Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Washington state has finished its apple harvest and is looking to ship 118.5 million boxes of fruit for the 2o15-16 shipping season, which would be the third largest on record.
If apple shipments hold for the season this would be about 15 percent smaller than last year’s monstrous 140 million boxes of apples.
As of December 1st, packing houses have shipped about 25 percent of the crop, a higher than average share by that point of the season.
The early 2015 harvest caused some extra overlap with 2014 storage apples, especially Red Delicious apples. The 2014 crop cleared warehouses at about the same pace as the 2012 crop, the previous record. The industry shipped 6.7 percent of the 2014 crop after September 1st this year, compared to 8 percent, of the 2012 crop after Sept. 1, 2013.
A word of caution for apple haulers this season, some Washington state apple growers are expressing concerns about storage quality due to water shortages and extra hot weather over the summer. This could require even more attention to detail for truckers to what’s being put in the truck at loading docks as the season progresses and apples have been in storage for a longer amount of time.
We’ll try to keep you apprised as the apple season moves forward.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6600 to Boston.
California grape shipments are in decline because of less late season volume and reports of growing quality problems. This has already resulted in many East Coast buyers turning to imported table grapes and this trend will continue to gather momentum as imported table grape volumes climb.Through early December Peruvian grape shipments had totaled 2.1 million cases to the US East Coast, more than twice the tonnage that was shipped in the same period last year. In that same period, Peruvian exporters loaded 240,000 cases to the US West Coast and 450,000 cases to the Canadian market (at both east and west coast ports).
Imported seedless grapes are increasing in volume, but arrivals will remain light through December.
California grape shipments will soon be limited to destinations west of the Mississippi River.
San Joaquin Valley grapes – grossing about $4000 to both Chicago and Dallas.
Chilean Imported Fruit
Chilean imported cherry and blueberry arrivals are well below traditional levels in similar fashion to grapes. Chilean table grape shipments faced a delayed start due to weather factors and the first Chilean charter to the US East Coast didn’t arrive until December 14th . Its cargo, which will included table grapes and stonefruit, was expected to be the only Chilean fruit that makes distribution before the Christmas holiday.
West Mexico winter vegetable shipments are crossing the border into Nogales, AZ, although heavier volume typically doesn’t occur until January.
Shipping gaps of product from Mexico are not as common as they used to be thanks in part to signicant volume coming from vegetables grown under shade houses and in green houses.
Tomato shipments including romas, grape tomatoes and some round tomatoes are gradually increasing in December, with heaviest volume occurring January through March. Mexican red peppers are in very light volume, and similar to tomatoes, are not expected to have significant loadings until around Christmas.
Melons such as watermelons and honeydew are more unpredictable due to winter growing conditions south of the border, but light volumes are expected through the end of the year.
Cucumber shipments have been underway since mid-September, which were soon followed by zucchini, yellow and gray squash, English cucumbers started the third week of October and hard squash in early November. Loadings of those items as well as green beans, and eggplant were underway with the arrival of December.
Mexican vegetable shipments crossing at Nogales – grossing about $2800 to Chicago.
B
y The Florida Citrus Commission
The Florida Citrus Commission unanimously agreed recently to industry requests to lower fruit quality standards for the 2015-16 season.
The commission governs the Florida Department of Citrus, which regulates fruit quality standards. Citrus fruit must meet certain maturity standards before it can be harvested for commercial use. The commission agreed to lower the standard for sugar solids in oranges to 8 percent from 8.7 percent. Annually, 95 percent of Florida oranges go to juice. It also agreed to suspend for the 2015-16 season the regulation that navel oranges, mostly sold as fresh, must have at least 0.36 percent citric acid. Oranges were having difficulty reaching those levels because of the damaging effects of the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening, which is endemic in Florida groves.
Apparently items such as limes and lemons were not affected by the new standards.
Florida Pepper Shipments
Florida pepper shipments continue and may improve some. Pepper prices have been high, but now Mexican peppers are giving Florida competition, and lower prices, which result in more shipments.
