Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Here is a glimpse of some produce loading opportunities found east of the Rocky Mountains, stretching to the East Coast.
Florida is entering its last few weeks of spring vegetable shipments. Sweet corn is averaging 700 – plus truck loads per week primarily from central and southern areas of the state, while just under 700 truck loads of mature green tomatoes are being shipped weekly. There also is decent volume coming from red potatoes and cabbage, with lighter volume on cabbages and dozens of other vegetables. A biggie when it comes to shipments is yet to arrive. Watermelon loadings are in light volume but rapidly increasing.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $3300 to New York City.
Chilean imported grapes totaled around 1200 truck loads arriving by boat last week, primarily at the Ports of Philadelphia and Long Beach, CA. However, expected is a significant decline in volume as Chilean grapes come to a seasonal end.
Sweet potato shipments are pretty steady from the Eastern part of North Carolina averaging around 400 truck loads per week. This is triple the amount of volume coming out of California, Louisiana and Mississippi combined.
New York state is shipping light amounts of apples, but they are coming from scattered areas across much of the states. There also is light volume with cabbage and onions.
Michigan is moving about 100 truck loads of apples from the western half of the state, plus light amounts of potatoes and onions, many which are being brought in from other growing areas for repacking and distribution.
Michigan apples – grossing about $3800 to Boston.
The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota have light volume with red potatoes averaging about 200 truck loads weekly, while shippers in the Central area of Wisconsin are shipping similar amounts of russets.
In the Southeastern part of Colorado, around 625 truck loads of russet potatoes are being loaded each week.
Colorado and Wisconsin potatoes – both averaging about $3000 to Atlanta.
Sandwiched in between Ventura County to the south and the Watsonville area of the Salinas Valley to the north is Santa Mara. It’s strawberry season typically overlaps with the other two neighboring growing districts and plays a significant role in the state’s total volume.
While weather delays cut volume for Easter, Santa Maria strawberry shipments are expected to play a key role.
Through March 24th, total volume for the year-from Santa Maria stood at 2.43 million trays, up from 1.89 million trays last year at the same time. However, it was down from 4.04 million crates in 2016.
Total California strawberry shipments the week of March 24 were 907,000 crates, down about 70 percent from 3.31 million trays the same week last year and 80 percent less than the 4.27 million two years ago. In fact, total California strawberry shipments the week of March 24 were 907,000 crates, down about 70% from 3.31 million trays the same week last year and 80 pecent lower than the 4.27 million two years ago.
A freeze a few weeks ago damaged blooms in Santa Maria, followed by rain during much of March, which cut volume for shippers such as Gold Coast Packing Inc., of Santa Maria.
Total California strawberry shipments last year hit a record 206 million trays, up from the 2016 record of 197 million trays. The Santa Maria district shipped 66.7 million trays in 2017, up from 60.8 million trays in 2016.
Projected acreage for the Santa Maria district this season is 11,292 acres, down from 12,209 acres in 2017 and 11,817 acres in 2016.
Santa Maria’s fall planted acreage of 8,506 for winter, spring and summer production was off 3.4 pecent compared with 2017. As a whole, Santa Maria accounted for 30.6 percent of California’s fall planted acreage for winter, spring and summer production, compared with 29.6 pecent last year.
Total fall planted acreage for winter, spring and summer production was estimated at 27,804 acres, down 6.5 percent from 2017.
Meanwhile, Santa Maria accounted for 2,786 acres for projected summer planted acreage for fall production, down 18 percent from 2017. Santa Maria accounts for 46.5 pecent of California’s projected summer planted acreage for fall production, down from a 51.1 percent share a year ago.
The estimate for California’s total summer planted strawberry for fall production in 2018 is 5,998 acres, down 10.1 pecent compared with a year ago.
Here are updates on strawberry, avocado and apple shipments.
