Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Produce trucking can be frustrating this time of year as spring is still a month away (March 20th), rates are down from earlier in the year, and spring vegetable shipments have yet to seasonally take off.
An interesting note is imported truck loads that include everything from Nogales and South Texas, as well as ports on both coasts, there were 7000 fewer truck loads shipped than during the same week in 2017. Part of the explanation is many imported produce items are maturing on a more normal schedule this year, compared to last year when warmer weather resulted in a lot of early crops.
Florida spring shipments won’t hit volume for several weeks, but there are signs of life. The new season for red potatoes out of Southern areas is underway, and we are seeing light but increasing volume with vegetables such as beans and cabbage. Tomatoes (mostly mature greens) are averaging around 750 truck loads weekly, although most loads out of the state involve multiple pick ups. Plant City area strawberries are averaging around 500 truck loads a week.
Florida produce – grossing around $3000 to New York City.
Port of Philadelphia
Chilean fruit arrivals are growing in volume. Early season Chilean grapes haven’t been that impressive quality-wise, but it’s good enough you shouldn’t face claims issues over it. There also is increasing volume with peaches, plums and nectarines. However, the biggest single volume item may be pineapples from Costa Rica and other Central American countries.
Otherwise, it is pretty much slim pickings from the Eastern time zone. You’ve got light volume out of New York state with apples, cabbage and storage onions. Eastern North Carolina is shipping around 250 truck loads of sweet potatoes each week, which is more than double the other leading states of California, Mississippi and Louisiana combined.
Michigan is moving about 150 truck loads of apples weekly, primarily from the Grand Rapids region. Some shippers buy items such as potatoes and onions from Western states, repack them, and then ship it out.
By Stemilt Growers
WENATCHEE, Wash. – Honeycrisp apples will have a longer Honeycrisp season this spring and summer. Stemilt Growers will be expanding their Honeycrisp shipping season through mid-summer with a new brand called Honeyhill™.
“Honeyhill™ is an exciting addition to include in our family of brands as we will be offering one of the most popular apple varieties for a longer timeframe,” states Roger Pepperl, Stemilt marketing director. “We’re choosing the best Honeycrisp apples for Honeyhill™ boxes…. that taste as if you had just picked them from the tree back in the fall.”
Stemilt is not allowing just any Honeycrisp apple to be packed under the Honeyhill™ name. Only high-color Honeycrisp apples will qualify for the Honeyhill™ brand. The main strain that is producing high-color and high-quality Honeycrisp apples late in the season is Royal, a new sport of Honeycrisp apples that is actually quite different than the rest of the pack.
“The Royal Honeycrisp is a beautiful strain with great color and finish. Its real advantage is that our teams can pick full-colored fruit at the right starch levels in order to store well in our controlled atmosphere rooms. When we pull these apples out at a later date, the starches have converted to sugars with good acides that deliver that amazing fall flavor in the spring and summer months,” said Pepperl.
Planted in some of Stemilt’s most pristine orchards throughout Washington State, Stemilt’s field team works effortlessly to ensure each Royal Honeycrisp can maximize it’s time on the tree. The Royal strains ability to color well allows Stemilt to pick the fruit in an ideal window where the fruit starch levels allow it to be stored for long-term success. Stemilt also utilizes shade cloth and windscreens to further care for its Royal Honeycrisp apples.
Organic Honeycrisp apples are also available and currently being packed under Stemilt’s Artisan Organics™ label. “We all know organic is a growing category….,” states Pepperl. “We’re excited about Honeyhill™.
About Stemilt
Stemilt Growers is a leading tree fruit growing, packing and shipping company based in Wenatchee, Washington. Owned and operated by the Mathison family, Stemilt is the leading shipper of sweet cherries and one of the nation’s largest suppliers of organic tree fruits. Stemilt has also demonstrated a commitment to sustainable agriculture and social responsibility since 1989, when founder Tom Mathison launched the company’s Responsible Choice program.
Avocado shipments from both California and Mexico are looking strong, while a big increase is seen coming for imported golden kiwifruit.
Mexican avocado shipping volumes are big the second and third week of January, but reaches a peak in the fourth week of the month leading up the big game February 4th. It is known as the Super Bowl effect.
The Hass Avocado Board reports 204 million pounds of avocados were shipped into the U.S. during the first four weeks of January. Of the total amount of avocados, 93 percent were imported from Mexico, with 3.6 percent coming from from California, with 2.7 percent from the Dominican Republic with Chile supplying 0.7 percent.
Despite widespread shortages of trucks being reported around the U.S. in the first half of January, it apparently had minimal affect on shipments for the Super Bowl.
California Avocado Shipping Forecast
Avocado shipments are currently originating both from Mexico and California, although the vast majority are coming from South of the U.S. border.
