Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Volume with imports of Chilean fruit are becoming a little more in focus as forecast evaluations from a big hail storm last November are being summarized.
Export volume of Chilean cherries for the 2018-19 season are projected to be 10.5 percent lower than last season and off 7.1 percent from the initial estimate this year. Cherry exports are estimated at 33.44 million boxes, down from 37.38 million boxes a year ago. Peak export shipments of Chile cherries are expected the last week of December and the first week of January, with the season wrapping up by late February.
Most Chilean cherries are exported to China, but the U.S. also receives volume.
Through November 24th, the USDA reported season-to-date-shipments of Chilean cherries to the U.S. totaled 200,000 pounds, down from 2 million pounds for the same period last year.
Fewer Blueberries
Chilean blueberries apparently had less damage with the hard-hit O’Higgins region representing about 7 percent of the total planted area. However, hail also was reported in some growing areaser area of blueberries in the Maule Region. From the metropolitan region of Santiago to the south, over 4,900 acres of blueberries could have some damage from hail storms.
Chilean blueberry exports for 2018-19 are now projected at 100,800 metric tons, 4 percent lower than the 105,000 metric tons initially forecast. Reduction in volume will be felt in early and mid-season exports.
Through mid-November, about 1,905 metric tons had been exported from Chile, mostly bound for North America. Peak blueberry shipments are expected from December through February, with shipments continuing into March.
Through November 24th, the USDA reported season-to-date imports of Chilean blueberries totaled 2.4 million pounds, down from 3.7 million pounds the same time last year.
Chilean Grapes
The first Chilean grape imports on the East Coast are expected a few days prior to Christmas. While some Chilean grape advocates have said North America grape buyers are not interested in older varieties like California’s flames and red globes, the California grape trade is saying it will be shipping domestic grapes through most of January.
North America is Chile’s biggest grape market, taking 45 percent (39 million boxes) of Chilean grape export volume during the 2017-18 season.
When shipping any produce across borders whether from the USA to Mexico or Canada or the other way around, it is always good to consider the topic of international payments. While this may appear as a miniscule and rather technical area, it is in fact can get very expensive when paying or being paid through foreign currency.
Why can cross-border payments take a bite into a business’ bottom line? The reason for that is the exchange rate you’re getting for your foreign currency. Let’s take the Canadian Dollar to USA rate as an example. For December 13, 2018, the interbank official exchange rate stands at 0.748. If you are due for a payment of US $10,000, it means you should be charging $13,361.85 Canadian. In practice, U.S banks will never exchange foreign currency for the official exchange rate – they offer a much lesser rate than that. So, if your bank currently offers a rate of 0.723 (which is within range for what most U.S banks offer) you would trade that 13,361.85 Canadian to $9,660 US – netting a loss of $340 US against your original goal of $10,000 just because you were willing to accept foreign currency payments.
There’s a better way to deal with inbound and outbound international money transfers, though. The fact some banks may be overly expensive or demonstrate abusive behavior should not deter you from international business. Of course, it is preferable that whomever you engage in business will pay you in US Dollars but in some cases that may just not be possible. There are third party providers who are able to transfer and receive money from abroad in foreign currency and exchange it to dollar for much better rates.
These companies are named money transfer companies or FX providers. There aren’t particularly known or popular in North America, but as many as 50% of the internationally trading small businesses in the UK and Australia use them. In spite of the fact that these companies have limited success to date in the North American markets in comparison with the rest of the world, they maintain a strong presence. Take OFX for example, one of the top rated for online transfers – they have offices in San Francisco with a large staff, while their headquarters are in Sydney, Australia. The firm employees more than 700 employees worldwide and is traded in the Australian stock exchange so you know that not only you are going to get better rates, your money is safe too.
While excessive heat and untimely rains during the growing season, After a lighter-than-normal start in late October, Florida’s tomato shipments started accelerating in mid-November.
Florida tomato shipments are now shifting from Central to Southern Florida and will continue into the winter. Peak volume from Sinaloa, Mexico and South Florida is coming as volume ramps up volume in December.