As of April 7th California strawberry shipments had totaled around 17.5 million trays, which is over 3 million fewer trays than at the same time in 2017. Likewise, at the same time two years ago 27.4 million trays of strawberries had been shipped. Factors ranging from heavy rains to cold weather have been blamed for the lighter volume thus far this season. Assuming improved growing conditions are ahead with the arrival of spring, California shipments are expected to increase soon to over 5 million trays per week and eventually exceed 8 million trays on a weekly basis.
Ventura County strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $7500 to New York City.
Avocado Shipments
If estimates hold about 60 million pounds of avocados will be shipped weekly during the month of April Over 80 percent of the volume will be imports from Mexico. With this kind of volume, avocado shipments leading up to Cinco de Mayo (May 5) will comparable to those weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. The “Big Game” last February resulted in 200 million pounds of the fruit shipped in the four weeks leading up to the football game.
Mexican is in it second half of the season for shipping avocados. More No. 2 product, is typically shipped this time of the season, but no significant quality issues are being reported.. California’s new season is well underway.
Mexican avocado and vegetables crossing through South Texas – grossing about $5800 to New York City.
Apple Shipments
Significantly more apples remain in U.S. storages as of early April than at this time a year ago. About 61.3 million (42-pound) cartons of fresh apples were stored as of April 1st, up 16 percent from 2017 when there were 53.1 million cartons remaining to be shipped, which is 18 percent greater than the five-year average of 51.8 million cartons.
Gala apples remaining is storage were 10.76 million cartons, up 11 percent from 9.6 million cartons in 2017 and 62 percent greater than 6.67 million cartons in 2016.
Fresh Honeycrisp available was at 3.38 million cartons, more than double the 1.45 million cartons in 2017 and 1.61 million cartons on hand two years ago.
Red delicious remaining to be shipped were pegged at 15.65 million cartons, down 23 pecent compared with 20.2 million cartons in 2017 and up 7 percent from 14.6 million cartons two years ago.
Granny smith apples available were 10.1 million cartons, more than double the 4.8 million cartons in 2017 and 13 percent higher than 7.8 million cartons two years ago.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
Mangoes from Mexico, as well as grapes from California are expected to provide excellent volume shipments this year.
Imported Mexican mangoes by U.S. importers got off to an early season start this year and is expected to follow the normal volume increases associated with spring.
Between 3 and 4 million boxes of Mexican mangoes have been crossing the border during April.
Another season of record-breaking volume with peak supplies from southern Mexico that started this month is expected to continue into mid-May as the harvest shifts to more northern regions, such as Nayarit and Sinaloa, from mid-June through August.
Importers such as Ciruli Bros, LLC of Rio Rico, AZ and Jade Produce LLC of Mission, TX have been experiencing excellent volume mango shipments to U.S. markets.
Imported Mexican mango shipments from late March to the week of May 14 should be 16 percent higher than last year, with 49 million boxes in 2018 compared to 42 million boxes a year ago.
Besides Mexico, there also are imported mangoes from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Haiti during the spring. The Peruvian season finished in early April, and the Costa Rican season end the last half of April.
The Mexican season started in January and runs until October. The Nicaraguan season got underway in mid-March and ran until the last week of April. The Guatemalan season was launched in March and should run through the end of May. The Haitian season started the third week of April and will run until September.
California Grapes
Since the 2012 California grape shipments have exceeded 100 million boxes each season and 2018 is expected to be no different. In fact, 100 million – plus boxes is almost taken for granted these days.
California grape shipments totaled 109.1 million boxes during the 2017 season, which runs from May through January. In 2016, the industry shipped 110 million boxed of table grapes.
California typically begins with grapes from the Coachella Valley in early May, before transitioning to the Arvin area of Bakersfield in early June, with the remainder of the season involving much of the San Joaquin Valley.
Refrigerated truck rates on the spot market for fresh produce reached 40-year highs at the end of 2017 and early 2018. At the same time fruit and vegetable tonnage approached record levels. Meanwhile, the spike in rates may not be over, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Refrigerated Truck Quarterly, a 31-page report published in March. Continued economic growth may also encourage the upward push on rates.
