Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Washington and Oregon pear shipments will be down only slightly when the new season arrives….Meanwhile Imported New Zealand apples are arriving at American ports.
2017 pear shipments from Washington and Oregon should total 17.6 million boxes, 2 percent less than in 2016 and 10 percent less than the five-year average, according to the first industry estimate for the season.
The forecast was compiled at the June 1 annual Pear Bureau Northwest meeting.
“Growers are reporting an excellent quality of pear crop on the trees, albeit a bit shorter crop than last season,” Kevin Moffitt, president and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest, said in a news release. “At nearly 18 million boxes, we expect a high-quality crop in promotable numbers.”
Starkrimson pears are expected in early August with bartlett harvest expected in late August. Meanwhile, anjou, bosc and comice will be harvested from September through early October.
Concorde, forelle, and seckel will be picked in September and October.
By variety, the industry estimates are:
- 8.9 million boxes of green anjous, about 51 percent of total Northwest fresh pear crop and up 7 percent from 2016;
- 4.4 million boxes of bartletts (25 percent of the total crop), down 4 percent from 2016 and 2 percent off the five-year average;
- 2.2 million boxes of boscs (13 percent of the total crop).
- 1.1 million boxes of red anjous (6 percent of the crop), 10 percent higher than 2016.
The organic pear estimate for 2017 is pegged at 1.12 million standard boxes, which is 6.4 percent of the total Northwest crop. That’s 5.5 percent lower than a year ago but 10.5 percent above the five-year average.
The organic green anjou crop is estimated at 470,000 boxes, with organic bartletts at 377,800 boxes and organic bosc at 123,200 boxes.
Yakima Valley apples and pears – grossing about $5000 to Philly.
New Zealand Apple Imports
New Zealand’s apple season is well underway, and high-quality fruit is arriving at U.S. ports. The 22 million carton crop is now estimated at 19.5 million. Some of the major importers in North American are Oppenheimer, Vancouver, BC; and Giumarra Fruit Co. Inc., Los Angeles.
Despite a crazy growing season due to weather factors, Ohio vegetable shipments started a few weeks ago. If anything, some replantings of crops could mean heavier than normal loadings later in the season.
Green bean shipments will start anytime now. Sweet corn loading get underway in mid-July and like green beans, will run into October. Cabbage kicked off about a week ago and will run into November. Potato diggings will start in August and ship from storage into March.
A number of items got underway between mid-May and mid-June, so you can expect good volumes of radishes, cilantro, variety lettuce, collard, turnip, mustard, kale, green onions and parsley continuing through September.
Coming on soon in July will be beets, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers, lasting through September. August will bring peak volumes of sweet corn, peppers, celery, carrots and fall squash. Also, shipments have started with leafy vegetables, root crops and summer squashes tomatoes and eggplant, following in late July. All of these items should be available into mid-October.
Harvest of soft squash begins in late June, and bell and hot peppers, eggplant and cucumbers will follow in early July, with hard squash in late August. Hard squash and pumpkin shipments, as well as gourds wrap up Ohio fresh vegetable shipments starting in late August.
Some of the major Ohio vegetable shippers include Buurma Farms, Inc.; Wiers Farms Inc.; and Holthouse Farms, all based at Willard, OH. There also is Onion Boy, Shelby, OH (onions that start in late July}, as well as Doug Walcher Farms of Northfield and Micheal Farms of Urbana.
The leading agricultural products in Ohio are soybeans, grain, corn, and greenhouse and nursery, which account for over one-half of Ohio’s total agricultural production. Wheat and hay are also important. But vegetables also play an important role with shipments covering nearly half of the United States and parts of Canada.
Some Western cherry shipments are finished, but the Northwest cherry crop is coming on….Meanwhile, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware is underway with vegetables.
California cherry shipments are ending up at nearly 9 million, 18-pound boxes, which would exceed the 8.7 million-box-record loadings in 2008. It may very well be California’s best and largest sweet cherry season ever as Washington state’s harvest gets underway. Hollister, CA finished about a week ago.
