Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Florida is pretty dead for produce shipments this time of year, but a faint “pulse” will be found with new season citrus. Nogales is another dead spot, but here’s a preview of when it is expected to come to life. Finally, Mexican avocado loads through South Texas are coming back, joining a number of other produce items.
Florida’s Indian River citrus harvest has just started, making it 10 days to two weeks later than normal due to excessive rains, that were compounded by the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. Matthew dumped up to seven inches of rain on the region, but the brunt of the storm was further north. While Vero Beach sustained 70 mph-80 mph winds, wind speeds hit 50 mph-60 mph in the groves. In Central Florida, harvesting started about a week earlier than Indian River. Florida citrus really dodged a bullet and in the weeks ahead normal shipments are seen.
Nogales Produce Shipments
This is one of the slowest times of the year for Mexican produce crossing into Nogales, AZ for distribution to U.S. and Canadian markets. The next big volumes will occur from January through March. A second, but smaller surge typically takes place from mid-April through June. Tomatoes have historically led produce shipments through Nogales from Mexico, but watermelon volume has increased to the point it could over take tomatoes. Other big volume items range from squash to peppers and many other winter vegetables. A significant factor in the growth and popularity of Mexican grown produce is due to many California farming operations investing and marketing produce from south of the border. They see lower production and labor costs with fewer stifling rules and regulations, which continue to come with doing business in California….Kind of sounds like trucking in California, doesn’t it.
Mexican Avocado Shipments
A projected 40 million pounds of avocados were expected to be shipped to the U.S. for the week ending October 21st. Mexican volume, entering the U.S. primarily through South Texas, had fallen sharply to 13.7 million the week of Oct. 10 – 14.
There had been a strike by Mexican workers with the primary issue revolving around sales negotiations between the growers and packers. The dispute apparently has been resolved.
Mexican tropical fruit, tomatoes and vegetable shipments through South Texas – grossing about $2100 to Chicago.
Imported produce is relatively light, but is increasing as we advance further into fall. Full tilt will come during the winter months and continue until the North American spring starts coming into view. The vast majority of arrivals will be by boat at various U.S. ports.
Among the heaviest volumes right now are Mexican limes and lemons, crossing the border primarily through South Texas. Both are increasing in volume with limes averaging about 500 truck loads weekly, and lemons about half this amount. Mexican blueberries also are very light, but will be increasing in volume crossing the border in both Texas and Nogales. There’s also light volume of Peruvian blueberries coming by boat.
There is increasing arrivals of South African Valencia oranges at U.S. ports. Mexican Valencias will be very light until mid October through South Texas….Chile is a major supplier of winter fruit to the U.S., but that will mostly be after the first of the year. However, nearly 400 truck load equivalents of Chilean tangerines are currently arriving weekly…..Mexican avocados through Texas would normally be heavier now, but there is a strike underway by Mexican growers.
Port of Oakland
TraPac LLC plans to lease an additional 57 acres and two vessel berths nearly double its marine terminal size on the Outer Harbor at the Port of Oakland.
TraPac is the second-largest terminal operator in Oakland and a proposed 14-year lease agreement with the port will become final if approved at an October 27 board meeting.
“This is a significant step forward for TraPac and the port,” port maritime director John Driscoll said in a news release. “TraPac gets room to expand its thriving business and the port gets to revitalize valuable property with a highly respected tenant.”
TraPac, based in Wilmington, CA, handles 20 percent of the containerized cargo moving through the Port of Oakland. Under the new agreement, it would have four berths and 123 acres. Much of the land would be used for cargo handling.
TraPac began Oakland operations in 1991 and also manages other terminals in Los Angeles and Jacksonville, FL
The company plans to construct a new gate to give harbor truckers better access to the terminal.
Western produce shipments out of California, Washington and Arizona are making their typical fall season moves.
We are about a month into the fall produce shipping season and it is very much still in a transitional period for fresh fruit and vegetable shipments. Some items are increasing in volume, others are in a seasonal decrease, yet we have some products that are a few weeks, if not months away from changes – meanwhile remaining in a fairly steady amount of shipments from week to week.
California Produce Shipments
Table grape shipments out of the San Joaquin Valley in recent years have been one of the more steady, reliable items for hauling – with generally good quality that certainly reduces issues with claims or deductions in freight paid. This situation should continue for another six to eight weeks before a seasonal decline takes place making way for imported grapes led by Chile. California’s late season grape volume is averaging over 1900 truck loads per week…..The Central Joaquin Valley also is having consistent loadings with mature green and romas tomatoes – around 650 loads weekly. A little further south in Kern County, California carrots are averaging about 375 truck load equivalents per week.