All sectors of the trucking industry were affected in a similar fashion by the driver shortage, capacity issues and higher rates, which squeezed the transportation for fruit and vegetables. Because of less truck capacity, many are concerted about widespread disruptions in the supply chain.
Trucks account for around 70 percent of domestic freight tonnage, and trends showed the sector was heating up with the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) reports fourth-quarter 2017 tonnage of all truck freight, was up 3.7 percent from the previous quarter and 8.1 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2016. Total tonnage for 2017 was up 3.8 percent from 2016, which was the biggest annual increase since 2013.
Diesel fuel rates in the fourth quarter were $2.87 per gallon, up 9 percent from the previous quarter and 16 percent above the fourth quarter of 2016.
Additionally, the USDA reported refrigerated fruit and vegetable shipments in the fourth quarter of 2017, at 7.72 million tons, were the third-highest on record. The quarter trailed only the 2016 mark of 8.05 million tons and 7.99 million tons in 2011.
Total refrigerated fruit and vegetable shipments for all of 2017 were a record 33.6 million tons, up 0.5 percent from33.4 million tons in 2016.
Driver Shortage
The ATA estimates if current trends continue the driver shortage of 48,000 positions in 2015 could grow to 175,000 positions by 2025.
The electronic logging device mandate has been disruptive for many carriers, with many shipping point districts reporting shortages immediately after the December 18 ELD deadline.
Fourth-quarter fruit and vegetable truck rates of $2.55 per mile for routes from 500 to 1,500 miles were up 25 percent over year-ago levels, and rates of $2.52 per mile for routes of 1,500 miles to 2,500 miles were up 24 percent over the fourth quarter of 2016.
Coast-to-coast reefer truck rates on January 10th exceeded $10,000 per truck from several Western districts. For example, January rates from Idaho to Miami were as high as $10,200 per truck, up from $6,800 the previous year.
Truck rates in late March were down from January historic highs, but were still higher than in 2017.
At Nogales, AZ, imported Mexican produce rates were in the $5,800 to $6,800 range to New York City on March 27, down from $6,000 to $7,000 on March 8 and well off the rates of $9,000 to $9,800 reported in mid-January.
March produce trucking rates were still above the same time a year ago, when trucks from Nogales to New York City were in the $5,000 to $5,200 range.
The next quarterly report will be issued in late May for refrigerated trucks hauling fresh produce.
The start date has been set and Vidalia Onion shipments get underway in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, here’s an update on California avocado and strawberry shipments.
The Vidalia onion season will officially start on April 20th, which was recently announced by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
A starting date was implemented several years at as some shippers were concerned about immature or low-quality onions hitting the market early in the season. In 2017, April 12 was the start date, and in 2016 it was April 25. The packing date is based on soil and weather conditions in the 20-county area approved to market onions as Vidalias.
In 2017 Vidalia onions were grown on more than 11,000 acres.
California Avocado Shipments
This year’s avocado forecast is set at 374.6 million pounds, which is significantly higher than last year’s 215.8 million pounds. There was the normal light volume in February, but significant volume increase are seen in coming weeks as there will be avocados coming out of both California and Mexico.
With the close of February, 2 million to 4 million pounds per week were being shipped and volume increases of March are expected to continue April until movement eventually hits about 10 million pounds per week.
Ventura County avocados, strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $3900 to Dallas.
California Shipper’s Strawberry Outlook
by California Giant Berry Farms
Watsonville, CA – Spring conditions have finally arrived in California to help bring on the new strawberry crop for California Giant. Unfortunately, the company missed the chance to take advantage of the early Easter holiday which provides opportunity to build demand and lay the groundwork for a strong spring season. However, conditions have changed significantly and now California Giant is now looking ahead to the next chance with Mother’s Day.