Last year California finished with 5.1 million boxes after losing about 3 million boxes to rain.
California’s cherry industry has had many disappointments in recent years due to rain or heat. Inadequate winter chill led to poor fruit set in 2014 and a crop of just 2.7 million boxes. And 2005 and 2006 were at 3 million boxes or less.
California shipments averaged 250,000 boxes per day between May 5 and June 4, with a peak of 377,000 boxes on May 23.
About 70 percent of California’s crop was shipped to all regions of the U.S. and 9.4 percent to Canada, 9 percent to South Korea and the balance to Japan, China, Hong Kong and a few others.
Pacific Northwest Cherry Shipments
Pacific Northwest cherry shipments are forecast at 22.7 million boxes with Washington cherry shipments accounting 81 percent of it. The Northwest counts by 22-pound boxes and California by 18-pound boxes.
The Washington harvest began with the Chelan variety at Doebler Orchard near Mattawa on June 6.
It was a limited run for the first cherries, but packing cranked up about June 15 as more orchards started picking.
Yakima Valley apple and pear shipments – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
Eastern Shore Vegetable Shipments
All packing sheds on the Eastern Shore were running as of yesterday.
Fresh potato shipments are particularly good for Canada this season with reds, russets and yellows being shipped from areas of the Eastern Shore. However, the majority of potatoes are shipped throughout the Northeast when those areas are not producing.
The largest russet grower on the Eastern Shore is Yaros Farms in Lower Northampton County. Dublin Farms in Horntown is one of Virginia’s biggest potato operations. It ships 12 to 15 loads daily from late June through mid-August.
When the southern states stop shipping, loadings are redirected there. Depending on the volume from Canadian potatoes from year to year, the Eastern Shore also distributes into in Canada.
There typically is between 3,000 and 4,000 acres of potatoes grown on the Eastern Shore.
C&E Farms in Cheriton, VA, is one of the largest green bean operations in the nation. C&E Farms also ships green beans from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida. The company has packing facilities in Cheriton and in Parrish, FL.
Virginia’s three major tomato operations, Lipman Family Farms, Pacific Tomato Growers and Del Monte, will be shipping about equal volumes of round, roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes from late June through September.
Summer valencia and other California citrus shipments are underway….Meanwhile, there is less acreage and growers of potatoes in Canada, but volume is maintained.
Navel orange shipments from California are finishing early as valencia orange loadings as will as lemons and other citrus are gearing up.
California primarily ships valencia oranges during the summer months with this season’s crop being moderate size, coming off of about 70,000 acres.
California navel orange shipments will end this month instead of their normal conclusion around the Fourth of July. In fact, navel loadings destined for the East Coast concluded with the beginning of June. California growers shipped 82 million cartons of navels this season, as compared to 94 million cartons in 2016.
Valencias are often referred to as the ‘summer orange’ since peak supplies are available June through September. Higher than usual valencia shipments are seen since navels are ending early.
Fewer California lemon shipments are seen this season. However, more imported lemons are seen coming from Chile, Argentina and South Africa for deliveries throughout North America.
Canadian Potato Shipments
Prince Edward Island continues to reduce its potato acreage, but remains the largest shipper of spuds in the country, according to Statistics Canada’s census of agriculture.
Island farmers planted 83,326 acres in 2016, down from 386,561 acres in 2011, but that was still close to a quarter of all the potato land in Canada. That number has dropped off in recent decades. Until 2005, the province was planting more than 98,842 acres a year.
The second biggest grower was Manitoba, at 67,672 acres.
While the number of acres grown was down just 3.7 per cent, the number of farms reporting was down significantly. In 2011, 300 farms reported potato fields and in 2016 that was down to 247.
That means the average potato farm is getting a lot bigger. In 2011 the average P.E.I. potato farmer put in 289 acres. In 2016 that was up to 338 acres.
Canadian Fruit Shipments
While shipments are not anything near Canadian potatoe shipments, fruit shipments are becoming a larger part of Island agriculture, with blueberry shipments leading the pack.
