Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Fall produce shipments such as pumpkins, squash and ornamentals originate from about 40 different states and in most instances truckers tend to haul the products on a local and regional basis.
Shipments on the East Coast are starting about normal this year. For example, one shipper is Jackson Farming of Autryville, NC that ships a half dozen different varieties of pumpkins, as well as limited amounts of squash and ornamentals. Heaviest loadings will occur during October.
Another example is Todd Greiner Farms, based in Hart, MI, which ships a few different varieties of pumpkins, squash and ornamentals.
Lusk Onion Co. of Clovis, NM ships its pumpkins regionally to Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The company has pumpkins with a heavy red color as well as white pumpkins, but its best volume is the medium-size carving pumpkins, which account for about 80 percent of its business.
Finally, there is Van Groningen & Sons Inc., Manteca, Calif., which ships a complete offering of pumpkins and ornamentals. The company packs and ships pumpkins in 24-inch short bins and 36-inch tall bins, or in high-graphic decorative bins.
Florida avocado shippers expect to harvest smaller volumes during the latter part of their season.
Peak Florida volumes are July and August although the region continues to ship fruit through February. Late season loadings will be 10% lighter than earlier season shipments.
Overall, the deal, which typically begins in early June, is expecting to ship about 1 million bushels, lower than last year’s 1.2 million bushels
Avocado Imports
Chilean avocado shipments to the U.S. should be light again this season as they were in 2014-15 season.
It was September before any Chilean avocado imports reached the U.S. About 1.1 million pounds of Chilean avocados arrived the week of Sept. 6, with 3.3 million pounds expected the week of Oct. 4 and 4.7 million boxes the week of Oct. 18.
But even when Chilean volumes hit 4.7 million boxes, they will be dwarfed by an estimated 37 million boxes that week from Mexico. with the vast majority of it crossing into South Texas. The Chileans have developed a good domestic market for avocados and have been exported more to Europe.
Mexican volumes, primarily crossing the U.S./Mexico border at McAllen, TX, will be huge throughout the season. California is expecting a big crop in its upcoming season.
In August, Mexico shipped about twice as many avocados as it did in August 2014, with September volumes forecast to be up 50%.
By the end of 2015, a projected 2.1 billion pounds of avocados will have shipped in the U.S., 14% more than last year. And with the massive growth in Mexico, shippers can meet demand even if Chile winds up taking another largely hands-off approach to the U.S. market this season.
Mexican fruit and vegetable imports through South Texas – grossing about $2100 to Atlanta.
California broccoli shipments continue to struggle with volume and quality, while raspberry loadings have improved. Meanwhile, record walnut loadings are forecast.
Just about the time it seem Salinas Valley lettuce shipments are getting straightened out from unpredictable highs and lows in volume, a similar problem is now occurring with Salinas Valley broccoli shipments. Again, similar to lettuce, broccoli has been facing some quality problems such as brown bead, hollow stem and stunted growth, which are the side effects of hot weather. Some areas of the Salinas Valley have hit 110 degrees recently. While quality is expected to improve going further into September, volume could remain below normal for weeks. It’s always good to check what’s being loaded onto the truck, so the buyer (receiver) knows what is being delivered.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Berry Shipments
Raspberry shipments from the Salinas/Watsonville district have improved in the past week as the weather has cooled. The berries are grown under hoops and inside the hoops, and it was simply too hot. This time of the year, raspberry production is limited to the Watsonville and Salinas areas. Shipments of the fruit normally occur from May through October.
Watsonville/Salinas berries – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
Walnut Shipments
This year’s California walnut production from the San Joaquin Valley is forecast at a record 575,000 tons despite a lack of chilling hours during winter and the California drought that continues to impact the state. The forecast is up 1 percent from 2014’s production of 570,000 tons.
According to the USDA, California walnut acreage amounted to 181,000 in 1990 and increased every year to 300,000 acres in 2015. In the past decade alone, acreage increased by 40 percent. The number of trees per acre went up significantly as well.
New season Colorado potato shipments are underway, but still light in volume, while increasing.
About 250 truck loads were shipping last week.
While we don’t a forecast yet for the 2015-16 shipping season it appears there won’t be any drastic changes in total truck shipments from this past year.
The San Luis Valley planted 52,900 acres of potatoes for the 2014-15 shipping season. With the end of July the region had shipped nearly 14 million cwt of fresh market spuds.
There were 2,561 truck loads shipped during July, compared to 2,291 in July 2014 and 1,839 in 2013. Shipments to date for the 2014-15 seaspm were 30,325 truck loads, compared to 29,344 in 2014 and 31,988 in 2013.