What initially looked like an early season for the company’s California strawberry crop, didn’t quite happen as growers thought it would. . Additionally, the company had weather issues in their two other regions, Mexico and Florida, which typically helps fill the early season gaps.
“…In Watsonville and Salinas we expect big beautiful fruit next week bypassing the typical mud crop” says JT Tipton, District Manager for Salinas and Watsonville. Barring any unexpected return of winter conditions, the sales team is looking forward to Mother’s Day ahead and promotable volume to support their key customers.”
Larger volume shipments are being reported for bananas, limes and Brussel sprouts.
Imported bananas have been light in recent months because of inclement weather and other unfavorable conditions in numerous banana producing countries.
However, supplies are expected to improve in coming weeks, although the first quarter of 2018 has presented serious challenges.
About 85 percent of bananas shipped to the U.S. in 2017 came from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras. American importers have reported issues affecting production in three of those four countries as well as in others.
Temperatures have been as much as 10 degrees below normal for several weeks in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, slowing fruit growth, production and yield.
There also has been excess rainfall and flooding in Costa Rica and Panama that have damaged plantations, infrastructure, roads and bridges. There also has been high winds and waves causing delays in shipping. Combine these factors with national instability and supply interruptions in Honduras, and the result supplies being much tighter than normal.
Lime Imports
Rain in Mexico’s Veracruz growing region reduced lime imports by the U.S., but observers expect improved shipments by the middle of April. The f.o.b. price on limes had doubled from mid February to mid March. Erratic weather in Mexico often makes March a difficult time of year for the lime shipments and so far in 2018 it hasn’t been any different.
Mexico provided 93 percent of total U.S. lime imports in mid-March, with the remaining light volume from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru. Lime volume should return to normal levels by May.
Brussel Sprouts
It seems Brussels sprouts may be the latest trendy vegetable in America and that has led to increased production and shipments.
The volume of fresh Brussels sprouts shipped hit 78.9 million pounds, up 9 percent during the past year. Domestic fresh Brussels sprout shipments totaled 3.03 million 25-pound cartons in 2016, up from 752,000 cartons in 2010. Imported fresh Brussels sprouts totaled 4.5 million (25-pound) cartons, up from 1.06 million cartons in 2010.
In California, 2016 USDA statistics show peak shipments of Brussels sprouts occurred in November, when 22 percent of the state’s crop was shipped. The four-month period of September through December accounted for 68 percent of the state’s total Brussels sprouts shipments.
Sweet corn shipments will be having a significant increase in volume beginning the week of April 9th in the U.S.
The rise in shipments is just a prelude to the major peak shipping periods related to the big four summer holidays — Memorial Day (May 28th) , Father’s Day (June 17th), Fourth of July (a Wednesday) and Labor Day (September 3rd).
Sweet corn shipper A Family of Farms, based in South Bay, FL is seeing sweet corn shipments picking up this week with steady volume through the months of April and May. The company’s bicolor corn will start shipping in late April and continue through the Fourth of July. The shipper has a similar situation to one of its Florida competitors, Duda Farm Fresh Foods of Ovideo, FL, which had lower sweet corn volume than normal through Easter, due to rain and cooler weather during the planting season. Sweet corn shipments also are expected to remain consistent for the transition to loadings taking place out of Georgia around Memorial Day.
On the West Coast, sweet corn shipper Five Crowns Marketing of Tracy, CA, experienced a late freeze in the Imperial Valley which reduced supplies during April. Volume shipments will arrive in May. However, there may be a bit of roller coaster ride with shipments because of rain and cooler weather during the planting season.
During the past five years, shipments of sweet corn have peaked in late June leading up to the Fourth of July, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Retail Report.
In 2017, sweet corn was promoted in an average of 4,600 stores per week. The peak weeks, however, showed significantly more promotions, with sweet corn on ad in 18,500 stores the week ending June 30; 17,200 stores the week ending May 26; and 16,400 stores the week ending September 1.
The leading states for sweet corn shipments are California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Texas and Washington.
