Archive For The “News” Category
Happy Thanksgiving! Come February HaulProduce.com will quietly celebrate its 5th anniversary of providing you with what I hope is information worth your valuable time ranging from active produce shipping areas, peak shipping periods, caution when needed about quality problems at shipping point, demand for refrigerated equipment, produce trucking rates, not mention health stories and other news related to perishables. Unabashedly this site is a proponent of healthy eating and promoting the health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh produce is a daily part of my diet.
Today, there are nearly 1000 subscribers to HaulProduce and I cannot thank each of you enough. Since its inception nearly 1900 posts have been placed on this blog.
It has been three years now since retiring after 40-plus years traveling this great nation as a journalist writing about both the trucking and produce industries. It was this knowledge gained from both industries that led me to create the Produce Truckers Network back in the 1980s. At its peak it had over 60 radio stations across North America and also was on satellite radio for several years before its completion after 20 years on the air. The same concept exists today with HaulProduce.
Although officially, retired, this outlet allows me to continue to doing something I love – and at the same time provide something useful to our subscribers. At the same time it allows spending more time with my kids, grandson and my lovely wife of 49 years.
It is with all of this in mind I plan to fully enjoy Thanksgiving, to appreciate and give thanks for all the opportunities available in the United States of America.
I will thank the good Lord for all those “highway warriors” that deliver over 95 percent of the fresh produce to markets across this great nation, as well as being thankful for everyone else in the distribution chain from growers and shippers, to all forms of companies involved in the distribution chain. It certainly doesn’t end up on our Thanksgiving dinner table by magic.
May God bless each of you and have a blessed Thanksgiving.
— Bill Martin
New refrigerated containers have been ordered by Hapag-Loyd for export expansions…In Nogales, L&M has expanded its warehouse shipping facility.
Hapag-Lloyd is investing in 3700 refrigerated containers, which are used to ship food and other cargo around the world Of the total, 1,000 of the units have environmentally friendly refrigeration systems.
Another 1000 will also have controlled-atmosphere capabilities specifically for fresh produce.
The Maersk Container Industry Star Cool Integrated containers are being built in Maersk facilities in China and Chile.
“Working together with (Maersk Container), we have been able to refine (controlled-atmosphere) technology to offer our ExtraFresh Plus service,” said Niklas Ohling, senior director at Hapag-Lloyd, in a news release. “his service enables even extremely sensitive fruit such as blueberries and lychees to be transported to the desired level of quality and degree of ripeness.”
The new containers allows the company to expand the market reach of fresh fruits and vegetables, said Saren Leth Johannsen, chief commercial officer At Maersk Container, in the release.
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L&M Begins Winter Season with New Facility
By L&M
L&M’s Nogales location has moved and is now operating in a new, expanded facility. The new location features over 33,000 square feet of cold storage, including 8 ripening rooms for mature green tomatoes and over 9,000 square feet of office space. This allows L&M to service up to 24 loads at one time. We are happy to offer consolidation services for our customers, as well as in-and-out service year-round.
L&M is already shipping melons, zucchini, yellow squash, hard squash, eggplant and bell peppers. Mature Green tomatoes will be available in December and cucumbers are available year-round. L&M will be adding production on eggplant and hard squash out of Culiacan, Mexico.
L&M Nogales is now located at 1450 W. La Quinta Rd. The company is a grower and shipper of fresh vegetables, potatoes and onions, with farms and offices nationwide
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By the Idaho Potato Commission
Everyone is talking about the ELD mandate that goes into effect this December or potentially delayed to Spring 2018. From my perspective, the discussion centers on who will be compliant and who will not. We should be talking about how this simply enforces the Hours of Service (HOS) and its inane “one size fits all” solution that is bad for the industry.
To determine safety based just on the number of hours a driver is on duty and not take into account miles driven, conditions, places to park, loading/unloading procedures, experience of the driver, cross-country vs local deliveries and a host of other variables leads to a system that is unfair to the small cross country drivers who need some relief from the “system”. Hours of Service needs to be changed and the ELD mandate will only make the faulty HOS that much worse.
The biggest flaw in this system is drivers and carriers are compensated based on miles traveled, as almost every load booked has the revenue broken down into what the load pays per mile, but the compliance mechanism is based on HOURS in service. This will lead to drivers pushing harder to cover more miles in the allotted hours. This could lead to roads being less safe as drivers will be pushed to their limits.
But the regulators know better right? It turns out they do not. The FMCSA has been a terrible failure. The unintended consequences of their regulations have made the highways less safe. Just this past year highway deaths in crashes involving trucks have gone up 5.4%. This is a huge jump. After the FMCSA enacted their CSA safety program intended to make the highways safer, the steady decline of deaths on the highway per miles driven has reversed and we see a continual increase. CSA made a driver with 5 million miles in the driver seat but with some tickets or log book violations less valuable to a trucking company than a new driver with no violations. No consideration was made for the driver that had 5 million miles without an accident. The regulations made the driver with 5 million safe miles the enemy along with many of our best drivers in the industry.