It has been a rather ho-hum shipping season for vegetables out of the Salinas Valley. Still, loadings have been pretty consistent lately and should remain so for a few more weeks before a seasonal decline. Among the larger volume items are head lettuce, romaine, celery, broccoli and cauliflower. These five items combined are averaging over 3700 truck loads per week.
California grapes – grossing about $6200 to New York City.
Washington Apple Shipments
Apple loadings out of the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys have yet to hit stride in the new season, but are increasing on a weekly basis. This week about 500 truck load equivalents should be moved. Pear shipments from the same area also are increasing.
Washington apples and pears – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Arizona Produce Shipments
As the Westside district in the San Joaquin Valley comes to a conclusion for melon shipments led by cantaloupe and honeydew, the fall transition to central and western Arizona is underway. Arizona cantaloupe volume is on the rise, and honeydew will follow in a couple of weeks.
Fewer total U.S. citrus shipments are seen this season from the leading states of Florida, California and Texas.
Florida’s first forecast for citrus shipments reveals a continued decline across all varieties with grapefruit and navel oranges expected to be among the lowest levels in history. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on October 12th forecast Florida to ship 81 million equivalent cartons of oranges, grapefruit and specialty fruit or tangerines, down from 94.1 million boxes last season.
The Sunshine state is expected to move 70 million 90-pound cartons of oranges with navel oranges amounting 1 million cartons. Navels are predicted to be three percent lower than last season and the lowest since the 1979-80 season when the USDA began separate navel forecasts.
Regarding grapefruit, Florida should ship 9.6 million 85-pound cartons, down 11 percent from the 2015-16 season and the lowest level in 50 years. As for tangerines, early season fallglos, midseason sunbursts and later season honeys are forecast to decline as well.
The USDA report forecast 7.5 million boxes of red grapefruit and 2.1 million boxes of white grapefruit.
California Citrus Shipments
California orange loadings are forecast to be down from 54.2 million 80-pound cartons last season to 50.5 million cartons this season. The state’s grapefruit shipments are forecast to increase from 3.8 million 80-pound cartons last season to 4 million cartons for 2016-17.
Texas Citrus Shipments
Texas orange shipments are seen falling from 1.7 million 85-pound cartons in 2015-16 to 1.4 million cartons this year. With grapefruit, Texas shipments are forecast to decline from last season’s 4.8 million 80-pound cartons to 4.7 million cartons this season.
25 years ago or so , there were 30 shippers and packers of Texas grapefruit and oranges operating the Rio Grande Valley and shipment citrus across the U.S. as well as exporting. Today, there are only three shippers.
Worldwide citrus grower are concerned about citrus greening, the primary reason for the decline in Florida citrus volume. In Texas,, the crops have not been affected by the disease. However, observers point out Florida didn’t feel the decline [in volume and tree health] until the sixth year after greening was discovered. Texas is now entering its sixth since green was discovered in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A lot of folks are holding their breath and taking a wait and see attitude.
Produce trucking sweet potato loads could be affected significantly for the 2016-17 shipping season due to damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. Loading opportunities this fall for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina will be impacted much less, although volume from these three states is limited this time of year.
Southeast produce growers are estimating damage from Hurricane Matthew which hugged coastal Florida and Georgia before slamming into South Carolina and North Carolina, where it flooded fields and caused evacuations
North Carolina Sweet Potato Shipments
Around 40 to 45 percent of the sweet potato harvest had been dug when the storm dumped up to 18 inches of rain October 6 – 9 during the middle of the North Carolina harvest.
There is little doubt North Carolina sweet potato shipments were hit pretty hard, and significant losses will occur, but the bottom line is it will take days, if not week to assess the damage. Earlier this week many roads remained impassible with a lot of farmland remaining underwater as river levels were still rising in some areas.
Besides sweet potatoes, the Tar Heel state also grows and ships cabbage, greens and a variety of fall vegetables including bell peppers, cucumbers and squash.
South Carolina Vegetable Shipments
The South Carolina received 8-18 inches of rain and growers and state officials are assessing damages. However, South Carolina isn’t a significant player in vegetable shipments this time of the year, although it does have leafy greens are grown in small acreage in the flooded areas east of Columbia. There also are crops grown in sandy soils of the interior growing regions that should fair okay.
South Carolina’s peach shipments were completed in September, but there are cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and watermelons grown closer to the Atlantic Coast. There are expected to have damage.
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
Most of Georgia’s southern vegetables are grown in the south-central part of the state, but are believe to have escaped serious damage. As for the 2017 Vidalia onion crop that starting shipping in April, the area had up to six inches of rain resulting in minor damage to Vidalia onion seed beds, which are planted for the spring harvest.
Some Vidalia onion shippers lost power for about 10 hours. The electricity runs coolers for their imported Peruvian onions but no damage was reported.