Plentiful grape shipments crossing the border from Mexico will be starting in a few weeks, plus here’s a shipping update on sweet potatoes.
Mexican Grapes
Mexican grape shipments will get underway in late April, with peak loadings occurring between the last week of May and the third week of June. A majority of the Mexican grapes will be crossing the border at Nogales, AZ.
The Mexican state of Caborca will come into its major production in early June, after shipping its first box in late May. The first crop estimate is expected about April 19-20, but good volume is predicted.
This 2018 crop is expected to be similar to 2016, which yielded a normal volume of about 16 million boxes. In Mexico in 2017, there was a record-breaking fresh grape crop of 21 million boxes exported to the U.S. An additional 4 million boxes were sold in the domestic (Mexican) market.
Nearly all of Mexico’s table grape vineyards are in the state of Sonora. Sonora’s three basic grape-growing regions are Hermosillo, Caborca and Guaymas. Guaymas is the farthest south and ships the earliest Sonoran grapes. The Hermosillo growing district has production to the west of town, in the La Costa area — near the relatively warm waters of the Sea of Cortez — and to the north in Pesqueria. Generally speaking, Caborca supplies the end of Mexico’s fast and short May-June deal.
Sweet Potato Shipments
American sweet potato growers harvested 159,300 acres in 2017, down from 163,300 acres the previous year. From 2010-14, that number had remained between 115,000 and 130,000 acres. As acreage and yields have increased, farmers have seen lower markets, leading one to wonder if supply isn’t finally exceeding demand. Meanwhile, moderate volume of sweets potatoes are being shipping from North Carolina, with much lighter volume from other areas.
Louisiana Sweet Potatoes
Louisiana will continue shipping sweet potatoes into June, ranking a distant fourth in volume nationwide behind North Carolina, California and Mississippi. Cajun country is shipping about 25 truck loads of sweet potatoes a week. Loads are grossing about $1800 to Chicago.
Here is the outlook for loadings of Florida blueberries, peaches and Valencia oranges.
Florida blueberry shipments are now moving in decent volume and will continue until the middle of May.
Wish Farms of Plant City, FL should have about 250,000 pounds of organic fruit from Florida this year, compared to 100,000 pounds a year ago. Strawberries are Wish Farms’ largest crop, accounting for about 60percent of its volume, compared to 30 percent for blueberries. The company will wind up its strawberry season any day now.
In all, Florida blueberry production consists of about 7,000 acres and 1,000 growers. Florida shipped about 20 million pounds of blueberries in 2017, and a similar volume is expected this year.
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New Florida Blueberry Shipper
MIAMI, FLA. – Crystal Valley Foods (Crystal Valley) has announced that it will begin shipping conventional and organic Florida blueberries under the Crystal Valley label this season. The first shipments will begin at the end of March and they will be available through the end of May.
The company has an exclusive partnership with a grower/packer in Hawthorne, Fla. and they expect a good Florida season as weather in the region has been conducive to good volume and quality.
With the acquisition of Team Produce last year, Crystal Valley has been able to successfully enter into the berry category, supplying imported blueberries from September through April. The transition into Florida is the first step in offering their customers year-round blueberries.
About Crystal Valley Foods
Founded in 1994, Crystal Valley Foods is a leading grower and importer of produce from Central and South America. With offices and facilities in Miami and Los Angeles, the company is one of the largest importers and distributors of asparagus in the USA. Its extensive product line also includes baby vegetables, peas, beans, berries, baby lettuces, peppers and other specialty crops.
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Florida Citrus
The Dundee (FL) Citrus Growers Association reports Florida grapefruit shipments are winding down, but valencia oranges will continue through April. with storage crop available into June.
Florida Peaches
Florida peach shipments are just getting started will continue until the middle of May. with peak loadings mostly occurring during April. Traditionally, Florida peaches start as Chile exits the marketplace and before California, South Carolina or Georgia being shipments of new season fruit.