Last year, there was 25.9 million 25-pound equivalent containers of round tomatoes shipped.
This represents a 21 percent decrease compared to the previous season and the smallest crop on record since 1976-77, when a freeze knocked out Florida’s winter crop.
The significant volume reduction in 2017-18 was mainly due to the result to the fall crop caused by Hurricane Irma.
Citrus Shipments
Florida orange shipments have been downgraded to 77 million boxes, off 3 percent from October in a new estimate.
The USDA adjusted estimate also includes other citrus. Early, midseason and navel varieties are forecast at 32 million boxes, down 6 percent from last month, according the USDA crop report released November 8th. Valencias are forecast at 45 million boxes, unchanged from last month’s estimate.
The grapefruit crop forecast decreased by 300,000 to 6.4 million.
While some of the projections have been lowered, the numbers still represent a very significant improvement on the 2017-18 season, when the crop was devastated by Hurricane Irma in September.
Other Oranges
California is estimated to ship 49 million boxes of oranges, up from 45.4 million last year. The state is expected to have 40 million boxes of early, midseason and navel varieties, up from 35.9 million last year.
Texas is forecast to ship 1.8 million boxes of early, midseason and navel varieties and 600,000 boxes of valencia oranges.
Grapefruit
The USDA projected 3.9 million boxes of grapefruit from California, down slightly from last season. Florida is expected to produce 6.4 million boxes, including 5.3 million of red grapefruit and 1.1 million of white grapefruit. Texas is forecast to have 6.2 million boxes of grapefruit this season, up from 4.8 million in 2017-18.
Other Citrus
California is expected to increase mandarin and tangerine production from 19.2 million boxes to 23 million boxes, and Florida’s volume is forecast to grow from 750,000 boxes to 1.2 million boxes.
Arizona is projected to produce 1.4 million boxes of lemons, up from 1 million last year. California’s production is expected to dip slightly from 21.2 million to 20 million.
Initial Florida strawberry shipments got underway with the arrival of December and a good, quality crop is being reported.
Well-Pict Inc. of Watsonville, CA, also grows strawberries in Wimauma, south of Tampa, and will continue to ship strawberries from there until mid- to late March.
The Florida Strawberry Growers Association Inc. in Dover, FL predicts the state will have about 10,000 acres of strawberries this season.
Astin Strawberry Exchange of Plant City, FL has increased its organic berries this season, and similar to conventional berries, should have good volume the first half of December, peak shipments taking place from late January until mid-March. Heaviest volume for the company occurs during February. Astin’s organic production is up 40 percent, while conventional volume has increased by 10 percent. The company expects to ship 6 million flats this season.
Grape Shipments
California grape shipments and how long they will last has importers in a quandry.
Vanguard International USA, Inc. of Issaquah, WA reports if the quality of California table grapes hold up, the harvest could last until the end of the year, with shipments lasting into January. At the same time Vanguard points out Peru’s global grape shipments were up 40 percent year-on-year to 3.4 million boxes as of October 31st. But U.S. buyers will stick with California grapes as long as the quality is there.
Meanwhile, the California industry set a new 5-year record shipping 23 million boxes worldwide between September 8th and October 12th.
Pandol Bros. Inc. of Delano, CA believes the total California crop might even be 10 million more boxes than 2017. Pandol noted in 2017, late season grape shipments were disappointing because there were so many cold storages full of aging grapes. There are some concerns this year over a repeat of last season.
Pandol reports most retailers are planning to transition to Peruvian grapes later this season, which would be in January, instead of the second half of December. The company also observed retailers know the ports can be problematic around the Christmas and New Year holidays and the logistics of trucking from California are more reliable.
Chile’s table grapes have been hit by a recent hail storm, but the extent of damage is yet to be assessed. It is expected that the bad weather has slashed the walnut crop in half, while the cherry crop could have up to $100 million in losses.
Potato shipments should be strong during the holidays and well into 2019, despite bad weather in some growing regions and an overall reduction in production.
