Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Fairly normal shipments of U.S. apples is predicted this season, with the exception of one state that is expecting volume to rise by nearly one-third. Also, here’s a look at what to expect with potato shipments from Wisconsin.
Apple shipments in the U.S. this coming season should hit nearly 246 million bushels (42 pounds boxes) this fall, which is slightly over the five-year average. However, Michigan might edge out New York state as the second-leading apple producer and shipper for the first time, assuming the U.S. Apple Association’s annual forecast holds true to the end of the season.
The projection for U.S. apple shipments is 3 percent over the 2015 crop and the five-year average. This would make it the 11th-largest crop overall (with the USDA’s 248-million-bushel estimate). The estimate for Michigan apple shipments, at 31 million bushels, is 31 percent over its 2015 harvest, and exactly 1 million bushels higher than the apple association’s New York estimate for 2016.
The association’s Washington crop estimate of 149 million bushels (USDA’s is 152.4 million) is a 5 percent increase from last season’s shipments and 1 percent less than the state’s five-year average.
While production has been increasing in recent years, bearing acreage has dropped significantly in recent years due to higher yields per acre.
“We’re still growing the same sized crops, in fact, in the last five or six years we’ve had some of the bigger crops in history, with the 2014 crop of 272 (million bushels) just a shade below the record crop of 1998,” the apple association said. In four of the past five years, the association’s estimates have been closer than the USDA’s, which is released in the month before the annual Outlook conference.
Wisconsin Potato Shipments
This is a more normal year. Last year, Wisconsin had very high yields and a bumper crop.
In each of the last two seasons, Wisconsin growers have produced about 63,000 acres of potatoes. But in the booming production of 2015, there was an average of 460 bags per acre. This year the average will still be strong at 430 100-pound bags per acre. The total production for 2015 was 28.98 million hundredweight. This year this number is expected to be 27 million.
The vast majority of the acreage is harvested in September.
U.S. potato crop will be close to last year in shipments, or down no more than 1 or 2 percent.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $1000 to Chicago.
Mushroom loadings increased in the United States during the past year. Additionally, looking at other types of shipments, here are updates on California grapes and Pennsylvania apples.
Mushroom shipments increased during the 2015-16 season, with about 946 million pounds of mushrooms were moved in 2015-16. This was a 2 perecent increase for the pervious season, according to the USDA.
The value of this season’s crop, at $1.19 billion, was down less than 1 perecent from 2014-15, while the average price for mushrooms in 2015-16, $1.26 per pound, which was two cents lower than the season before.
About 346 producers grew mushrooms in the U.S. in 2015-16, 12 fewer than the year before.
Agaricus mushroom volumes in 2015-16 totaled 922 million pounds, 2 percent more than the season before. As has historically been the case, Pennsylvania accounted for 64 percent of total shipments with California a distant second at 12 percent.
The agaricus crop was valued at $1.1 billion, down 2 percent from 2014-15. About 165 million pounds of portabello, crimini and other brown mushrooms were shipped this season, 3 percent more than last season.
The specialty mushroom category, which includes shiitakes, oysters and other varieties, registered the biggest value gain by percentage in 2015-16. Specialty sales rose 30 percent this season to $95 million. The average price, $3.94 per pound was up 40 percent.
California Grape Shipments
California grape shipments are comparable to last year at the same time. Through August 27th, about 1.78 billion pounds of grapes had been shipped in the U.S. for the season, down from 1.88 billion pounds last year at the same time.
In the week ending August 27, about 74 million pounds shipped, down from 82.5 million pounds in the same week last year.
San Joaquin Valley grapes, stone fruit and tomatoes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
Pennsylvania Apple Shipments
Pennsylvania apple shipments should be normal, putting it at around its five-year average. This is approximately 10 million bushels. Harvest started the third week of August in most areas of the state and should be finished by early November. Pennsylvania has about 275 growers.
The national shipping outlook for sweet potatoes is looking good for the up coming season. Meanwhile, here’s a look at the soaring shipments of a newer apple variety.
Mississippi’s sweet potato crop has experienced a rise from 23,200 acres in 2015 to about 25,500 acres this year. Diggings are just getting underway.
In Louisiana, most of the damaging floods apparently occurred south of the sweet potato fields in the state. In North Carolina (with more than 80,000 acres of production), sweet potatoes is easily the nation’s major player and has a much bigger role than Louisiana, which has less than 9,000 acres.
more than two feet of rain have fallen. By Aug. 23, after it finally stops raining, it will be four or five days before crews can even get into fields, Vead said.
