Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
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.
Washington state apple shipments are expected to be down a little this season. Meanwhile, Mexican avocado loadings to the U.S. are increasing.
A forecast of 132.9 million boxes of fresh apples has been made for the for 2016-17 shipping season, up 15 percent from last year’s 115 million box crop. However, this is down 6 percent from 2014’s record 141.8 million boxes.
Reflecting a smaller crop, overall exports for the 2015-16 crop year were off about 30 percent from the record 2014-15 season. Current season to date shipments through mid July were about 29.7 million cartons, down from 44.3 million cartons the same time in 2015.
Exports for both Canada and Mexico totaled 52 percent of all exports. The top three U.S. apple export markets for 2015-16 were Mexico, Canada and India. With the bigger 2016 Washington crop, this year should be a bounce-back season for Washington exports.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $5200 to Atlanta.
Avocado Shipments
Untimely rains in California resulted in avocado shipments being down on the summer crop. Meanwhile, the primary Mexican avocado shipments are yet to ramp up.
Through June, yearly volumes were running well ahead of last year’s pace, with 660 million pounds shipping during the three months of April, May and June alone, up from 549 million pounds in the same period the previous year.
However, in July and August, volumes fell 15 percent, from 378 million pounds in 2015 to 320 million pounds this year. Shipments are expected to be approaching normal by November.
As of Sept. 14, primary Mexican avocado shipments were running two or three weeks behind last year’s crop, though volumes were ramping up in the first half of the month. It is projected about 81.5 million pounds would ship in the first two weeks of September, down just slightly from the same period last year.
The summer California avocado shipments will likely wind up being just two-thirds the size of the preseason estimates, due to rains starting in mid-June, more than a month later than normal.
It still is likely be the first week of October before Mexican imports by the U.S. begin ramping up, with loadings moving into the 40 million to 45 million pound-per-week range.
The last imports of South African citrus coming into the United States should be arriving this week. Meanwhile, here is an update on Louisiana sweet potato shipments where product still not harvested got pounded by rains last month.
South Africa Citrus
The last boat of the season from South Africa with citrus is scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia the week of Sept. 26th. Steady volumes of navel and midknight oranges from South Africa have been arriving in the U.S.
South Africa ships navels, midknights, mandarins, star ruby grapefruit and cara cara oranges.
Louisiana Sweet Potato Shipments
The nation’s fourth leading sweet potato shipper – Louisiana – was hit hard by heavy rains several weeks ago and we’re now starting to get a clearer picture of how much damage was done.
Torrential rains in southern Louisiana in mid-August caused major damage to the state’s agricultural producers, but the full extent of sweet potato losses remains to be seen. More than 30 inches of rain fell in a 48-hour period in many parts of southern Louisiana in mid-August, and more rain followed.
There’s no question the deluge will reduce the number of sweet potatoes shipped from Louisiana this year, but it is still too early to put a number on it. Sweet potato shipments undoubtedly will be be less because the fields were saturated for days. By mid-September growers had either just started to dig or hadn’t started at all, making it difficult to come up with a good damage estimate.
Louisiana sweet potato growers south of Alexandria appeared to suffer the heaviest losses, but none of the state’s growers totally escaped the storm’s wrath. Luckily, the majority of sweet potato production in the state is found north of Alexandria.
Louisiana shipped about 1.7 million boxes of sweet potatoes last season, fourth behind North Carolina, California and Mississippi. Overall, sweet potato shipments on a national basis probably won’t be down, because North Carolina ships the majority of sweet potatoes, with California a distance second.
Imports of Argentina blueberries and Mangoes from South America should be very good this season.
Argentina growers should export about 17,500 tons of fresh blueberries this season, of which two-thirds likely will be arrive in the U.S. and Canada. A year ago, the U.S. and Canada received only 10,280 tons of blueberries from Argentina, due to adverse growing conditions. The weather seems to have improved a lot this year.
Light exports were under way to the U.S. Brazil, and Europe in late August, with the first U.S. arrivals taking place in early September. Peak season arrivals will happen in late October, before the season concludes by the end of November.
Mango Imports
A late surge of mango imports from Mexico and an early start in Ecuador should mean a lot of mango imports this fall. Mexico should ship about 74 million boxes of mangoes this season, up from 64 million boxes a year ago.
Peak Brazilian imports have been in September. However, with the heavy volume of Mexican fruit being imported, most Brazilian fruit imports were arriving at ports and being hauled by truck to markets in the eastern half of the country. Meanwhile Mexican mangos are being delivered to in heavy volume to the West Coast.
Even with the record late-season volumes out of Mexico this season, and record volume crops are also possible from Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. In addition to the glut, appearance issues were hurting demand for late-season Mexican fruit, although eating quality has been excellent.
