Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
If you thought produce hauling was bad in January, you’ve probably not found February to be any better. But it’s that time of the year. Hang in there, March is coming and volume on many items will be picking up as we head into spring. In the meantime, here’s a national outlook for some of the better loading opportunities.
Apple Shipments
Washington state’s Yakima and Wenatchee valleys are providing the lion’s share of apple shipments, and the single biggest volume for any fruit or vegetable right now, moving around 3100 truck load equivalents per week. Michigan and New York state are loading some apples, but nothing close to Washington.
Washington apples and pears – grossing about $6200 to New York City.
Potato Shipments
As has been the case for months, one of the heaviest volume produce item is with Idaho potato shipments. Originating primarily from the Burley and Twin Falls areas, the state is averaging around 1900 truck load equivalents per week. However, keep in mind with a big crop and low f.o.b. prices, shippers are looking for the cheapest transportation available, and often that is with the railroad….Colorado’s San Luis Valley is shipping about 600 truck loads of potatoes, while Central Wisconsin is moving about half that volume.
Idaho potato shipments – grossing about $5100 to New York City.
Imported Produce
Mexican imported produce continues crossing the border near McAllen, Tx. Avocados last week amounted to around 875 truck loads and volume is expected to increase. Mexican tomatoes are around 500 truck loads per week. There’s many other items in much smaller volume ranging from limes to watermelon crossing the South Texas border.
Imported cantaloupes are in good volume primarily from Guatemala and Honduras arriving mostly at Southern Florida ports and ports in Southern California…..Peruvian grape arrivals are pretty much finished. Problems with Chilean grape quality are supposed to be improving now, but still keep an eye on what’s being loaded. But Chile’s the only game in town now with grapes, with most arriving at Ports in the Philadelphia area.
Here’s a look at loading opportunities for two favorite St. Patrick’s Day vegetables. We also take a look at Yuma vegetable shipments, and California asparagus.
Cabbage and potato volume should be very good for shipments leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, which is March 17th.
South Florida cabbage shipments have started and will be in good volume heading into March. Shipments will continue through May.
Potato Shipments
There will be plenty of spuds available for the holiday with new crops of red potatoes and white potatoes from South Florida as well as late season storage red potatoes from the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota. Idaho continues to heavily ship russet potatoes, but reds and whites are an Irish favorite.
Yuma Vegetable Shipments
Winter Yuma vegetables shipments are always a roll of the dice and this season seems no different, except maybe the issues are different. Many of the same shippers out of Salinas also farm in Yuma, AZ. In Salinas they are used to dealing with mildew. The problem is rare in the desert, but has been a major problem this season, especially with head lettuce and romaine. Mildew is caused by rain, warm temperatures and humidity. The result has been a lot of fields have been disced.
The result will be lighter volume for the last month or so with Yuma vegetable shipments. There’s also growing concerns with Yuma tending to finish up a few weeks early, that Salinas may get off to a slow start this season and there could be major shipping gaps from late March, through April and perhaps into May.
Yuma vegetable shipments – grossing about $3800 to Chicago.
Asparagus Shipments
California asparagus shipments should get underway in early to mid-March, from the Stockton-Delta area. It is estimated the state has 9,000 to 10,000 acres of “grass” and volume is expected to be similar to last season. There also is good news in that water supplies have improved a lot over a year ago with reservoirs continuing to rise.
Asparagus shipments typically get a boost from the Easter observance (April 16th), which is one of the most popular times of year for the vegetable.
Last week in our report on the growing volume from Mexico with many vegetables, we noted it often comes at the expense of California. An excellent example of this is labor costs.
California’s minimum wage is headed to $15 per hour by 2023. A new law also requires agricultural workers to be paid overtime after eight hours, down from 10 hours previously. Asparagus is cut by hand and is one of the most labor intensive crops in the produce industry.
Decent volume of Mexican vegetables continue to cross the border into the U.S. at Nogales, AZ.
Good quality and ample volume is available with vegetables ranging from squash, to bell peppers and cucumbers. Heaviest volume is with bell peppers and cucumbers (each averaging about 500 truck loads per week), and squash, around 400 truck loads weekly. There are less amounts of items such as watermelon, eggplant, red, yellow and orange bell peppers and mini peppers out and beans, among others.
There has been pretty good volume a lot of perfect weather, which may result in many vegetables peaking earlier than usual and possibly resulting in an early end to shipments in early March.