For example, West Pak Avocado Inc. of Murrieta, CA sources most of its avocados from Mexico and California and sees good supply and quality this season from both areas. Mexico will have strong volume continuing into the summer. California should have good shipments totaling around 374 million pounds.
There was limited California volume is available for the Super Bowl because it is so early in the season, when the limited shipments are typically directed to California receivers. National California avocado shipments typically ramps up in March and April.
Golden Kiwi Shipments
The golden kiwifruit season for imports from New Zealand recently ended, but importers already are laying plans from the new arrivals coming in May.
Golden kiwifruit imports more than doubled in 2017, with the SunGold variety from Zespri accounting for 80 percent of the category. The company is based in New Zealand and set a record with 27.8 million pounds of the fruit imported.
Zespri is planning a 50 percent growth for the coming year and extend the season at the season into March and April.
Mexican mango imports are now taking center stage for U.S. markets, while the imported pineapple season from Costa Rica is starting out with flying colors.
While increased mango volume from Peru was seen December and January, Mexican volume started in late January and now is closing in on 1 million mango boxes per week.
During 2017 Mexican mango volume exported to the United States hit a record at 80 million cases. In fact, Mexico accounts for 62 percent of the mangos exported to the U.S.
Mexican mango exports have increased from 59 million in 2014, to 80 million cases last year.
There was a drop in Mexican exports from 2013, when a then-record 70 million cases were shipped to the U.S. However, there was increased Mexican mango volume each year for at least 10 years, with 40 million cases shipped in 2004.
A total of 23 Mexican states produce mango, with about 25 percent of Mexico’s mango crop being exported fresh.
Imported Pineapples
Strong supplies of imported pineapples are seen through the first half of 2018. Dole Food Co., Westlake Village, CA is a leading importer of the tropical fruit. Costa Rica provides about 80 percent of pineapples in the U.S. as the first half of the year looks better than recent few years. A normal dip in Costa Rican volumes is expected in the late summer and early fall with volumes returning in the fourth quarter. Mexico also is expected to have good supplies, although volume to the U.S. is much less than with Costa Rica.
Over the last four years, cut pineapple has grown much faster than bulk in the U.S.
As recently as 1991, Hawaii provided half of the total U.S. fresh pineapple supply. That year, total supply of fresh pineapple totaled 503 million pounds, of which Hawaii accounted for 250 million pounds and imports provided 254 million pounds.
Fast-forward to 2006 and Hawaii supplied only 192 million pounds of fresh pineapples and import volume ballooned to 1.4 billion pounds.
By 2015, Hawaii’s contribution to the fresh pineapple supply disappeared altogether, while imports supplied all the fresh pineapple supply of 2.3 billion pounds. Hawaii’s demise in the pineapple industry was primarily due to high costs of operation, compared to other areas around the world..
It is a bit amusing watching the produce industry’s reaction to transportation rates and other issues.
Little thought is given to transportation – trucking or rail – until there are problems. Those problems almost always center first on what’s the cost of the truck? Find the cheapest truck available is pretty the industry’s unwritten motto.
This has typically been most true after demand for refrigerated equipment subsides entering the fall as produce volume is seasonally lower. It continues until around March or so when spring produce shipments are increasing and demand for equipment rises accordingly.
Since last year this has all changed. Another cycle in trucking has arrived. These cycles typically last maybe three to five years. The cycle that has ended saw rates for produce truckers remain pretty stagnant. A sluggish economy with stagnant wages did not present as many attractive employment opportunities.
That’s now in the rear view mirror as demand for trucks, and drivers is often outstripping supply. Now there’s near panic is some produce industry corners. Not only are freight rates substantially higher, but getting a truck at any cost is often a challenge.
Truck rates have recently backed off some, but spring is coming soon and we’ll see how long that trend lasts.
The federal mandate for electronic logbooks certainly isn’t going to help no one. Truckers currently are allotted 14 hours of operating time, but how often do they waste much of this time at loading and unloading docks? When multiple pickups and drops are involved, the problems is only compounded.
While truck rates have plunged from only a month ago, they are still much higher than a year ago.
Rates from the California desert are currently about $7,400 to New York City, off 15 percent from three weeks earlier. However, the current rate is still 20 percent above the same time a year ago.
For a load of apples out of the Yakima Valley in Washington state the gross freight rate is around $4,600 to Dallas, 20 percent below only a few weeks ago, but very similar to rates at the same time last year.
Rates from south and central Florida for tomatoes and veggies are mostly below $3000 now, which is 20 percent more that a year ago.
Mushroom shipments look good for the first quarter of 2018, which will be an improvement, at least for some areas of the country….Meanwhile, the forecast for Florida citrus shipments takes another hit.