Potatoes USA of Denver is the marketing organization for the 2,500 commercial potato growers operating in the United States. It reports overall shipments may be slightly below last year, which was the period July 2017 to July 2018.
It believes shipments to foodservice and retail chains will continue to grow this year.
Potandon Produce of Idaho Falls, Idaho reports excessive rain hit many potato growers, particularly in Wisconsin, and Michigan, while there has been an early snow season in North Dakota. Meanwhile, Colorado, Texas, Idaho and Washington were experiencing good-sized crops.
The Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association of Antigo reports the state’s potato shipments may be down 10 to 15 percent, which would mean a total production of just over 2.3 billion pounds — down from about 2.6 billion last year.
In Grand Forks, N.D., Black Gold Farms reduced its acreage slightly this year because the company had too many potatoes last year.
Black Gold Farms grows and ships norland and dark norland potatoes for the early season, red potatoes for mid-season and the sangre variety for late season.
The company is now shipping a few more yellow potatoes.
Mountain King Potato of Monte Vista, CO., is reporting excellent quality and average yields.
Mack Farms of Lake Wales, FL has planted mostly red potatoes and some gold and white varieties. It will begin harvesting in early February, and is the first Florida operation to ship new potatoes to market. The company does not ship potatoes out of storage.
Most South Florida potato growers are expected to have about the same acreage as last year.
Russet potatoes continue to be the variety most widely shipped, but they continue to decline each year with the increasing popularity of red and gold potatoes.
A devastating storm described as the worst in 15 years has hit a number of growing areas in Chile. The severe hailstorm is expected to affect at least $200 million in crops.
The Federation of Fruit Producers (Fedefruta) reports Chilean fruit production has been hit across Chile’s central and southern regions, with cherries among the most affected. The large sized hail lasted an amazing 20 to 30 minutes. The worst affected areas in the central O’Higgins region represents 26.5 percent of the Chile’s fruit production. Crops hit hardest include cherries, table and wine grapes, kiwifruit, nectarines, almonds, walnuts, among many others.
The area accounts for 40 percent of the region’s fruit-producing land, or 74, 100 acres, and almost 10 percent of the national total. Cherries and table grapes have received the most damage, followed by stone fruit.
Further south in the country, in the Maule Norte and Ñuble region, which has about 24,700 acres of blueberries, there appears to be significant damage not only from hail, but from heavy rainfall.
Prior to the adverse weather Oppenheimer Group of Vancouver, Canada was expecting normal imports with Chilean peaches, plums and nectarines.
While shipments were going to be limited in December, volume was to ramp up in January and continue in volume into March.
Jac Vandenberg Inc. of Yonkers, NY was giving a similar report.
In calendar year 2017, the USDA reported Chile shipped 66.2 million pounds of peaches, 96.5 million pounds of plums and 97.7 million pounds of nectarines to the U.S.
Those numbers were off compared with calendar year 2016, when Chile sent 80.9 million pounds of peaches, 124.3 million pounds of plums and 119.1 million pounds of nectarines to the U.S.
Acreage of stone fruit has declined in Chile in recent years, with peach and nectarine acreage falling from about 47,400 acres in 2013 to 41,600 acres in 2016.
Peach and nectarine production in Chile declined from 369,000 metric tons in 2014 to 337,000 metric tons in 2016, according to the United National Food and Agriculture Organization.
Plum acreage has dropped from 46,000 acres in 2013, to about 43,000 acres in 2016, according to the FAO. Plum production dipped from 312,000 metric tons in 2013 to 295,000 metric tons in 2016.
Apple outlook
No reports have been issued on how Chile’s apple and pear shipments to the U.S. may be affected, perhaps because its season is later, mainly arriving in the U.S. from March through July.
Prior to the weather event, The USDA projected that Chile will export about 720,000 metric tons of apples in 2018-19 season, down 4 percent from 750,000 metric tons exported in 2017-18.
The U.S. is the top market for Chilean apples.
