account for a much smaller share. While the vast amount of fresh cranberries are shipped for the U.S. Thanksgiving, a relatively small amount will be for Christmas.
Cranberries are the largest agricultural food product in the state, with an annual crop value of $99.8 million. The industry provides 6,900 jobs and total economic benefit of more than $1.4 billion, according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association’s 2015 report.With the climate expected to warm in the decades to come, farmers can expect more insects and more fungal and other plant diseases. The cranberry grows best in temperate climes, DeMoranville said, and long, hot sunny days produce smaller berries that don’t get top prices.
Studies have shown that Cape Cod cranberry growers can expect conditions similar to those now experienced in New Jersey, at the southernmost range of the plant. That area has the highest level of rotted berries, Wick said. The winters also have to be cold enough for ice to form over the flooded bogs so farmers can apply sand that seeps down in the spring and forms a new bed for the plants.
“Eventually, if it got hot enough, you would come to a time when you couldn’t grow cranberries, what may happen is that the entire industry just shifts north,” DeMoranville said.
In essence, that has already happened, as newcomer Quebec overtook Massachusetts in 2013 as the No. 2 cranberry growing region.
The continued decline of Florida’s commercial citrus industry, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently, surprised nobody.
Total citrus acreage continued its 19-year decline with another 3 percent fall in grove land to 501,396 acres compared to 515,147 acres last year. Those groves also had 2 percent fewer trees since 2014 with a total of 66.9 million trees, down from 68.1 million trees a year ago.
“These are the lowest numbers in the series across the board,” said Candi Erick, administrator at the USDA’s Florida Field Office in Maitland, which oversees the annual citrus census.
Erick was referring to the 49-year census series back to 1966, when the USDA began its current aerial survey method. USDA officials met with a growers’ advisory board at the Florida’s Natural Growers Grove House.
The new survey showed 12,343 acres of new citrus groves planted over the year, the highest total since 2009, but the increase was not enough to overcome the loss of 26,094 grove acres since 2014, she said. On the bright side, Erick said, most of the acreage removed was probably abandoned or marginally productive groves.
Of greater concern to growers is the decline in the value of the citrus crop.
The USDA reported the preliminary on-tree value of the 2014-15 Florida citrus crop at $1 billion, a 12 percent decline from a revised value of nearly $1.2 billion in the 2013-14 crop. A year ago, USDA had valued the 2013-14 crop at $946.5 million.
Because of rising costs and declining value, the 2014-15 season was a tough one economically for most growers, said Larry Black, a Fort Meade-based grower and president of Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest growers’ trade group. Grove caretaking costs have risen to about $2,200 per acre, triple the costs just 15 years ago.
In 2014, certified and exempt organic farms in the US sold a total of $5.5 billion in organic products, according to a report published by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The top 10 states in terms of sales accounted for 78 percent of total US organic sales, with California being the leading state with sales of $2.2 billion.
The selection of organic products sold by US farms in 2014 was diverse and ranged from dairy to proteins, fruits & vegetables and grains. Lettuce and apples rank 4th and 5th in the top five commodities in organic sales with a value of $264 million and $250 million respectively. They follow after milk, eggs and broiler chickens.
Organic producers are able to get their products from farm to table more efficiently as their products don’t travel far to the consumer. Almost half was sold within 100 miles of the farm and two percent was sold internationally.
Almost 40 percent of survey respondents indicated they intend to increase their organic production within the next five years.
As a veteran I 
had about as good a duty as you get. My first 18 months was in the Philippines. I was editor of a base newsletter at the Cubi Point Naval Air Station, plus I had an additional job as editor of the officer’s club newsletter at nearby Subic Bay. That meant $100 extra per month for an E-2 grade sailor right out of boot camp. As icing on the cake I had full access to the officers club since I interviewed and photographed acts performing at the officer’s club ranging from Johnny Mathis to the Ink Spots. From the Philippines I spent 2 months on a heavy cruiser based out of Norfolk, VA before transferring to a submarine base in Groton, CT, where I served in the public affairs office on the admiral’s staff, which included doing a Navy news program on local radio.
I point this out because today is Veteran’s Day – and I want to honor those that are the real heroes. I could have easily received duty where I may have been killed in a Vietnam jungle as 50,000 American heroes did, including a handful of friends I grew up with. I well remember flying home for leave from a U.S. Air Force base in the Philippines to Anchorage Alaska on a medivac flight that was filled with injured service men from Vietnam. Now those are real heroes.
I’ve often thought that young people in America who have never spent time in poor countries, where poverty and sickness are rampant, often don’t really appreciate what they have here in the United States.
So here is to the real American heroes, our service men and women who serve and have served so valiantly to protect and preserve the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. God Bless you. —
JO2 Bill Martin, USN
REEDLY, CA – Youngstown Distributors is offering consumers even more reasons to say, “I love pomegranates” with new additions to their pomegranate product line. Their organic and conventional pomegranate arils have new packages ranging in convenient sizes that customers are sure to love!