Organic potato acreage continues to increase, and now exceeds 4,000 acres.
Shipments of yellow potatoes also is increasing. It now accounts for 8 to 10 percent of the volume each year nationally. Russet Norkotahs continue to lead the pack in overall potato acreage in the San Luis Valley. Red potato shipments are a much smaller percentage.
Fingerlings and specialty potato shipments also are increasing from the San Luis Valley.
San Luis Valley potato shipments – grossing about $3300 to Cleveland.
Woerner Purchases Cañon Potato
Cañon Potato Co. has been acquired by Woerner Holdings Inc. and Woerner subsidiary H.C. Schmieding Produce Co. will market and distribute potatoes from Cañon’s Center, Colo., facility.
In the deal, Woerner takes on the packing and storage facility of Cañon Potato, which announced its closure in 2013. That’s when the co-owner and a sales veteran left to join a competing Colorado shipper.
Springdale, Ark.-based potato shipper H.C. Schmieding Produce was sold to West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Woerner in April.
The sweet potato harvest in the South started in August and shipments are expected to be pretty steady this season. However, it will probably be October before the old crop is finished being shipped.
In 2014 about 115,000 acres of sweet potatoes were harvested in the Southern states – primarily from North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Total volume is expected to be slightly higher this year.
North Carolina Sweet Potato Shipments
North Carolina, which grows and ships more sweet potatoes by far than any other state, could see a boost of 2,000 planted acres this season — up to 75,000 acres. Harvest got underway the last half of August. However, the old crop is still being shipped and probably won’t be finished up until late September or early October. The new crop has to be (or at least should be for better quality) cured before shipping.
Louisiana growers could see a 20 percent increase in acreage this season. In 2014 the state had 8,800 harvested acres.
Arkansas had 4,000 harvested acres in 2014. Most of it is grown and shipped by Matthews Ridgeview Farms, Wynne, Ark.
In 2014, Alabama had 2,000 harvested acres and had started their harvest in early August.
Eastern North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to Atlanta, $3000 to Boston.
The most enduring impacts of the four-year California drought may be felt in the citrus industry, where tree removal and replanting take acres out of production for about five years. If they’re replanted at all.
Valencias were the first and easiest target for removal, given the decline in demand for that fruit, but some navel groves have come down too. Bulldozers are still shying away, though, from mandarins.
Bob Blakely, director of industry relations for Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, estimates citrus tree removal for 2014 and 2015 will total up to 25,000 acres.
“It’s being escalated because growers don’t have enough water,” Blakely said. “They were taking out less productive, lower quality groves in 2014. This year we’re seeing some good-quality groves going out just because growers don’t have the water to take care of their trees. They’re having to make tough decisions and push out better trees than they pushed out last year.”
“Underperforming groves have been targeted to eventually take out or replace,” said Seth Wollenman, sales and brand manager for Lindsay, Calif.-based Suntreat Packing & Shipping Co.
Some lost acreage has already been replanted with more desirable varieties. New trees use less water than mature trees, and some growers have seen the drought as an opportunity to accelerate redevelopment.
“Where they have trees available they’re going ahead and replanting, betting that this drought will break and that they’ll have water to bring those trees on into production,” Blakely said. “I think it’s going to be several years before we see the kind of yields we had prior to the drought.”
California navels will start in mid-October if they repeat their performance in the last two years, given the early starts of other crops in the state. Navels typically start around Nov. 1.
Yields are likely to equal last year’s, Blakely said, but tree removal will push volume down. Weather could pose problems too.
“If we don’t get some rains in the fall to size it up, we could still be looking at small sizes and fewer boxes,” he said July 24.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture and USDA will release the annual navel estimate in the second week of September. Valencias, a summer fruit, continue to harvest in the fall.
Mandarins
On the easy-peel side, satsuma oranges are expected to arrive ahead of navels, in late September or early October. Clementine production should start a little after the navels.
“They’re picking clementines up until Christmas or so, and the murcotts are the spring variety,” Blakely said.
He expected California mandarin volumes to be up this year as new acreage continues to come into production.
“That’s going to continue to trend up for several years.
Southern California valencias – grossing about $7000 to Boston.
Apple shipments from New York and Ontario should be normal volume this season. However, apple loadings out of New England could show a double digit increase.
The U.S. Apple Association says New England’s six-state harvest is expected to be about 14 percent higher than last year’s and 18 percent above the region’s five-year average. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates total New England apple shipments will come in at just under 170 million pounds. The estimate is for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.
New York Apples
A lot, if not the majority of New York’s apple shipments originate from the Hudson Valley and Western New York. The Empire State has shipped about 30 million bushels of apples every year for the last several years. Total volume for the 2015-16 season are expected to be close to the five-year average.
