Archive For The “News” Category
By NatureFresh Farms
Leamington, ON – This past PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans in October, NatureFresh Farms and Eminent Seeds NL reached a proprietary agreement within North America. NatureFresh Farms will exclusively grow and market Tomberry tomatoes in Canada, United States and Mexico. Jan van Heijningen, Director at Eminent Group, and John Ketler, Farm Manager at NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms, finalized the agreement during the tradeshow.
In spring of 2018 NatureFresh Farms will begin growing and commercially marketing this exciting new variety of tomato from its Leamington Ontario Greenhouse. Plans are to expand the production of the Tomberry tomato over the next few years, as the category grows to meet consumer demands for snacking tomatoes.
This past year NatureFresh Farms trial and development team has worked with Eminent NL Seeds to explore new tomato varieties that would fit the growing trend in the snacking category. Not only does the Tomberry deliver in flavor, it brings a new look and ingredient to the culinary world of food service. These attractive berries are very versatile in the use of salads, hot dishes, and visually appealing. The World’s Smallest Tomato, The Tomberry tomato is about 0.5 to 1 cm in diameter with an average fruit weight of 1 to 2 grams, perfect for snacking.
“The Tomberry is unique in size and has caught the interest of our retail partners,” explained Matt Quiring, Executive Retail Sales Manager. “The snacking trend in North America has exploded and we continue to search for new items that will help grow our snacking category. This pearl sized fruit’s unique size is something hard to miss and even more difficult to pass by without picking up. Once a consumer tries them, we are confident that they will be coming back for more. Visually, it is candy to the eyes. From a sensory standpoint, we can back that up.”
Over the next few months, NatureFresh Farms will be developing packaging and branding for a launch scheduled in spring 2018.
About NatureFreshâ„¢ Farms –
NatureFresh Farms has grown to become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable growers in North America growing operations in Leamington, ON and Delta. Family owned NatureFresh Farms ships Non-GMO greenhouse grown produce year-round to key retailers throughout North America.
Remote container management technology is being introduced by Sealand, providing exporters and importers the ability to monitor conditions of fruits and vegetables from inside the containers in which they are shipped.
SeaLand, Maersk Transport and Logistics division’s regional ocean carrier to the Americas, said in a news release the technology monitors temperature, humidity, oxygen levels and the location and ventilation of the containers in transit, whether on land or at sea.
“Moving fresh produce to and from markets in the Americas is an exciting and important business,” Sealand CEO Craig Mygatt said in the release. “Consumers today want access to fresh produce all year long. We’re making that possible whether it’s bananas and pineapples from Costa Rica and Panama to the U.S. or tropical and exotic fruits such as mangoes.
Porterville Citrus acquires packing operations of LoBue Citrus
Sunkist citrus shipments will increase this season, with a member of the cooperative acquiring another shipper.
Porterville Citrus of Terra Bella, CA is a Sunkist grower who has acquired the packing operations of LoBue Citrus of Lindsay, CA., according to a news release.
Under the terms, the LoBue family will continue to own and operate its 1,000-acre citrus farming operation.
“LoBue Citrus has a rich history in the industry, and we are pleased to be able to help them continue that legacy through our organization,” Jim Phillips, president of Porterville Citrus said. “The purchase also marks further growth for Porterville Citrus, positioning us for a strong season ahead.”
For the 2017-18 season, Porterville Citrus will integrate the LoBue Citrus packing facility in Lindsay into its operations and also add a large portion of the organization’s grower network. That will increase the navel orange, mandarin, lemon and specialty acreage of Porterville Citrus and the Sunkist cooperative as a whole”.
“It’s a great to start the season by adding more high quality volume to our mix,” Russ Hanlin, president and CEO of Sunkist Growers said.
A planned purchase of Associated Grocers of Florida for $180 million has been made by Supervalu.
AGF of Pompano Beach, serves independent retailers in South Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America and Asia, according to a news release. The company generated $650 million in revenue in its fiscal year ending last July.
Associated Grocers will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu when the deal is complete.
“Associated Grocers represents a great opportunity for us to further expand our wholesale business into another important region,” Mark Gross, president and CEO of Supervalu, said in the release.
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close by the end of 2017.
Quarterly report
Supervalu generated $3.8 billion in net sales in the second quarter, up 35 percent from last year, according to a news release. The increase in sales came mostly on the wholesale side of the business, which saw a major increase in the wake of Supervalu’s acquisition of Unified Grocers, a move the company made last summer.
Supervalu reported a net loss from continuing operations of $25 million, partly due to costs of integrating Unified Grocers.
Gross profit was $428 million, or 11.3 percent of net sales, down from 14.1 percent last year. The company stated the decrease is mostly due to Supervalu shifting its business segment mix toward wholesale.
On the retail side, same-store sales were down 3.5 percent. Second-quarter retail sales were $1.02 billion, down 1.1 percent from last year.
“We continue to make tremendous strides in driving our strategy, evidenced by another quarter of strong growth from our core wholesale business which now represents over 70 percent of net sales,” Gross said. “Additionally, our results now include the benefit of Unified Grocers, where I’m pleased the transition is going well. We have a lot to be excited about as we turn our focus toward the back half of our fiscal year.”
By Market Research Hub
Albany, NY — Fruit and vegetable processing industry has taken a new direction and is growing gradually with strong growth rate annually. Further factors such as rising consumer demand for fresh and healthy products that are easily available and need minimum preparation time are further fuelling the market growth. A new study, titled “Vegetables – U.S. – May 2017” has been freshly added to the vast repository of Market Research Hub (MRH), which analyzes the overall U.S. market current scenario of vegetables and fruits, along with consumer’s behavior which impacts the market positively. This study is a result of qualitative and quantitative research techniques that aim to drill down to the exact factors that are driving growth, restraining growth and creating new opportunities for growth.
As per the findings of a new study, the vegetable category has experienced stable growth over the past few decades, driven primarily by fresh vegetables and fresh-cut salad. Health concerns are the prime factor which has driven demand for fruits and vegetables as consumers look for healthier and more nutritious options for their diets. The fresh-cut segment has been able to profit as consumers believe fresh-cut is the healthiest format for processed fruits and vegetables. In line with growing health awareness and changing demographics, demand for fruits and vegetables is expected to increase in the long term.
Within the United States, fruit and vegetable production is a major business enterprise and mostly, it focuses on processed fruits and vegetables. Currently, this segment continues to make up a significant share of total fruit and vegetable consumption in the United States. Several types of processing such as drying, canning, freezing, and preparation of jams, juices, and jellies augment the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. The research finds that Vegetable sales grow 13% from 2011-16. As technology improved and consumer incomes increased, it became possible to provide fresh produce year-round. Factors such as income, aging of a population, market promotion, and consumer awareness of the importance of produce, contribute to increased fruit and vegetable consumption.
American consumers now expect fresh tomatoes, strawberries, and sweet corn every month of the year. In addition, a strong demand remains for processed fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetable consumption has been shown to be an important part of any diet leading towards good health. As per the research study findings, consumers indicate more interest in vegetables that are fresh, nutritious and natural. Due to this, vegetables category estimated to experience steady growth into 2021, heavily driven by fresh produce. However, frozen produce contains just as many vitamins as fresh even if consumers perceive it differently.
Vegetables emerge as the main offering in restaurant dishes and consumption of fresh vegetable similar to frozen and canned. It is a prime factor for the market growth. Total U.S. retail sales and forecast of vegetables, by segement, at current prices for the period 2011 to 2021 is also mentioned in the study.
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.