Archive For The “News” Category
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.
Here are nine facts you probably did not know about avocados.
(1)**You can judge when an avocado is ready to eat by squeezing it. Color alone does not indicate if an avocado is ripe. Hold the fruit in your palm and then gently squeeze, being careful not to bruise the fruit. It should be firm, but give to gentle pressure.
(2)**Avocados used to be served only to royalty and were a symbol of wealth. Now, you can enjoy them anytime!
(3)**The most popular avocado is the Hass variety, named after mailman Rudolph Hass from La Habra Heights, Calif. He patented his tree in 1935.
(4)**Avocados can be used as an ingredient in desserts. In Brazil, avocados are a popuklar ingredieint for ice creams and in the Philippines they pur’ee avocados with sugar and milk for a dessert drink.
(5)**To ripen, they have to be plucked from trees. To help ripen an avocado, place it in a brown bag and keep in a cool spot for two to three days.
(6)**During the Super Bowl, there are more than 8 million pounds of avocados eaten across America. And during Cinco de Mayo, there are about 14 million pounds eaten.
(7)**Avocados don’t self-pollinate; they need another avocado tree close by to produce fruit. The avocado is an Aztec symbol of love and fertility and they only grow in pairs.
(8)**Avocados were used as a spread instead of butter when European sailors traveled to the New World. Learning from the past, avocados are a healthy alternative to butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, and cream cheese.
(9)**Another name for the Hass avocado is the Alligator Pear because of its bumpy, green skin and pear shape.
A presentation on consumer trends by the Nielsen Perishables Group seems to contradict the widely held belief hat fresh produce consumption is just not increasing on a per-capita basis. The talk was presented recently at the annual United Fresh Produce Association Convention in Chicago.
Jonna Parker, a director for that organization, said over the past five years, dollar volume of fresh produce has increased about 25 percent while unit volume is up 10-13 percent.
Of the top 10 growth items in the grocery sector, six are fresh produce, including two value-added products, specialty fruit, avocados, pineapples and cooking greens, with that last category topped by kale, she said.
Statistics show that annually the average American household spends $338 on fresh produce, compared to only $299 on meat, which comes in second place in dollar sales.
While most customers claim produce is the most important department in picking a store, there are still many trips to the market that do not include a produce purchase. More than half of the times that a person goes to the supermarket they do not put a produce item in their basket.
Currently, the average shopper makes about 40 to 50 supermarket trips per year. Parker said higher-income households (in excess of an annual income of $100,000) are far more prolific produce buyers. They make 51 trips per year and purchase about $454 worth of fresh produce. The least affluent consumers make about 40 trips per year to the supermarket and spend just $221 on produce.
Bananas claim over 50 percent of the volume of fresh fruit imports,” said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Excluding bananas, fresh fruit imports rose from 12 percent of domestic consumption.
Bananas are sold the year around in the this country and rank number one in U.S. per capita fresh fruit consumption, followed by apples and oranges. To meet U.S. demand, bananas are imported, primarily from Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras. Excluding bananas, fruit imports increased an average 7 percent annually over the past two decades.
U.S. fruit imports rose during the last three decades, partly owing to the growing minority ethnic populations in the United States and to an increased demand for new products. Not only have imports expanded for commodities already produced domestically and created competition for U.S. producers, but imports have also increased for nontraditional fruits, especially many tropical fruits.
- Eat at least one banana a day, they are said to contain everything a human needs and they contain all the 8 amino-acids our body cannot produce itself.
- Bananas are a good source of fiber, potassium and vitamin C;
- Red bananas are often dried and converted to meal which is used in many ways;
- Red bananas contain more vitamin C as yellow bananas (the redder a fruit, the more nutritious elements it contains).