Organic pomegranate arils are now available and packed in 16 oz., 8 oz., 5.3 oz. and 4.4 oz. packages. Consumers will be able to enjoy the nutrition, along with the flavor that the fresh organic arils have to offer, by simply opening the package and adding to their favorite recipe or eating by the handful.
New conventional arils are also available in cups, offered in 4.4 oz. and 2 oz. sizes and sold as individual cups or 4-packs. These cups are perfect for children and adult lunches, on-the-go consumers looking for a healthy alternative to traditional snacks, or as a flavorful addition to any meal.
“Pomegranates are more popular than ever, and our new aril products help meet that demand,” says Youngstown Distributors’ President, Mike Forrest. “Consumers are looking for convenience and nutrition; these new package options, offer both to consumers without having to sacrifice nutrition for convenience.”
Youngstown Distributors also offers whole pomegranates, and they are currently supplying Early Wonderful variety fruit from California. Product availability for Wonderful variety whole pomegranates will begin soon, starting in October and continuing through April. Learn more about all of Youngstown Distributors’ product offerings, by visiting them at PMA booth 2111.
About Youngstown Distributors
Youngstown Distributors is a year-round supplier of whole pomegranates and pomegranate arils along with California Stone Fruit. They value their strategic partnerships, which allow them to supply high quality product year-round.
Sweet potato production is surging in the United States, according to a an article issued by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
“U.S. sweet potato production has increased substantially over the last 15 years,” the authors wrote. “In 2000, total U.S. production was 13.8 million hundredweight and close to the 10-year (1990-99) average of 12.42 million hundredweight. In subsequent seasons, sweet potato production increased by an average of 6.1 percent per season, ultimately resulting in record high production (29.6 million hundredweight) for the 2014 marketing year.”
While sweet potatoes are grown across the United States, the authors said, “They are best suited for cultivation in southern states which have warmer climates and longer frost-free growing seasons relative to other regions of the United States. In particular, North Carolina’s climate and soil conditions are ideal for sweet potato production. Since 1971, this state has been the No. 1 sweet potato producer and, in 2014, North Carolina produced 53 percent of all sweet potatoes grown in the country.”
North Carolina’s industry grew 185 percent over the past 15 years, buoying the domestic industry. “However, other states make significant contributions and have also experienced gains. Over the same 15-year period, California production has increased by nearly 100 percent; Mississippi’s production has increased by 155 percent,” the report stated. These two states accounted for 30 percent of domestic sweet potato production in 2014.
North Carolina, California, Mississippi and Louisiana accounted for 91 percent of aggregate sweet potato production, and the authors attributed increases to gains in yield and area harvested. “North Carolina leads the nation in area harvested and total production; however, California typically posts the highest average yields,” the report stated. “In 2014, California producers harvested an average of 275 hundredweight per acre; in North Carolina farmers realized 220 hundredweight per acre.”
A new report claims that over 14,000 U.S. farms grew organic produce and other agricultural products in 2012.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistic Service’s 2014 Organic Survey, recently released, analyzes data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture. About 3.7 million acres of land had organic products in 2012, 687,000 of them in industry leader California.
Of the 14,093 certified or exempt U.S. farms, 2,805 were in California.
The value of U.S. organic agricultural products in 2012 was $5.5 billion, according to the report. California accounted for about $2.2 billion of that total. About 164,403 acres of organic vegetables, potatoes and melons worth $1.25 billion were harvested in 2012.
Organic grape production totaled 98,805 tons and was worth about $188 million. About 563 million pounds of organic apples, worth $250 million, were produced in 2012. In the “other fruit, nuts and berries” category, about 3,523 farms produced $579 million worth of product in 2012.
Grapefruit consumption has declined, according to USDA data.
While consumers haven’t completely abandoned grapefruit, as of 2013, Americans ate just over 2.5 pounds of fresh, pulpy citrus on average each year.
In 1976, at the height of America’s love for grapefruit, few fruits were more popular. The average American citizen ate almost 25 pounds of grapefruit each year. Since then, however, fresh grapefruit consumption has plunged by 70 percent, and total grapefruit consumption, which includes the processed kind often used for juice, has tumbled by almost 80 percent.
Grapefruits are likely falling victim to the growing demand for convenience in the United States. Americans want foods that are fast and easy, fruits that can be eaten with a single hand.
It’s not a convenient fruit eat, especially when people can grab a banana, an apple, and head out the door.
USDA data show that this is, in many ways, true. Americans eat almost 40 percent more fresh fruit that they did some 40 years ago. Bananas, in particular, have grown in popularity over the years, with consumption being over 60 percent greater per person than it was in the 1970s.
Nothing, however, has been more detrimental to America’s ability to enjoy grapefruits over the years than an insect-borne disease called citrus greening, which has ravaged production. The disease, which first crept into Florida, where some three-quarters of all grapefruits are grown in the country, in the early 2000s, has turned grapefruit farming into a nightmare.
Grapefruits, which are typically among the cheapest citrus, have gotten more expensive over the years. And higher prices have meant even lower demand.