Acreage of fruit, berries and nuts were up 12 per cent between the two censuses, amounting to 14,388 acres. The huge majority of that, 96.5 per cent of it, was blueberries.
Apples also saw a significant increase, from 126 to 153 acres.
Overall, the number of farms on the Island fell 9.5 per cent, to 1,353.
June 1st the amount of fresh granny smiths remaining in storage stood at 2.12 million cartons, down a whopping 54 percent from the same time last year and 45 percent from two years ago. Meanwhile, other U.S. fresh market apples being held in storage on June 1st were up 12 percent over year-ago levels and 5 percent greater than the five-year average, according to the last monthly report from the U.S. Apple Association this season.
The granny smith volume in the U.S. was short from the start of the crop year, but the gap compared with last year was not as far. The first storage report of the season from U.S. Apple, issued on November 1st, showed there were 13.78 million cartons of granny smiths to be hauled, off 12 percent from the 2015 November 1 figure.
The apple industry had shipped about 85 percent of the granny crop by early June, compared with 73 percent shipped at the same time last year.
New crop granny smith is expected to get underway around October 1st.
California granny smith loadings will begin by mid- to late August. In the 2015-16 season, California shipped about 443,000 cartons of granny smith apple, about 25 pecent of the state’s total fresh apple shipments.
Chilean packers are pretty much finishing up granny smith apples now, with sporadic controlled atmosphere rooms expected to open as late as July or early August. Some Chilean granny smith shipments have experienced bruising and bitter pit issues this year.
Yakima Valley, WA apple and pear shipments – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
More Overall Apples in Storage
Total fresh U.S. apples remaining in storage as of June 1st was 25.4 million cartons, 12 percent above the same time a year ago but 15 percent lower than two years ago. The U.S. Apple Association plans to release the 2017-18 crop estimate August 25th, and the first storage report for that crop will be issued in early November.
Washington state apples accounted for 24.03 million cartons (95 percent) of total U.S. fresh apple holdings on June 1st.
Wanting to spend the Fourth of July with family and friends instead of on the road? Here are some of the better opportunities for produce shipments leading up to the celebration of our nation’s 241st celebration of independence.
Avocado Shipments
Avocado loadings will be good, but certainly not great. When you take Mexico pretty out of the mix, because this time of year shipments are at a seasonal low, you are pretty much left with Southern California, as well as imports from Peru arriving at various ports. Still there will be 40 to 45 million pounds of avocado across the U.S. being shipped weekly. We’ll also mention Southern Florida avocado shipments. Florida’s biggest avocado shipper, Brooks Tropical of Homestead will be having its heaviest loadings in two years.
Blueberry Shipments
New Jersey blueberries will be in peak season, mostly from the Southern part of the state.
If you loaded British Columbia blueberries last season in time for Fourth of July activities that won’t happen this year. BC blues are a month later, which is more normal, and shipments won’t get underway until the first week of July. The region should ship about 170 million pounds this season, lasting into mid September.
Strawberry Shipments
On the West Coast, Mother Nature has been kind to strawberries from the Watsonville area. Heavy shipments are now occurring and will remain that way through mid July. There also will be much lighter loadings of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, which will start hitting stride around the Fourth of July.
Salinas Valley berries and vegetables – grossing abut $7900 to New York City.
Watermelon Shipments
Early season watermelons from Texas have probably been the best quality in a few years and that hopefully will continue with maturing fruit coming on in Oklahoma…..Meanwhile, Northern Florida and Georgia are looking to have a decent amount of shipments, although volume has been heavier in some other years.
Central Florida watermelons – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Vegetable Shipments
Decent supplies of vegetables are coming out of Southern Georgia. For example, the Moultrie area is loading items ranging from sweet corn to squash, cabbage and green beans……North Carolina vegetable shipments are ranging from bell peppers, hot peppers and eggplant….Moving to California, the Gilroy area has some of the state’s largest shipments of sweet corn…..The roller coast ride for Salinas Valley head lettuce has continued since last spring. Shipments should be a little more steady now, with volume better than last year time, but still not heavy.
