Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Pennsylvania’s 2026 apple shipments are underway, although growers are anticipating a lighter crop this season. Yet optimism abounds.
Rice Fruit Company of Gardners, PA expects to ship a full range of varieties this season, though volumes will be lighter in some cases.
Timing is pretty much on schedule although the company notes the apple season tends to start earlier each year because of varieties which have been developed to spread harvest out between August and October. This avoids having to harvest all the fruit in September. Earlier varieties such as Gala and Honeycrisp, which start in the first or second week of August, make this possible.
Rice Fruit is a grower, shipper and packer that also works with 40 other family growing operations.
Northwest pear harvesting for CMI Orchards got underway in mid August and there is plenty of optimism for the season.
The Wenatchee, WA shipper reports overall production is expected to return to more typical levels following last year’s exceptionally large crop. It expects an abundant supply of high-quality pears.
After an extraordinarily large crop in 2025, particularly in organic pears, this season sees a return to more normal production levels. Supplies are good and there will be plenty of fruit available for shipping throughout the season.
The company offers a comprehensive pear portfolio, including Bartlett, Bosc, Comice, Green and Red D’Anjou, Forelle, GEM, Seckel, and Starkrimson pears.
Apple season is starting to take shape, and Washington will be carrying even more
weight than usual this year, according to a website posting by Pro*Act of Monterey, CA.
Cold and wet weather disrupted parts of the Northeast growing season, which means more program demand is expected to lean west as schools and retail fall sets begin to build.
New crop Galas will be the first major variety to watch. Availability started in
early to mid-August depending on the shipper, with Honeycrisp following shortly
behind. From there, the crop will continue to build into September with Granny
Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Red Delicious, and other fall varieties coming online.
Early fruit will help bridge the gap, but overall relief will take time as each variety
starts, colors, packs, and settles into volume.
Markets are expected to remain elevated as customers look to Washington for
coverage and the Northeast works through weather-related challenges. School
demand will add another layer, especially on smaller, pouch-friendly, and
lunchbox-style fruit. As new crop volume builds, we should get a clearer picture
on size, color, pressure, and overall pack-outs.
Galas and Honeycrisp will get the season moving, but Washington will need time
to build into full fall volume. Lead time, variety flexibility, and a willingness to
adjust sizing will be the best way to stay covered as the new crop apple season
gets underway.
As of mid August California table grape loadings were 9 million boxes more than at this time last season.
Direct Source Marketing, a distributor from Mount Kisco, NY reports an early start this season has pushed earlier volume this year. Mexico had a similar situation with its grape season ending sooner than normal.
Since California shipped so much fruit so early in the season many growers are projecting to finish the season by Thanksgiving. While some growers will store their best fruit to carry into December, a shortage is anticipated.
The good news is that Peru’s grape season will also start early. Some growers in the northern part of the country have already started harvesting and where most of Piura normally starts in October, this year the region expects to start harvest in mid to late September.
California grape shipments are now peaking. There is plenty of supply, but average daily temperatures of 105F for nearly two weeks is having an adverse impact fruit quality.
California fig growers expect the main crop to follow the successful breba crop, which delivered the first Mission figs of the season in May and June. All varieties are available from July through November, with the industry expecting a crop comparable to last year’s harvest of nearly 10 million pounds, according to the California Fig Advisory Board of Madera, CA.
Nearly all commercial figs in California are grown in the Central San Joaquin Valley with most orchards concentrated in and around Madera, Fresno and Merced.
While California fresh figs are available seasonally, California dried figs remain available year-round and can be used in salads, sandwiches, pizzas, sauces, and baked goods.
The Emerald, introduced commercially in 2025, has quickly become established in the market. Similar in shape, color, and flavor to the Calimyrna, which is no longer grown in California, Emerald has a creamy, crème brûlée-like flavor profile and is self-pollinating, as are all commercially grown California figs.
California produces five main fresh fig varieties. Brown Turkey has light purple to black skin with a balanced flavor, Emerald has light green skin with a creamy, crème brûlée-like flavor, Mission has purple to black skin with a deep, earthy flavor, Sierra has light-colored skin with a fresh, sweet flavor, and Tiger has light yellow skin with dark green stripes and a bright red-purple interior with raspberry-citrus notes.
California freestone shipments are forecast at 310,000 short tons for 2026, accounting for 65 percent of the state’s total peach output.
While the estimate is three percent below the bumper harvest of 2025, it remains 12 percent above the previous three-year average.
About three-quarters of California freestone peaches move directly to fresh-market retail outlets, with the remaining balance allocated to freezing and drying operations.