Still, there is a wide range of items, including soft squash, such as zucchini, yellow and gray, and hard squash such as acorn, butternut and spaghetti as well as green beans, fresh pickles, green and colored bell peppers and eggplant, American and English cucumbers, and roma tomatoes.
There will be increasing volume of some vegetables crossing the border into Nogales in March and April with conventional and organic bell peppers, mini sweet peppers and long English cucumbers.
Of note is a number of Nogales distributors, as well as an increasing number of Mexican growers have been contracting directly with U.S. wholesalers and retailers. This is a significant change in the way Mexican vegetables are distributed from just a few years ago. Many of those Mexican growers are working closely with U.S. growers from California.
Mexican table grapes, which start increasing in volume as most Mexican vegetable items are headed to a seasonal end, will start sometime the last half of April, if not early May. Mexican grapes provided the heaviest volume for the U.S. during the spring until California’s San Joaquin Valley gets going in June.
Mexican vegetable shipments through Nogales – grossing about $4600 to New York City.
Citrus shipments from the Florida industry continues to decline, with the loading of oranges dropping another million boxes in the past month.
The USDA reports February 9th that orange growers will ship 70 million 90-pound boxes to market. The season, which peaks during the winter months, had shown some promise in November. At that time industry analysts predicted 72 million boxes.
However, in January, the forecast dipped to 71 million. That is a 14 percent decline from last season’s final Florida orange shipping report.
Valencia production estimates from January to February held even at 35 million boxes, but the prediction for early, mid-season and navel oranges dropped from 36 million to 35 million boxes.
“Today’s forecast reflects a true utilization of early, mid-season, and navel varieties. We hope for higher numbers of valencia production as we continue through the second half of the season,” executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus Shannon Shepp said in a news release.
Oranges make up about 65 percent of Florida citrus trees and fresh loadings account for about 4percent of orange shipments.
Overall production estimates of all oranges, which also includes California and Texas, dropped 1 percent, to 5.35 million tons, from January’s estimate. That is a 10 percent slump from overall shipments a year ago.
Citrus greening, weather and other issues have created challenges for Florida’s citrus production, which accounts for almost half of the total U.S. harvest.
In its February report, the USDA kept California’s orange crop estimates the same at 53 million 80-pound boxes to be shipped, with 44 million boxes of navel, early and mid-season oranges and 9 million boxes of valencias for shipping.
Florida grapefruit estimates remained steady at 9 million 85-pound boxes. California grapefruit production estimates were also the same from January, with 4.1 million 80-pound boxes.
Florida produce shipments, ranging from vegetables to melons, berries and citrus – grossing about $2500 to New York City.
Loading opportunities for produce haulers for imported Mexican fresh fruits and vegetables have been rising for the past two decades or more, and this trend is expected to continue.
The reasons range from favoritable climates (with the emphasis on the plural) south of the border, cheaper labor and growing costs, not to mention the outrageous political and regulatory climate in crazy California that is makes it ever more difficult to do business there.
For example, A.M. Farms, Stockton, CA., had grown asparagus there since the 1930s, but no longer farms the product. Dole Fresh Vegetables of Monterey, CA no longer markets asparagus from California and is concentrating its efforts with Mexican grown asparagus.
It used to be Mexican imports by U.S. businesses got underway around Thanksgiving and continued through March or maybe mid-April. Now some produce items are still crossing the border in late spring and early summer. For example, watermelon shipments are now available through most of June. Table grape, mangos and some leafy items go well into summer.
Peak loading opportunities of Mexican produce imports for the winter season, used to be January or February, but now it is closer to being March and April.
Some produce growers are moving farther south into Mexico building greenhouse operations, allowing a longer growing and shipping season. This helps them bridge the supply gap for the U.S. crops in May and June that are hitting big volume.
Just as some product from west Mexico now is imported through McAllen, TX, during the fall and winter to offer a freight advantages for the Midwest and Eastern markets, some product from Jalisco now comes through Nogales during the spring and summer to offer freight advantages to West Coast receivers.
Some U.S. tomato growers now ship from Mexico year-round by sourcing from new growing areas during what traditionally has been the off season. Sonora is a huge area for Mexican grown produce and it continues to expand. It used to be the state of Sinaloa was where the main volume originated.
Virtually all of Mexico’s grapes come from the Caborca and Hermosillo regions of Sonora, with shipments starting in April and continuing into July.
Imported Mexican melons, tomatoes and vegetables from Nogales – grossing about $2800 to Chicago.