Now the same situation is happening with ELDs. Experienced and safer drivers will leave the industry as they are displeased with the government regulators trying to control every little thing they do on the road. Less experienced drivers will push harder to “make their miles” based on the hours left on their ELDs. At a minimum, the ELD mandate should be delayed until HOS regulations are improved and more discretion is given to the professionals driving the trucks.
Ken Lund
VP, Support Operations
Allen Lund Company
Kenny Lund graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Business Administration and managed the refrigerated transportation division in Los Angeles for eight years, before shifting full time into managing the Information and Technology Department in 1997; becoming the Vice President of the department in 2002. In 2014 Kenny started working with the ALC Logistics division to sell the ALC Transportation Management System (TMS) to companies that manage refrigerated and dry transportation.
Reprinted from ALC’s Carrier Connection, October 19, 2007, Issue #164.
New data is shedding light on where increased U.S. per capita consumption is coming from with fruit. Also, organic produce continues to show increasing popularity
Apples, some citrus varieties, blueberries and tropical fruit, have given a boost to U.S. fresh fruit per capita use, which grew a strong 3 percent in 2016.
The USDA’s fruit yearbook report revealed that total fresh fruit per capita consumption in 2016 was rated at 116.05 pounds, up 3 percent from 112.5 pounds in 2015.
2016 fresh citrus per capita use rose 6 percent to 24.02 pounds, up from 22.73 pounds in 2016. Fresh non-citrus per capita use was pegged at 92.03 pounds, 2 percent higher than 89.81 pounds in 2015.
2016 per capita use of fresh fruit commodities, with percent changed compared with 2015:
- Lemons, 4.15 pounds (+15%);
- Limes, 3.48 pounds (+15%);
- Mangoes, 2.96 (+14%);
- Blueberries, 1.77 pounds (+10%);
- Papayas, 1.43 pounds (+8%);
- Apples, 18.55 pounds (+7%);
- Oranges, 9.17 pounds (+6%);
- Pineapples, 7.28 pounds (+4%);
- Strawberries, 8.03 pounds (+4%);
- Pears, 2.76 (+4%);
- Grapes, 8.08 pounds (+3%);
- Tangerines, 5.28 pounds (+1%);
- Avocados, 7.08 pounds (-2%);
- Bananas, 27.55 pounds (-2%);
- Peaches, 2.86 (-5%); and
- Grapefruit, 1.94 pounds (-13%)
Study Shows Growth of Organics
A Nielsen Co. study shows organic produce grew 9 percent in dollars year-over-year and represented a 10 percent share of total produce as of last summer.
Consumers are said to be buying larger packages of organic berries, instead of smaller containers such as pints. Increase they are buying more 18-ounce to 2-pound containers.
Prepackaged salads continue to lead organic sales, with 3 percent year-on-year growth in 2017.
Consumers continue to seek out healthy meal alternatives such as kale, colored carrots, green cabbage and broccoli, with a mix of flavors and textures. Lettuce and berries continue to dominate the organic sales, combining for nearly a 30 percent sales increase in the U.S.
Apples and spinach are the next largest organic categories, with 9 and 8 pecent of sales.
Overall, only 14 categories make up 80 percent of organic produce sales, compared to 20 categories within the conventional space.
Such commodities as limes, cherries, beets, avocados, beans and lemons had 20 to 30 percent growth over the previous year, even though those items account for only 4 pecent of organic produce sales.
Larger categories also are growing. Among those, organic berries grew 29 percent year over year. Blackberries and blueberries are growing at a quicker rate (46 and 35 percent, respectively) than strawberries (26 percent). Organic bananas and apples are also growing, at 18 and 12 percent, respectively.
In Washington state, there is projected to be 50 percent more organic apples over the next season, an increase another 100 percent over the next two years. Apples are considered one of the easier crops to grow organically.
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at Wageningen University & Research recently, Professor Gert Kema reveals what it will take to save the banana.
“Name me a city or a state and I will tell you trucks have been tight,” states Bob Rose of the Allen Lund Company LLC.
Rose should know. He is the manager of the firm’s San Francisco office and has been with the transportation and logistics company 31 years. Based in LaCanada, CA, Allen Lund Company has 34 offices nationwide, working with 21,000 trucking companies, providing it with a keen pulse of truck availability.
The last three quarters of 2017 rates have been stronger, reflecting increased demand for equipment.
Allen Lund Company moves about 90,000 loads a year with a significant portion of this being perishables.
Rose doesn’t expect truck availability to improve any the rest of the year, and points out holidays such as Thanksgiving (November 23rd) always means increased demand for fresh fruits and vegetables and refrigerated trucks.
The ethnic population in the U.S. also is a factor with higher volume and demand for equipment to deliver product for their holiday observances.
“Not everyone can haul produce,” says Rose, in reference to the extra demands and knowledge required of drivers hauling perishables.
He also expresses concerns over the looming electronic logging device (ELD) requirement mandate, which the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance will begin phasing in December 18th unless it is delayed, as many hope. Plans to start using out-of-service criteria connected with the ELD mandate begins April 1st.
While the large carriers and their trucking associations tend to support ELDs, owner operators and small fleets often view it as limiting their ability to provide superior service, increases their costs of operation, and being another rule limiting their freedom of choice as professional drivers.