Mexican volumes are now finally starting to wind. Brazilian import volumes are expected to start peaking around the second week of October. Brazil is expected to ship about 8 million boxes this year, similar to a year ago. Ecuador should produce about 10.8 million boxes, up slightly from last year.
Peru mango imports to the U.S. should get underway in November, with imported expected to be up about 10 percent from last year’s 9.3 million boxes.
South Texas crossings with Mexican mangoes, other tropical fruit, tomatoes and vegetables – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
Blueberry shipments have definitely hit the big time with increases in plantings on both a domestic and imported basis. Shipments also remain strong for strawberries and raspberries. Here’s a closer look at shipments for domestic and imported berries.
Fresh blueberry loadings are now occurring virtually the year around whether it is from domestic production or from imports involving other countries.
Native to North America, blueberries are in good volume here from April through October. Likewise, with farmers in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasonal swap brings blueberries from South America from November through March.
The U.S. is the world’s largest grower and shipper of berries. In 2014, 667.6 million pounds of blueberries were shipped.
However, the U.S. is also a net importer of fresh and frozen blueberries. Canada supplies nearly 20 percent of fresh product into the U.S., but South America has a very strong U.S. import program.
In 2014, the U.S. imported 234.7 million pounds of fresh blueberries valued at nearly $530.5 million. Over 60 percent of this product came from Chile, which supplies the U.S. market from mid-November through January.
In 2014 the U.S. imported 124.7 million pounds of fresh blackberries.
Mexico supplied nearly all U.S. imported fresh blackberry volumes, representing a four-year annual average market share of 96 percent from 2011 to 2014.
Strawberry Shipments
While the U.S. is the world’s largest strawberry grower and shipper, it is also a big importer. In 2014, the nation imported 355.9 million pounds of fresh strawberries. The majority of all U.S. strawberry imports come from Mexico, with Canada supplying less than one percent.
Mexican strawberries have overlapping shipping seasons with Florida, but typically fresh strawberries from Mexico are only a supplement to the U.S. domestic supply. Most Mexican strawberries being produced and imported to the U.S. are shipped during the winter.
Raspberry Shipments
The U.S. also imports raspberries from October through May, with most imports originating from Mexico, which ships about 96 percent of the total imports.
In 2014, the U.S. imported a total of almost 96.8 million pounds of fresh raspberries from Mexico, Canada and Chile.
Florida tomato shipments look to be similar to last season, while a big plunge is seen with Florida citrus.
During the 2015-16 season, which ended in June, tomato growers packed 28.2 million 25-pound equivalent cartons of mature greens and vine-ripe tomatoes, down from 36.5 million from the previous season. The decline is attributed primarily to excessive rains during the growing season. Torrential spring rains reduced yields that caused the 8 million carton shortage,
Last year, Mexican tomato imports increased 18 percent from the prior year from October to mid-June. Imported Mexican tomatoes are primarily vine ripes, while Florida’s tomatoes are mostly mature greens.
Fall plantings for this season are expected to be similar to a year ago. Florida tomato shipments will get underway in October. In fact Florida typically is shipping tomatoes most of the year, with the exception being July, August and September.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Florida citrus acreage has declined to its lowest level in nearly three generations.
On September 12th, the USDA reported the Sunshine State’s citrus acreage declined to 480,121 acres for 2015-16, the lowest since the agency began surveying acreage in 1966.
Oranges, which constitute 89 percent of the state’s citrus acreage, is the lowest since that period as are grapefruit and tangerines. In 1970, Florida growers planted 715,806 acres of oranges, 124,050 acres of grapefruit and 101,615 acres of specialty fruit or tangerines and tangelos.
Currently, oranges make up 425,728 acres, grapefruit, 40,316 acres and specialty fruit, 14,077.
Orange production is down 3.7 percent from the 2014-15 season while white grapefruit sustained the biggest loss at 17 percent for the period. Red seedless grapefruit experienced only a 4 percent decline.
Tangerine and tangelo acreage declined 17 percent respectively from the previous year.
Of the 27 citrus-producing counties, 24 recorded acreage declines.
The Indian River region produces the most grapefruit acreage while the central region leads in the production of oranges and specialty fruit.
In terms of total citrus production, the central, southern and western regions represent the biggest acreage.
Florida will have light overall shipments of produce until March or April when spring vegetables get underway. In fact the whole Southeast is pretty “dead” this time of year.
Southern Georgia vegetable shipments – grossing about $800 to Atlanta.
As we approach fall, here is a look at the upcoming possibilities for fall loadings for Colorado potatoes, Georgia vegetables and imports of sweet onions from Peru.
Colorado Potato Shipments
Last year San Luis Valley Colorado potatoes were harvested off of 52,000 acres. This year acreage is about 50,900 acres.
Diggings started for some growers in August, with the harvest running into mid-October. There were 2,176 truck loads shipped during the 2015-16 season, down about 400 loads from the previous season. Russets account for nearly 99 percent of the crop last year and 97 percent in 2014-15.