North Carolina ships about 53 percent of the nation’s sweet potatoes because the climate in North Carolina is ideal for growing product. The USDA’s report in March 2016, intended plantings of sweet potatoes nationally are up almost 8 percent (169,400 acres for 2016 crop compared to 156,900 for 2015 crop) with the largest increase coming from North Carolina with almost a 21 percent increase (105,000 for 2016, 87,000 for 2015).
North Carolina’s harvesting started in mid August runs through early November. The new crop will start being shipping around late September to early October.
Honeycrisp Apples
The 2015 season Washington State saw fresh market Honeycrisp shipments at about 8.5 million cartons. The 2015 season was aided by controlled-atmosphere storages allowing Honeycrisp apples to be shipped into late July. This is due to the technology of storing the variety, which has seen marked improvement in the past few years. Retail pricing of Honeycrisp ranged from $2.99 to $3.99 per pound for most of the 2015-16 season, meaning that supermarkets were making $160 gross for product on product that cost about $80 per carton.
You’ll be seeing more of the Honeycrisp variety in the future as the apple industry has an abundance of baby trees in the ground. Some observers see the total apple industry shipping 12 million boxes of Honeycrisp this fall.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6,000 to New York City.
Onion shipments by Idaho and eastern Oregon grower-shippers kicked off early this year.
Snake River Produce of Nyssa, OR began digging the week of August. 1, the second earliest start since at least 17 years.
Murakami Produce, Ontario, OR., began digging on time, August 8.
A few other Treasure Valley onion growers also started digging by the week of August 8. However, Skeen Farms in Nyssa, OR didn’t get underway until about August 17.
Some onion shippers started later than last year, but last year was one of the earliest start on the books. This season is proving to be more average.
Acreage will likely be up slightly in the valley as a whole this season, but Skeen Farms’ acreage is slightly below 2015.
Yields should be about average.
Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC, Idaho Falls, ID began digging onions in the Treasure Valley in light volume the week of August 1. With some tight onion supplies, a number of operations started shipping product right way to the fresh market before moving onions into storage.
While onion acreage is up this season in the Treasure Valley, yields may end up being less from a year ago.
Owyhee Produce in Nyssa, OR started digging July 25, the company’s earliest start in 10 years. The diggings got underway despite the company was still shipping its onions grown in California. It did not appear to be presenting any problems, since similar to a lot of other larger operations, the company ships onions the year around.
Yields good to excellent at the beginning of the Treasure Valley season for Owyhee, after only average yields being reported at the beginning of the season.
The biggest challenge of the onion growing season in the Treasure Valley was the hot harvesting weather. This led some crews having to harvest at night or in the early morning.
Idaho and Malheur County, OR onion shipments – grossing about $3400 to Chicago.
U.S. cranberry shipments are expected to be up slightly in 2016 with loadings beginning in early September. Meanwhile, expect imported bananas and pineapples from Port Manatee to be available for decades.
About 8.59 million barrels are expected to ship this year, up from 8.56 million barrels in 2015 and 8.4 million barrels in 2014, according to an annual cranberry report from the USDA.
Industry leader Wisconsin should ship about 5.2 million barrels, up from 4.9 million barrels last year. With the exception of some isolated hail damage, the growing weather in Wisconsin has been excellent this year.
Production in the No. 2 state, Massachusetts, should fall, from 2.4 million barrels in 2015 to 2.1 million barrels this year — due in part to drought in the state.
Production in New Jersey (which is mostly processed), Oregon and Washington also should be down from last year.
Del Monte, Port Manatee Agreement
Port Manatee of Palmetto, FL and Del Monte Fresh Produce NA Inc. has signed an agreement to keep its importing operations at the Port for up to 20 more years, which goes through August 2021.
The lease includes options for three additional extensions of five years each, according to a news release. If Del Monte uses all options, the grower-shipper and importer could be importing fruit at the central Florida port until at least 2036.
Del Monte,has imported fruit at the port since 1989 and handles weekly refrigerated vessels containing containers and pallets of Central American bananas and pineapples.
For exports, Del Monte ships linerboard used in packaging and also handles other third-party containers and project cargos.
“We are very pleased to continue our relationship with Port Manatee,” Brian Giuliani, Del Monte’s Port Manatee-based port manager, said in the release. “The cooperation with Port Manatee is exceptional and has been vital to the growth of our business at Port Manatee.”
Del Monte has moved 8.7 million short tons of cargo through the port since 1989.
“Extension of Port Manatee’s long-term partnership with Del Monte demonstrates the mutual commitment on the part of our port and a most-valued tenant,” Betsy Benac, the port authority’s chairwoman, said in the release.
Del Monte’s Southeast distribution center at the port has become the company’s second-largest U.S. facility.
