Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Michigan asparagus shipments have been underway for a month and should continue through the end of June from the west-central area of the state.
The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board in Dewitt, MI notes loadings have been lagging because cool weather limited picks of asparagus fields to about 11-12 harvest sessions through late May, compared to normal tallies of 15-16.
Last year processed asparagus accounted for about 60 percent of the volume, although there is less processing demand this year. That is expected to result in more fresh shipments. One estimate has fresh shipments accounting for about 75 percent of the volume with product for processing making up the balance.
The USDA census report notes Michigan’s asparagus acreage was 12,285 acres in 2017, up from 9,405 acres in 2012 and 12,127 acres in 2007. Acreage has gone down compared with 1997, when 18,266 acres of asparagus were harvested in the state. About 9,500 acres were planted this year.
Michigan’s primary competition comes from Mexico and Peru during the May to June shipping window, although imports haven’t been big this year. Last season, May volume accounted for 33 percent of total fresh shipments and June accounted for about 67 percent of total annual volume.
Michigan’s fresh shipments of 385,000 28-pound equivalent crates in 2018 compared with 421,000 crates in 2017 and 417,000 crates in 2016.
In 2018, Michigan accounted for about 32 percent of total domestic asparagus shipments, trailing Washington (49 percent), but well ahead of California (19 percent).
However, both Mexico and Peru have big year-round volume coming to the U.S., and last year May to June U.S. imports from those two countries were seven times bigger than Michigan’s shipments in those two months.
By Wish Farms
Plant City, FL – International grower and year-round marketer of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, Wish Farms is gearing up for a robust Southeast blackberry season.
North Carolina berry shipments are underway and peak volume is expected around the second to third week of June, with the season concluding in September.
Since 2016, growth in the blackberry category has been a focus for Cane Berry Director Jose Saca: “We aligned ourselves with exceptional growers that allow us to provide great tasting varieties like PrimeArk 45, Osage, Ouachita and Natchez among others. We are also encouraged by the steady growth in consumer demand. If there are no major weather events, we can expect a good production year with early volume estimates 15-20 percent higher over last season.”
In 2018, Wish Farms completed a 7,500 square foot cooler in Shelby, N.C. to manage their blackberry shipments in the region. All Wish Farms blackberries in this region will ship from this facility after thorough quality control inspections.
“This southeastern blackberry program is essential to our mission of providing the best tasting berries,” said James Peterson, VP of Sales. “We look forward to working with our retail partners this June and throughout the summer to support blackberry ads.”
The blackberry season is expected to align well with the high-quality blueberry shipments shipments coming from the region. Weather in Georgia and North Carolina has been ideal leading up to the season. Plants have had favorable chill hours. Presently, there have been no major weather events or late winter injuries that lead to bud or fruit damage.
###
About Wish Farms:
Wish Farms, founded in 1922 and third-generation owned, is a year-round supplier of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries growing both conventional and organic varieties.
Normal Florida avocado shipments have not been seen since 2017 and optimism abounds 2019 is the year of rebound for this tropical fruit.
Brooks Tropicals Inc. of Homes reports in 2017 it was Hurricane Irma which devastated the Florida avocado crop and 2018 the fruit was still recuperating.
Southern Florida, where avocados are the Miami-Dade area’s second largest crop, has had excellent weather with warm temperatures and adequate rains. The season for Florida avocados typically begins in June and continues until February or March.
M&M Farm Inc. of Miami expects to grow and ship around 800,000 bushels this season. In 2018 due to the previous-year hurricane and declining (laurel wilt) acreage, the entire Florida avocado industry only shipped about 500,00 bushels.
Limeco LLC of Princeton, FL recently launched its avocado season. The company notes the 2018-19 crop was only about 60 percent of normal, due to the after-effects of the 2017 storms.
Unity Groves of Homestead, FL is looking forward to normal avocado shipments this season as their avocado trees have rebound from the adverse effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
By Titan Farms
RIDGE SPRING, S.C. – Titan Farms, the premier grower, packer and processor of peaches in the Eastern United States, has kicked off another season of South Carolina peaches, with initial loadings that took place in time for Memorial Day celebrations.
Titan Farms is the second largest producer of peaches in the country behind California and the largest producer in the East Coast with over 6,000 acres in production.
“We’re the only vertically integrated peach grower on the East Coast. We grow it, we pack it, we sell it. This gives us optimal control over quality at all times,” says Daryl Johnston, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Titan Farms.s
“We’re excited to get peach season started here in South Carolina,” says, Johnston. “We had an optimal winter that will provide our customers with a great tasting peach throughout the season. With an increasing interest in consumer packs – especially the two-pound bag, volume fill and retail promotions, we’re looking forward to an exciting year with our partners. At the end of the day, our goal is to help our retail partners grow their peach category. We are supporting them with a range of different retail promotions to help drive their sales.”