Florida Grapefruit Shipments
Florida grape fruit shipments are underway, and apparently haven’t been as adversely affected as navel oranges due to a disease call greening. Grapefruit shipments have declined over the years with fading popularity, but some observers believe shipments this season will exceed those of a year ago.
Light to moderate shipments of Central and Southern Florida citrus, vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
California grape shipments should continue through December, but your chances of claims or rejected loads may be increasing as late season quality problems are reported.
Confidence in the product is declining as complaints from retailers ranging from poor color on red grapes to decay and condition issues on all varieties are rising. As a result wholesalers are managing increased volumes of fruit that fail to make a satisfactory arrival to retailers. It is recommended drivers check grape quality at shipping point and make sure your receivers know what is being delivered. Meanwhile, meaningful arrivals of imported Chilean grapes won’t occur until January.
San Joaquin Valley grapes, carrots and kiwi – grossing about $3800 to Chicago.
Northwest Pear Shipments
The preseason estimate of 20 million boxes for Northwest pear shipments — 2 percent less than in 2014-15 — already has fallen to about 19 million boxes and could drop even more. In late November some shippers were transitioning into red anjous, and volumes were picking up significantly after Thanksgiving.
There are also some volumes of boscs now being shipped. Bartlett pear shipments should wrap up in February, while Boscs should ship into April and anjous into July.
Yakima Valley, WA apples and pears – grossing about $5000 to Houston
California Avocado Shipments
California Avocado shipments remain significantly higher than last year, but volume fell off sharply in late November.
About 27.9 million pounds of avocados were shipped in the U.S. the week ending November 28th, down from 48.3 million pounds the week before and from 35.3 million pounds in the same week in 2014, according to the USDA.
For the year, 781 million pounds had shipped through Nov. 28, up from 660 million pounds at that time last year.
Southern California avocados, citrus, peppers and tomatoes – grossing about $5900 to New York City.
Manitoba could give the small island of Prince Edward Island a run for its money when it comes to potato shipments.
Manitoba is partly responsible for an increase in Canadian potato shipments, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada (SC). Currently, P.E.I. is Canada’s biggest spud producer.
SC recently reported potato shipments in Canada are up 4.1 per cent in 2015, Manitoba potato shipments alone accounts for 57.2 per cent of the increase.
In 2015, P.E.I. potato shipments represented 23.7 per cent of total in Canadia. Manitoba was close on its heels with 20.6 per cent.
Prince Edward Island prides itself on being Canada’s king of spuds. The island is Canada’s largest potato producer and the industry is worth more than a billion dollars, according to the Prince Edward Island Potato Board.
The recent surge in Manitoba potato production has to do with how much the main potato processors – McCain’s, Simplot, and Cavendish – contract out to farms. All three demanded fewer potatoes for 2013 and 2014 from Manitoba farms, but in 2015 all three demanded more.
Looking at the long-term trend, it’s clear Manitoba is peeling its way to catch up to P.E.I. The industry has grown substantially in the past 20 years.
Canadian potato production is up overall in part because of the low Canadian dollar compared to the U.S. dollar.
North Carolina sweet potato shipments continue to set records as the product gains popularity with consumers.
With Thanksgiving past us and Christmas on the horizon, sweet potatoes shipments are rounding out another strong year due to high demand and a record increase in acreage. Despite some adverse growing conditions more acreage helped offset the poor weather. North Carolina faced delayed plantings due to extreme heat and drought. By harvest time, the entire state was hit by an excess of moisture. Still, sweet potatoes haulers were transporting generally good quality product.
After setting a North Carolina record in 2014 at 72, 000 acres, the state’s growers beat their own mark this year, with 84, 000 acres of sweet potatoes planted for the 2015 season.
Some estimates for the past five years, have North Carolinian sweet potato sweet shipments tripling. Sweet potato growers have planted more and more acres each year as they try to keep pace with consumer demand, and have expanded other aspects of their operations such as storage capacity and new packing lines.