Florida Produce Shipments
Little or no damage was reported with Florida vegetables or citrus.
Fall is settling in to many parts of the U.S. and that is good for storage potato and onion shipments. Here’s a look at the most active shipping areas.
Storage onions from around the country are being shipped, although the heaviest volume is coming from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Leading the nation in dry onion shipments is Washington state’s Columbia Basin. It is averaging about 875 truck loads per week. Coming in a close second are onion shipments out of western Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon, amount to a little over 800 loads weekly. From here volume is significantly less from other areas.
Ranking third are sweet onion imports from Peru. An equivalent of nearly 150 truck loads are arriving weekly by boat. However, keep in mind these arrivals are scattered among a few different ports along the East Coast. Placing fourth in volume are storage onions from upstate New York led by Orange County, although some volume is scattered from the central and western portions of the state. Use some caution as some quality problems are being reported.
Finally, there is some very light volume coming out of the Bakersfield are of Southern California.
Columbia Basin potatoes and onions – grossing $3500 to Chicago.
Potato Shipments
Potato shipments, mostly from the Northwestern U.S. and the central U.S. are mostly moving in steady volume now. As usual, Idaho easily leads the volume. It is moving nearly 1600 truck load equivalents weekly, mostly from the Twin Falls, Burley areas. Keep in mind, up to about 40 percent of this volume may be moving by rail. Two separate shipping areas have similar potato right now. Colorado’s San Luis Valley, as well as Washington’s Columbia Basin and the adjacent Umatillia Basin of Oregon are averaging about 675 truck loads weekly.
A number of other potato shipments are available from other parts of the nation, but in very light volume. Among those are Western Texas (Hereford) and Eastern New Mexico; Northwest Washington, the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota, Nebraska, Michigan, Southern California, Long Island, NY and the Klamath Basin of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Idaho potato shipments – grossing about $5000 to New York City.
Colorado potato loadings – grossing about $2900 to Atlanta.
Wisconsin potato shipments – grossing about $950 to Chicago.
Total domestic apple and grape shipments are expected to be up this season, while a drop in pear and peach loadings is seen. California raspberry loads also are lagging.
Apple, Pear, Peach Shipments
U.S. apple and grape shipments are expected to increase in 2016, while pear and peach volume will decline, according to a USDA report.
About 10.4 billion pounds of apples will be produced in the U.S. this season. The Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook from the USDA’s Economic Research Service reports the 2016 apple crop is on track to be 4 percent larger than last year’s crop and the fourth-largest since 2000.
California grape shipments are expected to hit 15.6 billion pounds in 2016, up 2 percent from 2015. The increase comes despite persistent drought in California, the top producing state.
The number of pear shipments in the U.S. this season, however, is predicted to fall 5 percent, with about 1.56 billion pounds being shipped. That would be the lowest U.S. total in more than 20 years. The top three states for pear shipments, Washington, Oregon and California, are expected to be down between 2 and 4 percent.
U.S. peach loadings also will be down this season with a total of 1.61 billion pounds That would be 5 percent below last year, and it would be the seventh consecutive year U.S. peach volumes have declined.
Washington’s Yakima Valley apples and pears – grossing about $6200 to Boston.
California’s San Joaquin Valley table grapes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
California Raspberry Shipments
California raspberry shipments so far this season has been about 122 million pounds shipped, down from 143 million pounds. Around 4.1 million pounds of raspberries were shipped in the U.S. during the week ending October 1, off from 5.3 million pounds last year at the same time and 4.5 million pounds the previous week.
California’s Watsonville district strawberries, raspberries – grossing about $4100 to Dallas.
California’s Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $6300 to New York City.
Mexican fresh fruit and vegetable exports to the U.S. could increase by 32 percent over the next seven years.
South Texas is expected to grow at an even faster rate with the Mexican produce exports, according to a study by economists at Texas A&M University’s Center for North American Studies.
As many as 569,650 truckloads of Mexican fresh produce could be exported to the U.S. by 2023. Of that amount, Texas could claim 298,542 of those truckloads, a 41 percent increase.
During the past seven years, and imports at the Mexico – Texas border are up 41 percent, making the projected 32 percent growth rate in the next seven years quite possible.
There is a rapid growth in Mexican exports through Texas, with a lot of cold storage facilities going up near the Pharr/Hidalgo Bridge. Millions of dollars have been spent in the last few years on new cold storage facilities and most are operating a full capacity.
In fact, some observers believe the 32 percent estimated increase for Texas may be low because of the high cost of labor in the U.S. plus the costly and increasing rules and regulations not fouind in Mexico.
The A&M study also found that the growth in Mexican produce exports to the U.S. could produce 7,700 jobs in Texas and contribute $815 million to the state’s economy.