About Titan Farms
Titan Farm peaches will be shipping from the end of May through early September to retailers across the U.S.
Based in Ridge Spring, South Carolina, Titan Farms is the premier grower, packer and shipper of over 3 million boxes of fresh peaches, broccoli and bell peppers annually.
Following the wettest May in memory, not only is the season getting a late start, but California cherry growers see fewer shipments due to rain-related fruit damage.
Chinchiolo Stemilt (Stockton) California, whose cherries are marketed by Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA., estimates the statewide cherry crop to be slashed 50 percent, or 5.25 million boxes, of the 10.5 million boxes estimated at the season’s start.
The company relates it may come in lower, depending on the condition of the fruit on the remaining trees.
Harvest of the bing variety, the state’s largest-volume cherry may suffer the most damage of any of the varieties.
Early season estimates for bings were 4.5 million cartons, which was conservative. The California cherry industry plans to continue packing into the middle of June, but volume is expected to be significantly reduced.
If the current rough estimate holds true, production would be close to the 6-year average of 6.5 million boxes. Quality cherries are predicted to be shipped from June 5 to the 20th, despite orchards having significant fruit damage.
El Camino Packing Inc. of Gilroy, CA., grows and packs cherries from about 200 acres. The operation is reported 20 to 40 percent of its early cherries being cracked because of excess rain. Later blocks appear to have less damage.
By Coastline Family Farms
SALINAS, CA – Coastline Family Farms a western vegetable grower/shipper with locations in Salinas CA, Yuma AZ and Brawley CA., has announced the formation of a new dry onion growing and packing joint venture with Madison Ranches located in Echo, OR. The new venture will be named Madison-Cox Onions, LLC.
The Madison-Cox Onions joint venture will produce red and yellow bulb onions in Hermiston Oregon with the first harvest in September 2019 and shipping through March of 2020. Madison Ranches will be responsible for the production, storage, packing and shipping for the new venture.
Larry Cox, the CEO and grower/owner of Coastline said “My family has been growing red, yellow and white dry onions in the Imperial Valley of California for over 35 years. With the dynamics of the produce marketplace, we wanted to consolidate our onion sales under the Coastline Family Farms structure and develop an all year round onion program on the west coast.
We have known the Madison family for some time, they have a reputation for producing high quality premium onions in the Hermiston region of Oregon and knew they would be the right partner to help expand our production footprint.”
“Larry, myself, and our teams began discussing working together in the Pacific Northwest last fall. We are very excited about the opportunity to put together a quality oriented, year round onion program.” said Jake Madison, a 4th generation farmer and CEO of Madison Ranches. “Our two family farming companies are very similar which helps build a strong foundation of trust, shared values and a focus on a customer centric business model”.
“We started construction…on our new packing and storage facility which will feature a state-of-the-art, optical grading, sorting and packing line, capable of meeting the needs of our clients with onion bags ranging from 10-50lb. We focused the design on automation and state of the art equipment in order to deliver a premium product to our customers. ” added Jonathan Miller, General Manager of the Madison-Cox Onions joint venture..
“Coastline Family Farms will handle the sales and marketing for the joint venture.” said Tonya Giotta, Vice President for Foodservice Sales. The onion and vegetable sales veteran is joined by Carly Kwak-Bauch, Vice President of Product and Channel Development. Both women previously worked together at River Point Farms and were tapped by Coastline to develop a new dry onion business unit.
“The addition of the Madison-Cox joint venture in Oregon, gives Coastline a year-round, integrated west coast supply base. This enables us to provide national and regional foodservice operators, distributors, wholesalers and retail clients with a consistent year-round supply of premium dry onions.” added Tonya.
About Coastline Family Farms
Coastline Family Farms was founded in 1991 and is owned by Larry and Tina Cox. The company is a year-round grower-shipper of premium vegetables from California, Arizona and Mexico. Four generations of the Cox family have actively farmed throughout California for over 95 yrs. Today the company grows permanent, rotational and vegetable crops on over 10,000 acres of farmland in conjunction with a handful of highly respected, quality-focused family growers. This integrated grower/packer/shipper alignment, provides a product line which includes lettuces (iceberg, red & green leaf, and romaine) and a wide range of vegetables including cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, green onions, dry onions (red, yellow and white) and more.
About Madison Ranches
Since 1917 the Madison family has farmed the rich soils of the Southern Columbia Basin in Oregon. Today the 4th generation, Jake and Heather Madison manage nearly 10,000 irrigated acres producing onions, vegetables, seed crops, grains, organic crops, cattle, and feed crops. Continuing the over 100 year tradition of sustainable agricultural farming, the Madison’s use pioneering water conservation practices including cutting edge irrigation management systems, aquifer recharge along with aquifer storage and recovery (sub surface water basin replenishment and storage), and green power generation (wind, solar, and hydro).
