Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Northwest pear shipments are underway and estimated at 19.9 million boxes for the season. Both apple and pear shipments are increasing.
This is down slightly from an earlier estimate last spring. However, this will still be the fifth largest crop on record. It’s 4 percent less than 2014 but just 1 percent less than the five-year average. The record is 21.6 million in 2013.
Overall, the Northwest provide good loading opportunities, not only for pears this season, but apple shipments are predicted to be the third largest volume on record.
The Wenatchee district forecast was revised downward from 9.4 million to 9.24 million boxes.
The next district in volume, Yakima, is forecast down 12 percent, the Mid-Columbia (Hood River, Ore.) is down 7 percent and the smallest in volume, Medford, is up 16 percent.
Washington state is shipping nearly 500 truck load equivalents of pears a week, with weekly volume from the new crop still increasing.
Apple shipments from Washington are hitting about 1,800 truck load equivalents each week, but still increasing as new crop volume is on the rise, and the old crop winds down.
Washington state apples and pears – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Virginia Apples
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture expects Virginia apple shipments to total 180 million pounds.
Virginia is ranked No. 6 among apple-growing states. Quality this season is reported to be good.
Georgia fall produce shipments are underway, and should provide steady, although only moderate loading opportunities. The Carolinas have light volume veggies.
There are adequate supplies of bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, sweet corn, green beans and cabbage coming out of Southern Georgia. One of the state’s largest vegetable shippers is Southern Valley Fruit & Vegetable Inc., based in Norman Park.
Another good sized vegetable shipper is Baker Farms LLC in Norman Park, Ga., which started shipping leafy greens, including kale and collard greens, on September 14th. Baker ships product throughout the year but increases its fall volume in September.
A number of Florida-based vegetable shippers also have farming and marketing operations in Georgia. One example is Pioneer Growers Co-op of Belle Glade, FL, which plans to start harvesting sweet corn and green beans in Bainbridge, Ga., in late September.
Carolina Vegetable Shipments
You’re probably not going to be finding full loads of produce in Georgia, and certainly not in the Carolinas this fall. There is light volume with greens from the Lexington, SC area, as well as from Eastern North Carolina. Even sweet potato shipments are lighter than normal from Eastern, NC. The old crop in virtually finished, while the harvest is underway for a new crop that needs to be cured before being shipped.
Otherwise, Western North Carolina has a number of vegetables ranging from bell peppers to eggplant and squash, all of which have light volume.
Growers from California’s two primary pear growing regions—Lake and Mendocino counties and the Sacramento River Delta—are wrapping up harvest this year with positive reports about fruit quality. The two regions combined should ship approximately 170,000 tons of pears this season that will be shipped to fresh markets ranging from retailers to wholesalers and foodservice operations, plus canned markets across the U.S. and around the globe.
The total California pear shipments for Bartletts is estimated at 159,500 tons.
Of the 159,500 tons of pears expected this year, 113,000 tons are sold to canneries, 37,200 tons to the fresh market, and the remainder goes to baby food, puree and juice.
Rivermaid Trading Co. of Lodi, CA is the largest grower, packer and shipper of fresh pears in California, representing at least 50 percent of pears packed in the state, Most of these are Bartlett pears, although there are other varietals such as boscs, red pears, French butter and Comice.
California pears – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
Chilean Cranberry Imports
Chilean fresh cranberries will be exported to the U.S. for the first time, beginning in 2016. The Southern hemisphere country, which has a season opposite those of this country, will harvest its cranberries March through May.
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.