Red potato shipments from the Red River Valley have taken a hit for the upcoming season. Meanwhile, California pomegranate shipments are picking up.
Roughly one-third, or 7,000 to 7,800 acres of the Red River Valley potatoes for the fresh market have been lost to excessive rain, and hail damage in northeast North Dakota. Seed and chipping potatoes in the area have suffered damage also and are not included in that talley.
Bruce Huffaker of North American Potato Market News estimates as many as 13,000 acres total (fresh, seed and chipping combined) have been lost in North Dakota and 1,500 in neighboring northwest Minnesota. Counties hardest hit in North Dakota are Pembina and Walsh and in Minnesota, Kittson and Polk.
However, potato fields south of Grand Forks and outside the Red River Valley appear to be in great shape. There are also fields north of Grand Forks that have escaped major damage.
The fresh potato shipments are well underway in the Long Prairie and Big Lake areas of Minnesota. Some of those potatoes are being washed and packed by Red River Valley wash plants, because the harvest in the valley is still several weeks away. Supplies should be adequate at the start of the Red River Valley shipping season but several plants will wrap up earlier than normal in the spring.
Pomegranate Shipments
California grower-shippers are having good shipments of pomegranates that began in mid-August. However, 80 percent or more of the crop is in the wonderful variety which starts around October 1.
Volume loadings will be down this seas as there is some movement toward other crops. Some growers are swapping out pomegranates for nut varieties viewed as being more profitable.
Slayman Marketing of Bakersfield, CA focuses on early varieties and began shipping in early August. Last year started earlier, around July 20. Simonian Fruit Co. of Fowler, CA is expecting similar shipments to a year ago. Simonian should wrap up harvesting the first half of November.
The largest shipper of the wonderful variety is Los Angeles-based Pom Wonderful, which accounts for about 70 percent of California pomegranate shipments.
Apple shippers in upstate New York will be more comfortable with a forecast once they get through August. Meanwhile, an early forecast doesn’t predict any good times for Florida citrus shipments.
New York apple shippers are reluctant to put on estimate on their crop this season. After all, farmers get spooked easily, don’t want to jinx the crop, and are all too aware of what Mother Nature may have planned. Once we get into September they’ll start loosening up a bit.
Still they remember what history has taught them that a lot can change between April and August, even from July to August. Into 2015 crop all hell broke loose between July and August. The USDA’s July 2015 forecast was 26.2 million 42-pound units, or cartons. Its July 2016 final estimate of the 2015 crop just came out at 32.4 million. That’s a significant increase to market, sell and ship without a lot of notice. But even that year was just short of 2009’s record crop of 32.6 million.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Florida citrus shippers face a tumultuous year if a projected 26 percent decline in Florida’s new orange crop for the 2016-17 season pans out.
One recent prediction has Florida orange growers producing only 60.5 million boxes of oranges in the new season, which begins in October, down from 81.5 million boxes in 2015-16.
If that estimate holds, it will be the smalles Florida orange crop in 53 years since 54.9 million boxes harvested in the 1963-64 season. The next lowest crop was 57.79 million orange boxes in 1949-50.
Florida growers continue to lose the battle against the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening. Additionally, the fungal disease called “postbloom fruit drop” hit the late-season Valencia orange crop hard during the spring.
Greening results in a tree producing fewer, smaller fruit, meaning fewer boxes are picked. Infected trees also show a diminished capacity to hold onto mature fruit before harvesting, known as “pre-harvest drop.”
Florida citrus officials consider greening as the primary factor behind the 66 percent drop in the state’s orange harvest from 242 million boxes in the 2003-04 season, the last non-hurricane season before the disease’s 2005 discovery in the state.
The USDA will release its first official crop estimate October 12.
While many California vegetable shipments have been rather lack luster this year, shipments have soared for mandarins, and table grapes may break a record.
California mandarins produced in the San Joaquin Valley during 2015 have been valued at $197.6 million, a 171 percent increase from the $72.8 million the previous year, according to the The Fresno County Farm Bureau.
Mostly marketed as clementines with branded labels, from 2014 to 2015, the region’s production of mandarins increased from 121,000 tons to 166,000 tons, a 37.2 percent increase. The national mandarin market, which is dominated by Sun Pacific and Wonderful Citrus, Delano, CA , Wonderful packs the fruit under the Halos label that it introduced in late 2013.
The value of mandarins sold nationally at retail jumped 23 percent two years ago and increased 15 percent from the 2014-15 season to 2015-16. The Fresno County data come from the region’s growers, 60 to 70 percent of whom return the crop report requested by the county.
While some mandarin shippers operate out of Fresno County, they have much larger produce from Kern County.