California peach producers are looking at a 10 percent yield reduction for the 2025/26 season, according to the latest Economic Research Service (ERS) Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The assessment places peach production at 480,000 short tons, with warmer-than-average spring temperatures accelerating orchard development across major Central Valley growing regions.
The overall crop drop points primarily to clingstone varieties, which are predominantly grown for industrial canning.
In July of last year, Del Monte Foods, one of two major peach canning processors in the state, filed for bankruptcy, canceling multi-year contracts with clingstone growers and selling its assets. However, the firm’s largest fruit canning plant in Modesto was not purchased and was subsequently closed in April 2026.
California garlic shipments have been ongoing now for about two months. Yields have been similar to last season, relates Global Farms Enterprises of Los Angeles.
The season got of with soft demand, with possible reasons being school is out, with summer vacations.
While the first half of the year saw garlic supply coming from Argentina, it has wound down production with the focus turning to Mexico in mid May. Mexico hasa lot of acreage but overall the yields haven’t been good They attributed that to the quality of the seed and the lack of cold snap when the garlic was first planted.
Global Farms sources garlic from every region including Mexicali and Sonora.
While there’s still a good supply of Chinese garlic, the shortage in Mexico was anticipated to impact the market significantly. However, Spain has emerged with very good yields.
Thanks to a spring frost, New York apple shipments are expected to be down a bit this season, but growers are saying the small loss in volume should be replaced with larger sized fruit.
Although no official forecast on volume has been released yet, in an average year New York produces about 29. million bushels of apples, with about 15 to 16 million bushels going to the fresh market.
Hudson Valley growers see lower yields due to spring weather, while western orchards are showing a slightly above-average-size crop, according to the New York Apple Association (NYAA).
Concerning the processing market, Wayne County is running slightly below average, the NYAA reports.
The Hudson Valley harvest gets underway in mid-August and should continue with later varieties into early November.
Two of Clubs Orchards, located in New York’s Lake Ontario region (Appleton, NY), estimates the fresh crop could finish about 15 percent smaller than last year on frost-induced damage. However, larger fruit that will help offset lower yields.
Two of Clubs Orchards reports farm operations in the area have experienced a relatively normal season despite above-average rainfall, which luckily did not prompt much disease pressure.
The California pistachio harvest started early, with Nichols Farms getting underway August 11. Usually, the harvest in the state starts around late August or early September.
The Hansford, CA based company reports this year’s production volume is expected to be drastically lower compared to average. Total yields are predicted to be anywhere between 600 and 800 million pounds, down at least 50 percent from last year’s near record yield.
In 2025, growers in the state harvested a total of 1.6 billion pounds.
The decline is mostly due to early spring heat waves which caused the male pistachio trees’ pollen to become infertile. This has significantly impacted the number of female trees that were successfully pollinated to produce fruit.
According to the Administrative Committee for Pistachios, California produced a record 1.5 billion pounds of pistachios in 2023. The industry surpassed that figure in 2025 with a 1.6 billion-pound crop, a 484 per cent increase compared with 2015. During the same period, exports rose by 223 per cent between the 2014/15 and 2024/25 crop years.
Demand has continued to support the market. U.S. per capita availability increased from 0.23 pounds of shelled pistachios in the 2015/16 crop year to nearly 0.70 pounds today. Export shipments have also reached record levels in recent years. Demand has also been supported by the growing use of pistachios as an ingredient in products such as the Dubai chocolate, first introduced in 2022 and later followed by similar products from several international brands.
Pistachios are an alternate-bearing crop, and early hot weather has further reduced yield expectations, particularly in orchards south of Fresno County. Some growers estimate total production could range from 700 million to 900 million pounds, less than half the 2025 crop.
The report concludes that California pistachio production in 2026 is expected to fall below 2025 levels.
Sweet corn loadings continue in good volume from New Jersey.
Nardelli Brothers of Cedarville, NJ , is in the middle of its summer corn season. The grower, shipper, distributor started harvest in early July. The company has good volume and good supply in both bicolor yellow white as well as its wild Violet which is offered in tray packs.
The season started slightly early ahead in late June and it will continue until mid to late October. Following that, supply for the company will be sourced from Georgia.
The company operates its tray pack operations in its main facility in Cedarville.
In July Nardelli Brothers expanded its shipping areas to the Midwest and Northeast as growers in those regions were facing dry growing conditions resulting in less volume. The operation also ships to Southern states before their sweet corn seasons start.
As local sweet corn seasons get underway, the firm tends to limit more shipments to the tri-state area.
When the Jersey corn season winds down this fall, the company will source product from Georgia.