Chile’s total apple planted area decreased from 92,775 acres in 2013 to about 85,000 acres in 2017. The decline is because apple exports have not been as profitable as other crops such as cherries, walnuts and hazelnuts.
Chilean pear production in 2018-19 totaled 250,000 metric tons after a 3.8 percent decrease in planted area. Chile’s pear exports in 2018-19 were projected to decrease to 127,000 metric tons, a 2.3 percent decrease due to lower than expected production.
Onion shipments across the nation are expected to be similar to that of last season (2017).
The USDA reports 2017 shipments were about 6.7 billion pounds, up from about 6.3 billion pounds in 2016.
Of course, loadings will vary by area.
Snake River Produce of Nyssa, OR points to an excellent onion crop with quality and size. While volume in that region was down about 20 percent last year, the company is expecting 30 to 35 percent more onion shipments than a year ago and 10 to 15 percent above normal.
Snake River Produce grows and ships red, white and yellow onions, plus a sweet variety called Snake River Sweets. Shipments will continue until April.
Baker & Murakami Produce Co., Ontario, OR., is reporting a similar onion crop and it sees normal volume for it yellow, red and white onions.
The Snake River region is known for its large onions, which are particularly popular with foodservice operators.
Sunset Produce LLC of Prosser, WA will be shipping its storage onions until mid-May. The company has yellow, red and white onions, sweet onions and some shallots.
National Onion Inc., of Las Cruces, N.M., is a shipper and broker of onions and during the winter months brokers red, white and yellow onions from Onions 52 Inc., of Syracuse, Utah. The company is reporting good quality.
Fagerberg Produce Inc. of Eaton, CO will have less volume this season due to weather factors during the growing period last summer. Reporting good quality, Fagerberg will be shipping red, white and yellow onions into March.
Western Idaho – Malheur County, Oregon onions – grossing about $4700 to Dallas.
Romaine lettuce shipments have been dead in the water since the FDA and CDC began investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses. However, this is changing since the location of the outbreak has been identified.
The agencies say it’s likely linked to romaine lettuce grown in California this fall. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Canadian Food Inspection Agency are also coordinating with U.S. agencies as they investigate a similar outbreak in Canada.
The majority of California romaine lettuce is shipped out of the Salinas Valley (Monterey County), the Santa Maria District (Santa Barbara County) and Oxnard (Ventura County). These areas would be nearing the end of their shipping season anyway, but have been halted the last couple of weeks as the government sought to identify the source of contamination.
Expect lettuce shipments out of the desert areas of California (Imperial Valley) and Arizona (Yuma), to soar with the news they are not suspected of having any of the contaminated romaine.
Yuma lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower shipments – grossing about $8400 to New York City.
The FDA has been conducting a traceback investigation, reviewing shipping records and invoices to trace the supply of romaine from the place where ill people were exposed to the place where that romaine was grown.
Preliminary traceback information indicates that ill people in several areas across the country were exposed to romaine lettuce harvested in California. Specifically, current evidence indicates this romaine was harvested in the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California, according to a FDA news release.
As of November 28th, the specific California counties FDA is including in this region are:
- Monterey
- San Benito
- San Luis Obispo
- Santa Barbara
- Santa Cruz
- Ventura
Additional counties may be added as the FDA traceback develops.
Romaine harvested from locations outside of the California regions identified by the traceback investigation does not appear to be related to the current outbreak.
There is no recommendation for consumers or retailers to avoid using romaine lettuce that is certain to have been harvested from areas outside of the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California. For example, romaine lettuce harvested from areas that include, but are not limited to the desert growing region near Yuma, the California desert growing region near Imperial County and Riverside County, the state of Florida, and Mexico, does not appear to be related to the current outbreak. Additionally, there is no evidence hydroponically- and greenhouse-grown romaine is related to the current outbreak.
During this new stage of the investigation, it is vital that consumers and retailers have an easy way to identify romaine lettuce by both harvest date and harvest location. Labeling with this information on each bag of romaine or signage in stores where labels are not an option would easily differentiate for consumers romaine from unaffected growing regions, the FDA release said.