Shipments of mushrooms from Texas and Florida should be better this year as the region has recovered from hurricane damage last fall. While mushrooms are grown indoors, production still depends on the quality of compost, which is grown outside.
As long as growers don’t have to deal with frozen compost, a relatively mild fall has led to improved conditions. At the same time companies such as Oakshire Mushroom Farm of Kennett Square, PA, which markets mushrooms under the Dole label, see adequate labor as a continuing problem, like other operations, because mushrooms are a very labor-intense crop.
Monterey Mushrooms Inc. of Watsonville, CA also anticipates an good crop for early 2018. The company has 10 farms strategically located around the United States and Mexico and it makes its own compost.
White mushrooms still constitute most mushroom shipments, but brown mushrooms continue to gain. Ten years or more ago, white mushrooms represented over 90 percent of shipments. That has now shrunk to about 70 percent, because baby portabellas are still increasing in popularity. Portabellas have been fairly stable, accounting for around 6 to 7 percent of total volume. Specialty mushrooms, particularly shiitake and oyster, also are gaining in volume.
Florida Citrus Shipments
45 million boxes of oranges from Florida are predicted to be shipped, down 2 percent from the USDA January forecast.
The 2017-18 crop will be the smallest in over 75 years, assuming the estimate is accurate. Hurricane Irma devastated much of the production in the state when the storm hit last September, compounding the low production numbers caused by citrus greening disease.
The current crop projection is off 35 percent from the 2016-17 season.
The forecast for valencias is now 26 million boxes, down 4 percent from the January estimate.The projections for non-valencia oranges and grapefruit are unchanged at 19 million boxes and 4.65 million boxes, respectively.
Before the hurricane, private estimates suggested Florida was set to produce 75 million boxes of oranges this season.
By The California Avocado Commission
IRVINE, Calif. – After weeks of reviewing the impact of wind and fire to California avocado groves, the California Avocado Commission (CAC) announced a 2018 crop forecast: 374.6 million pounds of avocados. The total, despite the ravages of Mother Nature in California’s avocado growing regions, is nearly double the yield of last year’s crop and considerably better than some had feared.
“The CAC 2018 pre-season crop estimate of 374.6 million pounds of California avocados means there will be solid volume…,” said Tom Bellamore, California Avocado Commission president. “Despite some harsh blows from Mother Nature, California avocado growers are resilient, and the industry is expecting a good year.”
The shipping forecast comes after a series of weather events, including the Lilac fire in Riverside county and the Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The Thomas fire, which began on December 4 and burned more than 280,000 acres over more than a month, was the largest wildfire in recorded California history. Wind and mudslides also have taken a serious toll on the region. However, the impact on California avocados was relatively limited.
“Many California avocado growers experienced loss, both personal and professional, and our hearts go out to them. Across the industry, though, only about 5 percent of the crop was damaged,” said Bellamore.
To support the 2018 crop, the California Avocado Commission will continue its Made of California marketing campaign with new creative executions. Customized marketing plans for targeted customers will be a focus, and CAC has a full slate of innovative programs in development.
About the California Avocado Commission
Created in 1978, the California Avocado Commission strives to enhance the premium positioning of California avocados through advertising, promotion and public relations, and engages in related industry activities. California avocados are commercially cultivated with uncompromising dedication to quality and freshness, by more than 2,000 growers in the Golden State. The California Avocado Commission serves as the official information source for California avocados and the California avocado industry.
There will be fewer tangerine and mandarin shipments from the top producing states this season…A look is taken at truck demand, rates and fuel costs…Plus, here is a glimpse at the top 10 potato shipping states.
California is expected to ship 21 million boxes of tangerines and mandarins this season, down from 23.9 million in 2016-17.
Florida is projected to have 860,000 boxes, down from 1.62 million last season, with the dramatic decrease due to the adverse affects of Hurricane Irma.
The Wonderful Co. of Los Angeles and Sun Pacific of Pasadena, CA are two of the larger shippers of the citrus.
Truck Demand and Rates
While demand for refrigerated equipment and qualified drivers has been getting a lot of attention, diesel fuel price are nearly a three-year high, adding the costs of trucking operations. According to DAT Trendlines diesel fuel nationally average $3.02 per gallon in December 2017, which was 16 percent more than in December 2016.
The Allen Lund Company of LaCanada, CA, like many other companies, have noticed the economy really taking off. The transportation firm is seeing 280,000 truck loads a year, a 17 percent increase from the previous year.
Another sign things are looking up for the U.S. economy is the increase in Class 8 truck sales. Over 300,000 Class 8 tractors were sold in 2017. When those trucks are delivered throughout the coming year, trucking capacity will be better.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported analysts are expecting long-term contract rates which shippers negotiate with carriers should increase between 5 percent and 8 percent this year.