U.S. fresh market apples remaining to be shipped are double digit over last season and 97 percent of those apples for hauling are located in three states.
U.S. fresh market apples remaining to be shipped on February 1st were 13 percent higher compared with the 2015-16 shipping season and 9 percent more than the five-year average, according to the February storage report from the U.S. Apple Association. The leading varieties remaining to be shipped are red delicious and gala.
Total fresh market apples remaining to be shipped were 85.7 million bushels, up from 76 million bushels in 2016, but lower than 95.1 million bushels two years ago.
Washington state reported holdings of 76.4 million bushels, or about 89 percent of the total national fresh holdings. Michigan apples remaining to be shipped totaled 4.1 million bushels, or about 5 percent of the remaining supplies. New York’s apple inventories were 2.9 million bushels, or 3 percent of the U.S. total fresh market apples in storage on February 1st.
By variety, the storage report showed that fresh market red delicious holdings were 28.2 million bushels, up from 21.5 million bushels last year but down from 33.8 million bushels two years ago. Gala inventories on hand totaled 16.1 million bushels, up from 12.2 million bushels a year ago and 15.95 million bushels in 2015.
Other fresh market apples remaining in storage 1 were:
- Pink Lady/cripps pink: 4.4 million bushels, up from 3.7 million bushels last year;
- Fuji: 9.3 million bushels, up from 8 million bushels a year ago;
- Golden delicious: 5.3 million bushels, compared with 6 million bushels in 2016;
- Granny smith: 8.4 million bushels, compared with 10.9 million bushels last year; and
- Honeycrisp: 3.2 million bushels, compared with 2.9 million bushels a year ago.
Yakima and Wenatchee Valley, WA apples and pears – grossing about $4500 to Dallas and $6400 to Boston.
Western Michigan apples – grossing about$900 to Chicago and $2700 to Atlanta.
There has been a small turn around in California strawberry fields following a three-year trend of declining acreage, while shipments are up significantly.
At least for this year, the trend for decreased acreage has been halted, with an estimate of a bit more than 36,000, on par with 2016 numbers, according to the California Strawberry Commission Acreage Survey for 2017.
In 2016, total strawberry shipments from California topped 196 million trays, representing about 3.4 percent gain over the previous year even with 5 percent fewer acres.
2017 has not gotten off to a very good start due to several rain storms having drenched California during the first six weeks of the season. However, it is still running ahead of 2016 though behind 2015. By mid-January, total California shipments were in the 750,000 tray range compared to half that in 2016, but 1.2 million in 2015.
However, shipments from both Mexico and Florida were well ahead of the past two years. In mid-January, Florida strawberry shipments loaded almost 3 million trays for shippin while Mexico topped 3.5 million. In 2016, by mid-January those two competing points of origin had only delivered a total of 2.5 million trays last year and about 3.8 million the previous year.
Central Florida strawberries – grossing about $1200 to Atlanta.
California growers continue to be the leading production region in the world and are expected to supply more than 79 percent of the volume shipped in the United States in 2017.
The acreage report is published two times a year with acreage information voluntarily provided by California strawberry growers and shippers. The first “Acreage Survey” for the 2017 harvest year includes acres that were planted in the fall of 2016 as well as the forecast of acreage that will be planted in the summer of 2017 for fall production. For 2017, the commission reports a total of 36,141 acres, with 30,074 planted last fall and an estimated 6,067 slated for summer planting. As a point of comparison, last year, fall plantings totaled 29,318 acres with a then estimate of 6,721 for summer planting.
In 2013, the CSC January acreage report revealed 35,670 acres of fall plantings and 5,146 summer plantings for a total of 40,816 acres. In 2014, total acreage dropped to just under 39,000 and in 2015, the total was 38,100. Last year saw another decline of about 5 percent to 36,039. This year represents a negligible gain, but it’s a gain nonetheless.
In its report about acreage, CSC noted that while acreage has declined in recent years production has actually remained stable or increased partially due to new varieties, which has led to higher yields per acre.
Ventura County strawberries – grossing about $3600 to Dallas.
Refrigerated haulers expecting to load California citrus could very well face significant delays because rains have delayed harvest. On another front, an upstate New York apple shipper will be shipping Canadian apples this season.
California Citrus Shipments
Disruptions at citrus loading docks are expected the week of February 13-17 due to rain delayed harvests in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
A rainy week in California has citrus growers there expecting some shortages in mid-February due to excessive rains in citrus groves the week of February 6 – 10.