FDA Recommendation:
Based on discussions with producers and distributors, romaine lettuce entering the market will now be labeled with a harvest location and a harvest date or labeled as being hydroponically- or greenhouse-grown. If it does not have this information, you should not eat or use it.
If romaine lettuce does have this labeling information, we advise avoiding any product from the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California. Romaine lettuce from outside those regions need not be avoided.
Romaine lettuce that was harvested outside of the Central Coast growing regions of northern and central California does not appear to be related to the current outbreak. Hydroponically- and greenhouse-grown romaine also does not appear to be related to the current outbreak. There is no recommendation for consumers or retailers to avoid using romaine harvested from these sources.
Imported citrus from Morocco is now arriving by boat on the East Coast, while imported melons are about to take center stage as the domestic season comes to a close.
The season’s first breakbulk shipment of fresh Moroccan citrus to arrive in the United States took place November 7th at the port of Wilmington, DE.
The M.V. Belgie Reefer, a specialized refrigerated vessel delivered the citrus to port of Wilmington customer Fresh Fruit Maroc.
The Belgie Reefer was carrying over 574,800 boxes of fresh clementines. Wilmington is a major port of entry and distribution center for the seasonal importation of fresh Moroccan citrus, including Nour and Nadorcott clementine varieties.
During this season which runs through March, the port expects to receive about 12 shiploads of fruit from the Moroccan Atlantic port of Agadir. The arrival of the Belgie Reefer marks the 19th consecutive year the port has been receiving express, breakbulk shipments for Fresh Fruit Maroc.
Cargo is stored in the port’s 800,000-square-foot on-dock refrigerated warehouse complex, one of North America’s largest facilities, before distribution to markets throughout the United States and Canada. The port of Wilmington will handle over 10.7 million boxes of Moroccan citrus in the 2018-19 season.
Imported Melons
Domestic melon shipments are winding down and now U.S. importers are looking to the offshore season. Much of the winter melon imports come from production areas in Mexico as well as Guatemala. Offshore fruit is expected to arrive on the West Coast in early December, a little behind the first East Coast arrivals.
Vision Produce Company of Los Angeles starts its Central American season from Guatemala in early December on the West Coast and will continue through April. The company is expecting steady supplies.
Both California and northern Mexico have experienced some adverse growing conditions, which reduced shipments and is increasing demand for imported melons as the new season gets underway.
South Texas vegetables are improving, plus an update on how Argentina lemon imports are shaping up.
Texas vegetable shipments have gotten off to a rocky start due to weather factors, but shippers see volume improving, although it may December before that happens.
Most of the Lower Grande Valley and the Winter Garden/Uvalde growing regions in Central Texas received a lot of rain the past two months, and delayed plantings. Wet field also have hindered harvests. It has resulted in a number of vegetables getting off to a slow start.
Texas cabbage shipments are expected to be good, in part because of reduced volume in Florida and Georgia resulting from hurricane damage.
Frontera Produce Ltd. in Edinburg, TX ships cilantro, chili peppers, calabaza and cabbage and has noted its challenges with the weather, but says crops and loadings have rebounded. Quality is reported good.
Frontera started shipping jalapeño, anaheim and serrano peppers, as well as calabaza squash in mid October. During the past four years the company has gradually increased its chili pepper production, and this year that trend continues. Frontera is now starting its Texas cabbage season.
Grow Farms Texas LLC of Donna reports Mexico’s prime vegetable growing region in Culiacan has been spared damage from a series of storms, but hot pepper production just to the south were not as lucky.
Argentina Lemon Imports
Argentina produce company Latin Lemon has pointed out the country’s return to the U.S., which last year reopened for the South American country after a 17-year hiatus. Latin Lemon reports the first season had gone very well, despite the strict export protocol, while nearly 10,000 metric tons (MT) of lemons were exported to the U.S.
Argentina took advantage of an eight-week window after California’s season, but before the heavy Mexican volumes. The plan was and is to slowly and cautiously build up volumes. Argentina currently exports nearly 20 percent of its lemon production.