Southern Georgia vegetable shipments – grossing about $2000 to New York City.
CarbAmericas is importing good volumes of Mexican asparagus….Meanwhile, onion shipments from New Mexico are much heavier that last year as the season continues full bore.
by CarbAmericas
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – CarbAmericas, the premier importer of fresh fruits and vegetables, transitioned into asparagus from Central Mexico in early June week and will continue shipping from the region through early September.
This season’s shipments will originate in the Irapuato-based CarGoldMex facility which opened in November 2016. CarGoldMex, a vertically integrated grower, shipper and packer of Mexican fruits and vegetables, has been a partner of CarbAmericas for four years.
“We are very excited about our state-of-the-art facility in Irapuato and look forward to utilizing our capabilities there to better serve our customers,” said Jeff Friedman, president of CarbAmericas. “We expect to grow and ship around half a million cases this season through our Central Mexico program.”
CarbAmericas supplies Central Mexican asparagus packed in 11 and 28 lbs. and tips. Cypress Creek branded custom packs also available upon request. Shipments will come into the US via McAllen, Texas.
About CarbAmericas
CarbAmericas was established in 1993 and is a vertically integrated, year-round supplier and importer of fruits and vegetables. Specializing in asparagus, broccoli, mangos, snow and sugar snap peas, CarbAmericas services both retail and foodservice in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. With team members working alongside their growers across the Americas, CarbAmericas truly stands behind its commitment to reliably execute for their growers and customers while exuding passion and integrity.
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New Mexico Onion Shipments
New Mexico onion shipments got underway the second week of May, but did not hit good volume until the start of June. Shipments are expected to exceed last season by 35 percent. One shipper, Shiloh Produce of Hatch, NM is now shipping about 50 loads daily and will load 2,000 trucks through August when the season ends.
Imported Chilean clementines are arriving at U.S. ports…Meanwhile new onion packinghouses are announced for onions in the Western U.S.
Thanks to the end of lengthy drought, the first Chilean clementines of the season have arrived at North American ports a couple of weeks earlier than last year. Improved growing conditions have led to better fruit quality.
The clementines departed from the port of Valparaiso in mid-April and arrived in the U.S. in early May.
About 12,260 boxes were in the first shipment, nearly 90 percent of which ended up on the East Coast. Total imported volume will be slightly less than 2016, with about 42,000 tons exported between April and July.
In 2016, 99 percent of all Chilean clementines were shipped to North America, and that is once again expected to be the case this year. As clementine shipments begin winding down in July, mandarin volume will pick up, with shipments continuing into October.
Mandarin volume should increase 26 percent, while clementine volume likely will be down about two percent.
Sun Pacific Shippers Inc., of Pasadena, CA markets the Cuties brand and started Chilean mandarins shipments to customers this week.
The clemenule variety will be available into August, and the w. murcott and tango varieties will be available mid-August through the beginning of the California season in October.
Seald Sweet LLC, Vero Beach, FL received its first clementines from Chile in mid-May,
New Packinghouses
Rio Valley Onion of Hatch, NM has a new onion packinghouse, while Golden West Produce of Parma, ID will have a new packinghouse and three new storage facilities before the end of the summer.
The Hatch facility construction was finished in April, when packing got underway in late May. Golden West began construction on its new buildings in March. Those should be completed in mid-August, and initial production is planned for the last week of August.
Golden West, previously based in Nyssa, Ore., lost six buildings in January in back-to-back heavy snows that collapsed many onion facilities in the region.
The company’s new onion packinghouse will be 65,000 square feet, and at full capacity be able to produce 3,000-3,500 50-pound packages per hour.
Rio Valley Onion, a partnership between Lack Farms and Kit Carson Farms, both based in Hatch, will have a 75,000-square foot packing facility.