The harvest in New York started in late-August and continues through early-November,
Currently shipments included Jonamacs, McIntoshes, Zestars, Paula Reds, Ginger Golds and Galas.
Ontario Apple Shipments
Extreme cold last winter damaged some trees and forced a later spring in Ontario, but growers in the Georgian Bay region still anticipate average crops this year. However, that isn’t the case in all parts of the province.
Ontario normally produces about 7-million bushels of apples annually, but this year it’s estimated the crop will be about 4-million. Harvest is now underway.
Wisconsin potato shipments should be good this season, as should be onion loadings from Idaho and Oregon.
The Wisconsin potato harvest has been underway for a few weeks and will continue into the fall.
Central Wisconsin potato shipments should average, with good quality. Nice color with yellows and red potatoes is reported, plus Wisconsin is shipping more niche potatoes like fingerlings, yellow and specialty potatoes.
Concerning national potato shipments this fall, it appears volume with be similar to last year, which means there will be plenty of loading opportunities for spuds. However, this won’t be certain for two months or more until product is in stoarges and the danger of frost damage is gone.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3300 to San Antonio.
Idaho Oregon Onion Shipments
A hot summer has led some Idaho and eastern Oregon onion growers to harvest onions as much as two weeks earlier than normal, resulting from triple digit temperature for a two-week span.
That acreage includes about 1,650 acres of red onions, and more than 500 acres of whites. The balance — and the vast majority — is yellow onions.
The region is expecting onion shipments to be similar to last year.
Loadings could be off a little because of the extreme temperatures. The Idaho-Oregon onion season overlaps with California and New Mexico.
Shipments from Idaho and eastern Oregon occur from August through April and rank second only to Washington state in terms of domestic acreage and volume.
Although yellow spot virus is a potential problem in some areas of the Northwest — including Washington’s northern Columbia Basin — Idaho and eastern Oregon growers claim the virus has not appeared to be a big issue for them this season.
Here’s an update on projected shipments of Washington apples, as well as a glimpse at Asian pear loadings out of California.
Washington state apple shipments are forecast to be their third largest on record. Loadings totaling 125.2 million 40-pound boxes of fresh apples are expected to be shipped. While this would be down approximately 10.5 percent from the 2014 record crop of 140 million boxes, it is just behind the state’s second-largest season of 128.3 million boxes shipped during the 2012-13 season.
Red Delicious remains the variety with the most shipments, representing a projected 25 percent of the crop. Gala is close behind at 23 percent, followed by Fuji at 13.7 percent and Granny Smith at 13 percent. This season, Honeycrisp is forecast to come in at 7 percent of the total crop, which would move it past Golden Delicious to become the fifth-ranked variety by production volume in Washington state.
The harvest started at the beginning of August for early varieties. Production typically peaks in September and October, finishing in November.
Yakima Valley apple shipments – grossing about $6000 to Orlando.
California Asian Pear Shipments
There has been a good transition from the Chilean season that is winding down to the California Asian pears in the second half of August. Shipments will continue into at least January, with similar volumes to last year out of the San Joaquin Valley.
Extreme heat in the second half of August had slowed California grape shipments, but volume is now picking back up. Meanwhile, you know fall is rapidly approaching when pomegranate and cranberry loadings get underway.
Grape volume have been hit and miss all season. At one point growers were waiting on green varieties to add sugar. In the second half of August, red varieties were taking their time to add color. It has made for an unpredictable years as far as steady shipments are concerned. Steady, more predictable shipments should come in the months ahead.
California grapes, stone fruit, melons and veggies from the San Joaquin Valley – grossing about $4800 to Houston, $6400 to Philly.
California Pomegranates
Very light volume from the Bakersfield areas has been underway for a couple of weeks, but will be strong from mid-October leading up to Thanksgiving (November 26th) with a resurgence in fresh pomegranate shipments prior to Christmas.
Cranberry Shipments
Fresh Cranberry shipments will get underway from Wisconsin and Massachusetts in late September, followed by Washington state.
About 33 million pounds of cranberries are expected to be shipped fresh in the U.S. this season, up slightly up from a year ago. Growers have seen market prices plunge because of new acreage that was planted in 2009. The U.S. produced 7.01 million 100-pound barrels of cranberries in 2009. In 2013, production was 8.96 million barrels.
The cranberry estimate for 2015-16 volumes is set at 8.6 million barrels.
Two leading fresh cranberry shippers are Habelman Bros in Toma, WI and Decas Cranberry Products of Carver, Mass.