Yellows last year were 0.2 percent, down slightly from 0.3 in 2014-15. Interestingly, yellows have declined since 2013, dropping 0.1percent each year. Red potatoes were 1 percent last year and 2.6 percent the year before, showing an increase of russets in 2015-16.
Shipments are increasing, but currently too light to quote freight rates.
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
While the volume doesn’t match that of spring and summer loadings, fall Georgia vegetable shipments are significant. A drawback may be multiple pick ups for lack of any one shipping having truckload volume at anyone time. Still, it is that time of year. Florida is dead and there’s not a lot of choices in the Southeast.
Generally speaking most fall Georgia vegetables are in the ground and harvest will be starting anytime. Heaviest volumes will be during October, although lighter shipments will be occurring in November and into December.
Among the fall veggie loading available are: bell peppers, squash, cabbage, green beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, greens (kale, collard, turnip and mustard), as well as carrots sweet potatoes and hot peppers.
Shipments are too light to get an accurate quote on freight rates.
Peruvian Onion Imports
Onion imports from Peru have started arriving at U.S. ports in light volume, but are increasing. Peru typically follows the Vidalia sweet onion season. The product from Southeastern Georgia enjoyed banner shipments this season and is virtually finished. Meanwhile, it’s making for a good transition to Peruvian imported onions, which will continue through the winter and dovetail into the sweet onion shipments that will be coming next spring out of Mexico and then Texas – and once again back to Vidalia.
By The Michigan Apple Committee
CHICAGO – Michigan’s apple growers will harvest approximately 31 million bushels (1.302 billion pounds) of apples this year, according to the official crop estimate announced August 26 at the USApple Outlook meeting in Chicago. This is an increase of 7 million bushels from last year, and would be a record-sized crop for Michigan.
“We have been seeing a steady increase in crop size each year,” said Diane Smith, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee. “This increase is in large part because of technological advancements, as well as an increase in the number of growers participating in high-density plantings (1,000 or more trees per acre).”
In 2015, Michigan growers harvested an about 24 million bushels of apples. Average Michigan apple harvest is about 22.83 million bushels per year. There are more than 11.3 million apple trees in commercial production, covering 35,500 acres on 825 family-run farms in Michigan.
“Michigan had favorable weather conditions for growing apples during spring and summer 2016. Growers are indicating that the crop is plentiful and looks beautiful as well. Thanks to plenty of heat during the summer, the flavor will be great, too.”
Michigan Apples are typically shipped from mid-August all the way through the following June. Michigan Apple packers and shippers work throughout the year to bring Michigan Apples to 27 states and 18 countries worldwide, according to Smith.
“Michigan Apple growers share a common goal of producing flavorful, high-quality apples,” said Smith. “They work with tree fruit researchers to implement the latest growing techniques and use new technology to monitor growing conditions. Michigan growers are committed to bringing the best quality fruit to the consumer.”
The Michigan Apple Committee is a grower-funded nonprofit organization devoted to marketing, education and research activities to distinguish the Michigan apple and encourage its consumption in Michigan and around the world. For more information, visit MichiganApples.com.
Michigan cucumbers and other vegetables – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
Late summer in the U.S. means increasing imports of items ranging from Canadian potatoes to various tropical fruits from several countries.
Prince Edward Island Potato Shipments
Prince Edward Island potato shipments from Eastern Canada could be down slightly this year due to less yields and planted acreage. Potato diggings typically start in late September. For example, Garden Isle Farms, Albany, Prince Edward Island, expects to begin digging the week of September 26th.
PEI potato growers have about 89,000 acres of potatoes were planted this year, 500 less than in 2015. PEI’s fresh-crop mix of russets, yellows, reds and whites should remain fairly steady, with the trend of fewer white potatoes continuing. Harvest should begin in the last week of September, with russets following at the beginning of October,
Processing markets may take a little higher percentage of the crop this year, with about 30 percent going to the fresh market. While some growers are looking at new yellow varieties, production still remains mostly russets.
Mango Imports
With Mexican imported mangos finishing the season within the next week or so, the focus will shift to Brazilian imported mangoes. Boats of Brazilian fruit began arriving at U.S. ports in August and should continue until November, with the peak volume coming in mid- to late October. Additionally imported mangoes are arriving from Ecuador and arrivals should hit record levels in late October or early November.
Pineapple Imports
Pineapples from Costa Rica face a normal production gap from mid-August to mid-September and it has been a so-so season due to weather factors.
Papaya Imports
Boat arrivals of golden papaya out of Brazil should experience increased volume by the second week of September. There also are papaya imports from Guatemala.
Lime Imports
Imported limes are arriving from Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia and Guatemala. Volumes are now increasing some, but are considered to be normal.