Besides packing the onion acreage of Lack Farms and Kit Carson Farms, Rio Valley Onion will also pack product from other growers in New Mexico and Mexico.
Excellent shipping seasons are shaping up on both U.S. Coasts with California melons and with South Florida avocados.
California melon shipments from the San Joaquin Valley are on track for a good shipping season as initial loadings have started in recent days.
While melons are still coming out of the Yuma area, they will be winding down the last week of June as California is cranking up. For example, Westside Produce of Firebaugh, CA will start loading melons from Huron in late June and will be soon shipping cantaloupe and honeydew from both Huron and Firebaugh. This season is beginning later due to rain soaked fields delaying plantings. Although no pest or disease problems due to the wet planting season have been detected, caution is recommended when your truck is being loaded. So watch for quality issues.
Five Crowns Marketing of Brawly, CA begins shipping watermelons and mini watermelons in Mendota and Tracy by the end of June.
Cantaloupes are targeted to start July 1 in Firebaugh and mid-July in Mendota and Patterson, followed by varietal melons and honeydews about 10 days after cantaloupes start.
Good supplies and steady shipments are expected throughout the summer.
Yuma melons – grossing about $5900 to Atlanta.
Florida Avocado Shipments
Florida avocado shipments are looking to be the best in two years.
Brooks Tropicals of Homestead, FL is the state’s largest avocado grower and expects volume will be 20 percent above a year ago. Shipments to markets will be particularly directed at receivers on the East Coast. California ships 80 to 90 percent of the nation’s domestic avocados, so there is a big freight advantage for Florida’s green-skinned varieties.
While the South Florida harvest started in May, early loadings were directly primarily to local markets. However, out of state shipments pick up significantly in June. There also is a trend for more Florida avocado shipments being delivered west of the Mississippi and into Canada.
Heaviest volume is expected after the Fourth of July, with shipments continuing through March.
Florida only shipped about 800,000 bushels during last year’s short season, but observers are hoping to ship nearly 900,000 bushels this year.
South Florida tomatoes, vegetables, melons and avocados – grossing about $3600 to Boston.
Carolina vegetable shipments are underway….Over 3,000 miles away in British Columbia, the region’s largest cherry shipper is looking to have record loadings.
While North and South Carolina had their share of weather issues early in the year, it appears summer and fall vegetables shipments should be fairly normal. While crops such as peaches, blueberries and spring vegetables took a big hit, there’s much more optimism for the coming months.
Good shipments are seen for peppers, squash, cucumbers, greens, including cabbage and collards, as well as eggplant, okra, tomatoes, onions, kale and lettuce, and sweet potatoes.
Many of the vegetable shipments are just getting underway. Weather issues forced delays on several types of summer vegetables, such as squash and sweet corn. However, bell peppers, potatoes appear to be on schedule to run from about June 6-10 to the end of July.
While a good percent of North Carolina vegetables are shipped locally and regionally, some end up as away as in Canadian markets and as far south as Florida.
Canadian Cherry Shipments
Cooler weather this spring has resulted in a later start to the season for all commodities, which means cherry shipments will not begin until the latter part of June. BC Tree Fruits Cooperative of Kelowna, B.C. is forecasting it will have a record 12 million pounds of cherries for the upcoming season. Last year’s take was 8 million pounds, which weather had reduced from a 12 million-pound forecast.
BC Tree Fruits also said it is expecting “very good” volumes of peaches, nectarines, prunes, plums and grapes, with volumes similar to last year.
“With weather serving up a cooler spring this year, it has enabled our grower base to be prepared for a delicious and high quality crop of cherries at more traditional timing,” BC Tree Fruits Marketing Manager Chris Pollock said in a news release. “Cherries and the rest of our summer fruits went through the bloom period exceptionally well and our growers are excited for a great crop this year with harvest starting end of June for cherries in the south, with the fruit hitting retail shelves very soon after.”
The primary market for BC Tree Fruits summer fruits is Western Canada, although the co-op also continues to export increased volumes of cherries to the U.S. and other markets.