Given that the Fresno County data doesn’t include much product from Sun Pacific and Wonderful, the two dominant players in the market, it makes sense that the national numbers — relying heavily on the Cuties brand and Halos brand sales — don’t match the regional numbers.
California Grape Shipments
California grapes are in the ballpark of an all-time high for shipments, and over 60 percent of the crop will ship after September 1st.
The 2016 grape crop is estimated at nearly 117.1 million 19-bound box equivalents. This is down a bit from the spring estimate of 117.4 million, but that number would still surpass the record harvest of 116.3 million in 2013.
Last year’s crop of 109.3 million boxes rode favorable markets to its highest ever gross value at $1.83 billion.
Fall grapes will include autumn kings, scarlet royals, autumn royals and red globes. Among the many trademark varieties are Holiday and Milano from Columbine Vineyards; AutumnCrisp by Sun World International; Green Emerald from Sunlight International Sales; and Sweet Celebration from Jasmine, Pandol Bros. and other shippers.
San Joaquin Valley mandarins and grapes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
Mango imports are up significantly this season. Plus, we take a final look at Northwest cherry shipments.
Brazil Mango Imports
The U.S., the National Mango Board (NMB) has released its latest update from Mexico and Brazil as of August 6, 2016 and reports volume arriving into the U.S. is up nearly one million boxes from last year.
Mango volume shipping the first week of August is about 2.6 million boxes. During the same week last year, volume was around 1.7 million boxes. These numbers brought the total mango volume to over 80,5 million boxes arriving mostly at U.S. ports.
The Brazilian mango shipping season runs from July through November, with a projected 8 million boxes forecast.
As of August 6, volume shipped from Brazil was 322,298 boxes for a total of 372,530 thus far this season. This volume is up an approximate 84,242 boxes from last year at the same time.
Mexico Mango Imports
Additionally, the Mexican mango shipping season, which began in January and will run through October, is expected to provide the U.S. with about 66.5 million boxes of mangos.
At this point last year, volume from Mexico was composed of a total of over 64 millions boxes. This number is slightly lower this year, with a total of 63.1 million cartons.
Though the overall volume is lower as of right now, weekly imports are on the rise. During the week of August 6 last year, volume arrived from Mexico was approximately 1.7 million. This year, that number has significantly increased with volume arriving from Mexico on the same week at around 2.6 million boxes.
Cherry Shipments
Northwest cherry growers shipped nearly 21 million pounds of fruit this year. Some are describing the crop as “vintage” and the “best eating” fruit in many years.
Due to the larger sized cherries, forecasters changed their estimates upwards. On June 1, this year’s crop was estimated at 19.6 million boxes, but by August 4th, the last estimate of the season, it had risen to 20. 8 million boxes, thanks not only to bigger sizes but to less drop on some varieties.
Here’s some updates on tomato shipments from Southern California, as well as avocado shipments, which continue to show impressive growth in volume.
California vine-ripe round tomatoes and romas are now in peak volume from Southern California. This season, veteram tomato grower Harry Singh, Jr. and his family—along with exclusive marketer Oppy—celebrate 75 years of producing vine-ripes in Oceanside, CA. .
Priya Singh, general manager, is a third generation grower at the company that became known as West Coast Tomato Growers (WCTG), owners of the Oceanside Pole and Cal-Tom brands, in 2012. Oppy is shipping Oceanside Pole and Cal-Tom vine ripened rounds and romas produced by the Singh family into November.
Southern California tomatoes – grossing about $6300 to New York City.
Avocado Shipments
2016 is off to a good start for avocado shipments, both domestic and for imports. The coming fall shipping season is looking to be even better. From January through May, more than 1 billion pounds of avocados were shipped in the U.S. That is up from 883 million pounds for the same period a year ago.
In all, volume rose 16 percent in 2015 compared to 2014, but for fall, volume grew 21 percent — from 575 million pounds for September through December 2014 to 696 million pounds for the fall of 2015.
The increase was driven by an increase in imports from Mexico, which had its biggest year ever. Mexico was by far the largest source of avocados in 2015, shipping 1.7 billion pounds to the U.S. California was next, with 262 million pounds, followed by Peru with 100 million and Chile with 20 million pounds. Other countries shipped almost 4 million pounds.
Avocado shipments are increasing as consumption by American consumers continues to grow at a very fast pace. Avocado shipments seem to be breaking records nearly every year.
Total volume in the U.S. for 2015 was 2.14 billion pounds, an increase of 15 percent over the 1.85 billion pounds in 2014.
Some California avocado shipments should continue through August. Then the fall crop from Mexico starts ramping up.