Domestic blueberry shipments got underway in mid-April from Georgia and should wind down in the Northwest in late summer or early fall.
North Carolina blueberry loadings started in early May and California is just now entering its peak shipping period.
New Jersey blueberry shipments will be launched in mid-June, followed soon thereafter by Indiana and Oregon. Dry weather during the growing season may adversely affect Oregon blueberry volume.
Washington State enters the picture in late June with shipments continuing until early to mid-September.
Naturipe Berry Growers of Salinas, CA ships blueberries year-round and was loading in good volume from Delano and Bakersfield in early May.
Although cool weather held up the start of the crop, volume was picking up in April as conditions improved.
California Giant Berry Farms of Watsonville has competed its shipments of Georgia blueberries and has switched to California, with volume expected to be normal.
J&B Blueberry Farms Inc. of Manor, GA will be shipping blueberries until early July.
New Jersey blueberry shipments should start in mid June, continuing into mid August.
Michigan will wrap up the domestic season with loadings underway about July 1st and continuing into September.
It has been a slow start due to rainy weather earlier this year, but California strawberry shipments are gradually returning to normal volume this spring.
California strawberry loadings had amounted to about 27.7 million trays on April 20th, compared to about 29 million trays last year.
On a weekly basis, volume for the week ending April 20th was around 7 million trays, up from about 5.6 million trays for the same week in 2018.
Shipments had picked up leading up Mother’s Day May 12th and with the May 27th Memorial Day.
Ventura County strawberries are pretty much finished, but Santa Maria is picking up the slack with the Salinas/Watsonville not far behind.
Well-Pict Inc. of Watsonville wrapped up its Oxnard season the first week of May and now is focusing on Santa Maria and Watsonville.
Santa Maria and Watsonville both started late due to consistently rainy weather, although the precipitation was welcomed even though it pushed back the season a little.
In mid-April, Watsonville and Santa Maria were running about two to three weeks behind their normal shipping schedules, although strong volume is expected through June.
Naturipe Berry Growers Salinas has been in full shipping mode from Santa Maria since early May. Volume has gradually been increasing since then at their Salinas/Watsonville operations.
This season is pretty much back to normal following a dry year in 2018.
California Giant Berry Farms of Watsonville in now hitting peak shipments out of Santa Maria, with the second round of harvesting now underway in Watsonville where loadings are ramping up.
Santa Maria strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7100 to New York City.
By Genuine Georgia Peaches
(Fort Valley, Georgia) – 2019 Georgia peach shipments officially kicked off on May 20th and this season is shaping up to be one of the best with enough volume to consistently supply its receivers over the 15-week availability period.
The Genuine Georgia Group expects to pack approximately 3 million boxes of peaches this season.
“We’re excited for a strong season with our customers. Everyone knows a Georgia peach can’t be beat and this season, we’ve been blessed by mother nature,” notes Duke Lane III, partner with Genuine Georgia. “The cool Spring has set us up for a successful Summer. It’s given us healthy, flavorful, unmatched sugary sweet Georgia peaches.”
Offering fresh peaches packaged bulk by the pound (volume-filled or tray pack) as well as convenient Grab-and-Go 2-pound bags, there’s a compelling opportunity for each retail partner to shine.
A recent Nielsen study on peach trends and opportunities (December 2018) demonstrated that 2018 was the first year that fixed weight produce items outsold loose produce. It also revealed that the top performing retailers in the country carried multiple skus – 2 times more than the lowest performing peach retailers.
“We see that when retailers carry multiple peach skus, mixing bulk with our grab-and-go bags, they instantly maximize sales opportunities by capturing different consumers at point of purchase,” notes Will McGehee, partner at Genuine Georgia. “It’s this kind of savvy partner that we expect to see shine this peach season.”
For more information about the Genuine Georgia Group, go to www.genuinega.com or call 478-822-9210.
By Summer Citrus from South Africa
CITRUSDAL, South Africa – Now in its 20th year serving the U.S. with fresh citrus during the summer months, Summer Citrus from South Africa is looking for an improved export season to the America with removal of water restrictions.
South Africa exports citrus to the U.S. from June to October.
The group is looking to increase exports to the U.S. of easy peelers and mandarins. South Africa is the second largest exporter of citrus globally and the ultimate goal for the overall program in 2019 is to increase market share for the country’s fruit in the U.S.
After emerging from a three year drought, the growers of SCSA are looking for the “first proper citrus crop without any water restrictions,” underlining the association’s excitement around the potential of the upcoming season.
About Summer Citrus from South Africa (SCSA)
Summer Citrus from South Africa represents a group of South African citrus growers who consolidate their logistics, marketing and sales efforts to bring the finest citrus fruit to market during the U.S. summer season. Established in 1999 and re-branded for expanded marketing efforts in 2016, the group provides Navels, Midknights, East Peelers, Star Ruby Grapefruit and Cara-Cara oranges for the U.S. market.