Top 10 Fall Potato Producers for 2017
Total U.S. fall potato crop 399,840,000 cwt. Total U.S. Crop 441,310,000 cwt.
| RANK | State | Production (hundredweight) | Percent of Total
U.S. Fall Crop |
| 1 | Idaho | 131,330,000 | 32.8% |
| 2 | Washington | 99,000,000 | 24.8% |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 29,150,000 | 7.3% |
| 4 | North Dakota | 25,160,000 | 6.3% |
| 5 | Colorado | 21,530,000 | 5.4% |
| 6 | Oregon | 21,400,000 | 5.4% |
| 7 | Minnesota | 18,430,000 | 4.6% |
| 8 | Michigan | 18,000,000 | 4.5% |
| 9 | Maine | 15,040,000 | 3.8% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 9,070,000 | 2.3% |
| All others | 11,750,000 | 2.9% |
Source: USDA-NASS
2017 Minnesota Crop Production Report
Fall potato production in Minnesota was 18.4 million hundredweight (cwt.) according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. That is a 9.7 percent increase over 2016. Planted acres at 46,000 was up 3,000 and harvested acres were up 3,500.
The coming months should be good for hauling imported Chilean grapes arriving at U.S. ports on both coasts….Meanwhile, a number of specialty produce items are popular for the Chinese New Year celebrated in February.
Imported Chilean grapes are expected to be arriving at U.S. ports with more volume than in recent years, although arrivals this winter started about a week or two later than a year ago, when arrivals were earlier than normal.
Imports to North America from Chile continues to increase accounting for a larger share of the volume. About 39,000 tons had been shipped this season from Chile through early January, down from 79,000 at the same time last year. But as mentioned, the grapes matured later this season in Chile.
Observers believe the overall grape volume will exceed 90-million cartons, which would be slightly more than average. Arrivals are now coming in good volume, with a steady flow of produce continuing through April. For several years, North American imports have accounted for about 45 percent of the Chilean grapes, that number has been approach 50 percent more recently.
Chinese New Year items
Specialty produce items popular for Chinese New Year promotions should be in good supply for the weeks surrounding the February 16 holiday. The holiday festival itself lasts for two weeks celebrating the Year of the Dog.
Among the items that will be shipped are ginger, bok choy, gai lan and other Asian vegetables, as well as citrus items such as pummelo, kumquats and Buddha’s hand, dragonfruit and young coconut, as well as Snow peas and snap peas. Other items sometimes connected to the holiday are Turmeric, Chinese long beans, daikon, starfruit, jackfruit, yu choy and lokam oranges.
World Variety Produce of Los Angeles markets under the Melissa’s brand and is one of the largest shippers of specialty produce items in the U.S. The company is sourcing leafy greens from California, other vegetables from Mexico and fruit from tropical areas.
Thomas Fresh of Calgary, Alberta is a produce repacker who handles produce specialty an other fresh items.
(Photo was taken by Bill Martin during an 11-day trip Chile in January 1992.)
During the next couple of months Mexican asparagus will be crossing the border at someplace besides Nogales….Also, 2017 closed out the year with some record setting trucking freight rates in the U.S.
Asparagus out of the Mexico’s Caborca region in northern Sonora, Mexico will be crossing the U.S. during February and March. Volume is expected to increase 15 percent over last year. Quality is reported to be good.
“The weather in the Caborca region has been excellent and pending continued good weather, we anticipate promotable quantities in February and March in a full range of sizes,” said Katiana Valdes of Crystal Valley Foods of Miami in a news release. The company is a grower/shipper and importer. Mexican asparagus is imported as product from Peru comes to a seasonal low. The Mexcian “grass” crosses the border into the U.S. through San Luis, AZ, located just south of Yuma.
Yuma vegetables – grossing about $8700 to New York City.
Record December Freight Rates are Reported
According to a press release by DAT, a load board, freight rate and trucking trends company, the average reefer rate for December was $2.46 per mile, 3 cents higher than the November average and another all-time high. Spot truckload van rates averaged $2.11 per mile nationally, up 4 cents compared to November and the highest monthly average since DAT started tracking freight rates in 2010.
Truckload freight availability in December was cushioned by retail shipments, demand for fresh and frozen foods, and e-commerce fulfillment. Available truckload freight was 25 percent higher than in December 2016.
However, overall freight volume in December fell 3 percent compared to a strong November, according to the release. Some of the factors in that decline were inclement weather in parts of the U.S and the December 18th electronic logging device mandate. That combination of strains on equipment and drivers meant that shippers and freight brokers paid premiums for available trucks.