“Not a lot of the large carriers are hauling produce,” observes Rose. “Most of it is transported by owner operators and small trucking companies.”
He believes the tight truck supplies are resulting primarily due to the industry being at or near full capacity.
“We talk a lot about truck shortages, but with ELDs, we will feel it. But no one yet knows how ELDs will be enforced,” Rose says.
As a result, he notes Allen Lund Company is looking for ways to reduce the costly delays too often found at loading and unloading docks. They also are seeking improved routes for trucking since customers are maintaining lower inventories and want faster deliveries.
“I want to figure out how to pay drivers more so they can truck less and still support their families,” Rose concludes.
2014/10/17 12:11
New Zealand imported persimmons to the U.S. has been approved….Americold will a have new huge facility in the Chicago next year.
Americold, the cold storage and logistics company, is building a 15.5-million-cubic-foot automated facility with 57,600 pallet positions.
Located at Americold’s Rochelle, IL., campus near Chicago, it will increase Americold’s global capacity.
“Working with some of our key partners, we identified the opportunity to update and expand our campus just an hour east of Chicagoland, and to offer both automated and conventional storage and distribution options,” Americold president and CEO Fred Boehler said in a news release
The company broke ground on the facility Aug. 30, and plans are to complete it in December 2018.
The facility will be 140 feet high, housing an automated storage and retrieval system attached to a conventional warehouse.
Imports of Fresh Persimmons is Approved
By USDA APHIS
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by FirstFruits Marketing of Washington
YAKIMA, Wash. — Opal®, the highly-acclaimed apple creating a frenzy in the category, is sporting a new look for the 2017-2018 season along with a brand new consumer campaign that will have fans singing. Literally.
This season’s consumer campaign, entitled SupercrispiOpalicious, centers around a challenge issued to Opal fans to create and perform their own original song about why they love Opals. Launching late this fall, the public will be asked to vote on the top five performers selected by a panel of judges. The grand prize winner will be selected by both popular vote and FirstFruits judges and receive a prize package and featured spot on the Opal apple website.
The consumer favorite Opal apple boasts a bright yellow exterior, incredibly sweet flavor and distinctive crisp texture. Best of all, the apple is naturally non-browning, making it perfect for snacks, salads and lunchboxes. As of the 2016-2017 apple season, the Opal is among the ranks of the Top 20 varieties in the country.
Opal fans are some of the most passionate and vocal apple lovers I’ve ever seen,” said Chuck Zeutenhorst, general manager of FirstFruits. “The SupercrispiOpalicious campaign will give them an opportunity to engage with us in a very unique and interactive promotion.”
The familiar Opal logo received a facelift and a redesigned website will launch this fall to coincide with the release of the apples to the market.
FirstFruits represents Broetje Orchards, a leader in Washington organic apple production and an innovator in new varieties to the market, as well as Congdon Orchards. As the exclusive marketer of the Opal®, FirstFruits offers the variety in both organic and conventional options beginning in late October and expects supplies to last through June 2018.
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About FirstFruits Marketing of Washington
FirstFruits Marketing is a collaborative apple marketing company owned by Ralph and Cheryl Broetje. Their growers share a commitment to producing high quality fruit while balancing the demands of purpose, people, planet and profit so that a portion of profits can be donated to non-profit missions supporting the underserved. For more Information, visit www.firstfruits.com
Sunions is being touted as America’s first tearless sweet onion and it made its debut recently at the at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit convention and exhibition in New Orleans.
Developed by Bayer Crop Science, the variety will soon be shipped to retailers, backed by an extensive marketing plan.
Sunions are marketed and distributed exclusively by Generation Farms. Lake Park, GA.; Onions 52. Syracuse, Utah; and Peri & Sons Farms, Yerington, Nev., according to a news release.
“This onion is the product of more than 30 years of research and development to produce an onion that actually decreased in pungency during storage,” Sunions breeder Rick Watson said.
A sensory panel of tasting experts with the authority to determine ship dates follows a protocol that includes flavor and tearlessness. Sunions will ship only after they are deemed ready by the panel, along with lab tests showing proper levels of volatile compounds.
“We’ve established a strict protocol with our sensory team not to allow the release of Sunions until they reach peak flavor and tearlessness,” Lyndon Johnson, crop manager for onions at Bayer Vegetable Seeds “We want to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace with a set of stringent quality requirements to maintain our brand promise.”
If the onions meet protocol, Adam Brady senior marketing manager for Golden Sun Marketing, said Sunions could be available at the start of November. Depending on supply and demand, Sunions may be marketed into March, just before the start of the Vidalia season, he said.
No more tears
Bayer researchers conducted research on the significance of tearlessness and found consumer support.
“Looking for ways to avoid tears when cutting onions is a big deal for consumers,” Don Goodwin, president of Golden Sun Marketing said. “A quick Google search will yield over 500,000 results, and YouTube videos on the topic have received more than 5 million views.”
The variety faced consumer panels at both the Bayer Sensory Lab and a third-party facility in the Ohio State University’s Sensory Evaluation Center, according to the release