California citrus growers have been conducting picking operations on a limited basis between the rains. It has been a challenge getting workers and equipment into the fields after big storms. Some citrus orchards have been affected more than others depending on soil types and location. In some cases it is takes a few days for the orchards to dry out.
Delays in harvest as well as loading opportunities for citrus haulers are expected with lemons, oranges and specialty citrus, such as mandarins. Mandarins typically are more sensitive to the rain than other types of fruit.
California citrus – grossing about $4200 to Atlanta.
New York Apple Shipments
New York Apple Sales Inc., based in Glenmont, NY is shipping late-harvest apple varieties from Nova Scotia. The fruit is coming from orchards in the Scotian Gold Cooperative, which grows and harvests Honeycrisp, Ambrosia, and Sonya apples. The product is grown in the Annapolis Valley, near the Bay of Fundy. The three Nova Scotia apple varieties being imported and distributed by New York Apple Sales differ from U.S.-grown counterparts.
Nova Scotia apples have the latest apple-growing season in North America, according to a news release, and trees don’t bloom until the later weeks of May, with the Honeycrisp harvest typically starting during the last week of September, and Ambrosia and Sonya picking to follow.
The Scotian Gold Growers have been providing apples to New York Apple Sales for the past three years.
Whether recent weather issues in Mexico will adversely affect quality of imported Mexican mangos remains to been seen.
Through the third week of May, a normal projection of 29 million boxes is projected, with much of this production to be imported by the U.S.
As much as 30 to-40 percent of the Mexican mango crop was reported affected by winds. This is expected to decrease import volume by U.S. importers in February, but quality appears normal — so far. Mexico ships mangos most of the year and various production regions begin at different times.
Volume for imported mangos from Peru has increased 20 to 30 percent from last year after a bumper crop in a season that started earlier than usual. Peak volume imports to the U.S. are occurring, but will start declining in the next couple of weeks or so.
Mango imports by the U.S. during January included much less fruit from Ecuador than last season, down from about 18.5 million pounds to about 3.5 million pounds. This was due to the Ecuador season starting two to three weeks earlier than usual. Peak season for imported mangos from Ecuador is mid October through mid November (last year). The season is now virtually complete, with the exception of one late season variety that will continue until March.
Total mango imports by the U.S. during January were about 32 million pounds, down from about 52 million pounds for the same period last year. The big decline was due to a change in timing for one country’s season.
The Peruvian mango season was early by about four weeks in 2016, resulting in peak volumes to be shipped earlier in December and well into January of 2017. Last year this time, Peru had already pretty much finished their season.
Imported Mexican tropical fruit, and vegetables through the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing $1100 to Dallas; and $3200 to Miami.
You know something is up when for the first time you walk into your local Midwestern Wal-Mart store and Peruvian grapes are the only ones being sold. Sure, it is expected California is pretty much finished, but this is normally when Chilean grapes have taken center stage in the produce department. Bottom line is grape haulers should use extra caution as there are serious quality problems with many Chilean grapes.
There also is a glut of grapes being imported from Chile. Combine this with imported fruit from Peru and a trickling of late season California grapes and there’s too much fruit.
Meanwhile, there are heavy volumes of grapes in the storages all along the Delaware River.
The glut is expected to continue short term and volumes will gradually come more in tune with demand. Starting the Chilean grape season we were told there were light supplies, but good quality, despite rains in the early producing northern growing areas of Chile. Instead, much higher volumes, combined with serious quality issues occurred. Meanwhile, Peru has plenty of volume and good quality grapes.
The USDA reports, as of January 21st, 2,355 40,000-pound units of Chilean grapes had come into the Port of Philadelphia, compared to 2,002 units at the same time a year ago.
Between November 28th and January 1st, Chile had shipped 138 percent more grapes to the U.S. than it did a year earlier. During this period, Chile shipped over 7.75 million boxes of grapes, where last year, it was 3.26 million.
Part of the glut came as California grape shippers continued loading red seedless grapes for destinations across North America well past Christmas and into the New Year. At the same time, Chile’s grape crop was much earlier than originally anticipated. Plus, Peruvian grapes have been available since early November.
The glut of grapes should decline a lot during the second half of February, as Chilean flames give way to crimsons.
In fact, loading opportunities for imported late season table grapes from Chile will probably not be nearly as good heading into late-March and into April.