While sweet potato shipments originate from Mississippi, Louisiana, California and Arkansas, North Carolina easily is the largest shipper of the product.
Eastern North Carolina sweet potato shipments – grossing about $2000 to Atlanta, $3000 to Chicago.
Prince Edward Island potato shippers have installed metal detectors in their warehouses after steel needles and other sharp objects were found in their potatoes….Plus, a shipping update from leading U.S. potato shipping states.
Luckily, last year none of the potatoes that they exported had any foreign objects in them, but they are not taking any risks this year. These metal detectors cost $50,000 each. The provincial and federal governments are helping the farmers with some funding, however this is an extra expense that they didn’t have in previous years.
The industry and the government were offering $500,000 reward for any tip-offs regarding the potato tampering, but the money was never claimed.
Light shipments of potatoes continue from New Brunswick province, with most coming from P.E.I.
U.S. Potato Shipments
The three leading U.S. states for potato shipments continue to have steady movement.
Idaho, as usual, easily leads the pack in shipments with an average of about 1500 truckload equivalents of mostly russets per week….The second heaviest volume is originating out of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, averaging about 750 truck loads weekly. Finally, there is Central Wisconsin that is moving around 500 truck loads each week.
Wisconsin potato shipments averaging about $2200 to San Antonio.
Colorado potato shipments averaging about $2500 to Chicago.
Idaho potato shipments averaging about $5500 to New York City.
If you’ve noticed sky high strawberry prices in your local supermarket, there’s a reason. Shipments from California, Mexico and Florida are all low, but things are starting change.
November rains excellerated already seasonally lower volumes for California strawberry shipments, and volumes also have been below the three-year average. Volume will improve, but it’s going to take some time. El Niño predictions are still showing the strong probability of continuous rains and occasional heavy down pours in the west.
Some California shippers will rely on Florida and Mexico production to supplement California loadings, though bad weather in central Mexico in mid-November was complicating that crop.
This time of year California volume is unpredictable due to cold weather and number of daylight hours. With short days, cold nights and the threat of rain, volume is difficult to predict.
Florida strawberry shipments are increasing and should hit decent volume by next week from the Plant City, Fla. area. However, it will be the first of the year before peak volumes occur.
By the week of November 23rd, shipments from Watsonville, CA had mostly wound down for the year, as production shifted to Southern California. Ventura County is ramping up and Orange County will get underway soon.
Southern California citrus shipments – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Central and Southern Florida tomatoes, vegetables – grossing about $2300 to New York City.
Wintertime South American imports are underway ranging from Chilean blueberries to Peruvian fruit.
Chilean blueberry imports have started, but the first volume of containers by boat will not arrove until late December. Chilean blueberry imports typically occur from November through March.
U.S. imports of Chilean blueberries are expected to range between six and 18 percent more than the 2014-15 season. Last season Chile exported about 101.4 million tons of fresh blueberries, of which 67 percent were sent to the U.S. and Canadian markets. U.S. imports of Chilean fresh blueberries totaled 63.1 million tons in 2014-15, up from 49,7 million tons in 2013-2014.
Peruvian Grape Imports
Imported seeded grapes from Peru are arriving in volume at ports on the East Coast. Peruvian red grapes are said to have better quality than green grapes this season. California grape shipments are winding down this month.
Peruvian Avocado Imports
The Port of Savannah has added Peruvian avocados to its expanding portfolio of perishable goods. Importing avocados through Savannah is a first for the avocado industry Savannah allows faster access to receivers in the Southeast. Peruvian imports occur from May through September. Savannah’s Garden City Terminal offers 94 refrigerated container racks and 733 chassis plug-ins, powering 2,989 refrigerated boxes at a time. Another 10 racks will be complete by the end of the year, adding 240 slots for perishable goods.The Georgia Ports Authority moved nearly 140,000 20-foot equivalent container units of refrigerated cargo in fiscal year 2015. The GPA anticipates a 4.5 percent growth rate of refrigerated cargo in the next year.