The Texas International Produce Association changed to its current name several years ago to reflect the importance of imports to Texas-based produce companies. The result has certainly been a positive economic impact in the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas. A number of South Texas growers are some of the largest importers of Mexican grown produce.
This allows many Texas produce shippers keep their operations running the year around with greater volume than relying exclusively on Texas-grown fruits and vegetables.
Texas is expected to account for 52.4 percent of all U.S. produce imports from Mexico by 2023. In 2015, 48.6 percent of all imports came through the Lone Star State.
Mexican produce through South Texas – grossing about $1900 to Atlanta; $2000 to Chicago.
U.S. Cranberry loadings will increase a little this season, while the nation’s potato shipments final count for last season were down.
The nation’s 2016 cranberry shipments are forecast at 8.59 million barrels, up slightly from last season, according to the USDA.
Wisconsin production, the largest cranberry shipping state, is up from 4.9 million barrels in 2015 to 5.2 million barrels. Meanwhile,in Massachusetts, the second leading state, fell from 2.4 million barrels in 2015 to 2 million barrels.
At 588,000 barrels, New Jersey production is off from 595,000 barrels in 2015, while Oregon production is tabbed at 530,000 barrels, down from 562,000 barrels the previous season.
Harvesting of fresh and processed berries in Massachusetts began the third week of September and should be completed by the third week of November.
Massachusetts cranberry growers have been harvesting fresh and processed fruit from respective dry and wet bogs. In the water bogs, which account for about 85 percent of the fruit, which goes to processing, fruit is grown in dry bogs or fields. Then the fields are flooded with water to bring fruit to the surface.
The fruit is harvested with spindle-type machinery and once the berries surface at the top of the water, the free-flowing berries are vacuumed into a machine that removes leaves, litter and chaff. It is then loaded into trucks and delivered to a receiving station.
Concerning cranberries for the fresh harvest, gasoline-powered machines are used that drive over the vines and gently pull berries out of the vines and into burlap bags. The fruit is brought to the shoreline and sorted before being transported to a receiving station for cleaning and packaging.
U.S. Potato Shipments
About 441 million cwt. of potatoes were produced in the U.S. in the 2015-16 marketing season.
That’s up slightly from an estimate in January but slightly lower than production in the previous season, according to a report from the USDA’s Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Major producers included:
- Idaho, 130.4 million cwt.;
- Washington, 100.3 million cwt.;
- Wisconsin, 27.8 million cwt.;
- North Dakota, 27.6 million cwt.;
- Colorado, 22.6 million cwt.;
- Oregon, 21.8 million cwt.;
- Michigan, 17.6 million cwt.;
- Maine, 16.2 million cwt.; and
- Minnesota, 16.2 million cwt.
About 122 million cwt. of the 2015-16 total were for the fresh market.
The number of acres harvested in 2015, 1.05 million acres, was up slightly from 2014, but yields fell from 421 cwt. to 418 cwt. per acre.
Excellent loading opportunities for California grapes are continuing into the fall shipping season, while strawberries also are moving in good volume. Meanwhile, here’s an update on Georgia fall vegetable shipments.
California Grape Shipments
California grape shipments are above of those of a year ago. About 82.9 million million of grapes were loaded in the San Joaquin Valley in the week ending September 26, up from 70.7 million pounds in the same week last year. However, this was down from 88.1 million pounds the previous week.
Season-to-date, about 2.1 billion pounds of grapes had shipped in the U.S., down from 2.2 billion pounds last year at the same time.
San Joaquin Valley grapes and melons – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
California Strawberry Shipments
California strawberry volumes should continue heavy as fall loadings increase. Weekly volumes shipping in September were at record levels for that time of year, with the trade shipping over 5.5 million trays a week during the month.
During the second half of September, there were volumes from both the Salinas/Watsonville area and the Santa Maria growing district. Higher-yielding varieties were coming into production in from both areas, with being a factor behind the shipping surge. The week of September 19 some Oxnard growers were already shipping some fall strawberries.
By the first or second week of October, loadings from Oxnard should be going good, although fall acreage is down slightly from last year.
Salinas Valley vegetables and Watsonville strawberries – grossing about $6600 to New York City,
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
Late-summer growing conditions have been good for production of southern Georgia cabbage, cucumbers and greens. There will be very light loadings of cabbage in late October. However, volume will pick up significantly in early to mid-November. Good loading opportunities are seen for the holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
Cucumber shipments started in south Georgia a couple of weeks ago, with loadings expected to continue into the first half of November.
In mid-September, Georgia growers typically begin harvesting leafy greens, including kale, collard greens, turnip roots and mustard greens. and ramp up larger volume in mid-October.