Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Northwest produce haulers are already looking to fall shipments of several varieties of apples, pears and even apricots as well as some summer tree fruit.
Wenatchee Valley peaches and nectarines will begin in mid-July and run through early September. New crop pear and apple shipments get underway in early August.
Apple loadings will kick off with ginger golds the last week in July, followed by galas. Weather factors have crops coming on about 10 earlier than normal. Remanents of the huge Red Delicious crop from last season continue to be shipped from storage. Improved storage technology has resulted in varieties like granny smith, golden delicious, galas and red delicious to be shipped out of Washington year-round.
Honeycrisp apples will start shipping in late August and continue until the end of May. That variety has really taken off in popularity with consumers and eventually, with added production, it should be available the year-round for hauling.
Apples continue to lead Northwest produce shipments, averaging about 2000 truck load equivalents weekly from the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys, followed by cherries with about 1500 loads a week. There is moderate volume with onions coming out of Washington’s Columbia Basin and Oregon’s Umatilla Basin.
Yakima Valley fruit – grossing about $5400 to Dallas.
The number of loads for the new season Michigan apple shipments will be down from original estimates, but still good…Meanwhile, here’s an update on shipping opportunities for California avocados.
Depending you who you ask, Michigan apple shipments will be somewhere between 22.5 and 25 million bushels. Last season, crop finished at 27 million bushels.
The Michigan apple industry is still collecting data for the final 2014-15 estimate.
Heading into the 2015 harvest, Michigan growers are expecting similar volumes from the Ridge area, higher volumes from the Southwest, similar volumes from the East and lighter volumes from the Northwest part of Michigan.
Michigan blueberry shipments have just started. We hope to have more info on loading opportunities soon.
Avocado Shipments
Over 70 percent of the California avocado shipments have been completed, with much of the volume now coming out of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo areas. California could ship up to 10 million pounds a week through mid-July before volumes begin a gradual decline.
Mexico’s 2014-15 crop is finishing up. However new crop loadings for Mexican avocado shipments are just starting.
Imports of Peruvian avocados began arriving at US ports within the last week or so.
Southern California avocados, tomatoes, vegetables – grossing about $5400 to Cleveland.
Texas appears to be gaining ground on California when it comes to fresh produce shipments…..In Georgia, Vidalia onion shipments apparently will be down overall as product is now coming out of storage.
Texas produce shipments are becoming ever more important when it comes to spot rates for refrigerated loads. This appears to be due to increased fruit and vegetable production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, plus more imports than ever from Mexico, as well as shift in demand from California in part because of the prolonged drought.
Although California had regained the top spot in late June, Texas volumes in the spot refrigerated freight market has surpassed California for the first time in early June, according to Mark Montague, manger of industry pricing for DAT Solutions.
Lower Rio Grande Valley watermelons and Mexican produce crossing the border – grossing about $2700 to Chicago.
Vidalia Onion Shipments
Vidalia onion shipments will be down as much as 40 percent this season for some shippers. Whether the reduction is due to excessive rains, or spring weather having too hot of temperatures, opinions vary. But shipments will be down, it’s just a matter of how much, since some shippers appear to have been hit harder than others. Vidalia onions are now being shipped out of storage, which can be “ify” some years when adverse weather or disease creates quality issues.
Southeastern Georgia Vidalia onions, as well as Southern Georgia bell peppers, sweet corn, eggplant, watermelons and squash – grossing about $3000 to New York City.
by Pear Bureau Northwest
PORTLAND, Ore. – The annual meeting of Northwest pear growers was conducted recently in Portland, with anticipated projections on the 2015 fresh pear shipments
set at nearly 20.4 million standard box equivalents which equates to approximately 451,000 tons of fresh pears. The projection is 2% higher than the five-year average, and 2% lower than last year’s crop. The estimate was collected from fresh pear growers in Wenatchee and Yakima, Washington and Mid-Columbia and Medford, Oregon growing districts.
With relatively mild winter and warm spring conditions in the regions, harvest is expected to be five to seven days earlier than last season, beginning in late July with Starkrimson, followed by the Bartlett harvest in early August. Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, Forelle, and Seckel will be picked from late August through September. With no major frost issues, crop quality is expected to be excellent with good fruit size for the domestic and export markets.
The top three varieties produced by Northwest growers remain the same as in previous years; Green Anjou pears are anticipated to make up 54% of the total 2015 crop, and Bartlett and Bosc pears are expected to yield 21% and 15%, respectively.
Harvest of certified organic pears in the Northwest is projected to make up about 5% of the total with 974,115 standard boxes (21,430 tons) for the 2015 harvest, a decrease of over 11% when compared with a strong 2014 organic crop, but still a healthy 8% increase over the five-year average. Bartlett and Green Anjou are the two most abundant organic pear varieties, with Bartlett estimated at 301,500 organic standard boxes, and Green Anjou projected yield at 377,000 boxes for 2015.
Washington apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $5900 to Houston.
Here is an overview of citrus imports arriving at US ports in the coming weeks and months. A significant trend is with sweet, easy-peel citrus ranging from clementines to Mandarins and Minneolas and others.
Chilean clementines – available from late May through August.
South African clementines – available from mid-June to July, and from Uruguay in May and June.
Australian late-season Mandarins -in late September through mid-October. From Chile and South Africa, they will be available from September through October.
Mandarins from Uruguay will be available July and August, and from Peru they will be available from mid-August through mid-September.
Australian Minneolas from Australia will be available from late August through September and from Peru from mid-July through August. Daisy Mandarins from Australia will be available in late June and July.
The vast majority of easy peelers and Navels produced in Chile are shipped to the U.S. market. Clementine imports from Chile should amount to 23,638 tons down slightly from last season. However, a large increase in Mandarin exports — from 30,096 tons to 43,338 tons is forecast. In total, the entire easy-peeler category is expected to grow by nearly 19 percent.
Mandarin exports to the US are showing strong growth — 44 percent — with heaviest volume arriving from mid-August through early November.
Chile exports citrus to the US from May through October; Clementines from May through August.
Late Mandarins from Chile are available from August through October.
The first conventional vessel of citrus from South Africa arrived at the port of Philadelphia on June 15 with about 3,800 pallets of easy peelers and Navel oranges Two additional vessels were scheduled to arrive by June 25 and July 6.
The detailed shipping plan from South Africa has conventional vessels arriving through October about every 10-12 days, based on market demand.
Container vessels with smaller volumes will arrive between to assure a steady supply of citrus.
Good volume is shaping for summer produce shipments out of both Michigan and New York state.
Michigan Produce Shipments
Blueberry shipments out of Michigan get underway around the 4th of July, with celery loadings coming the following week. Cucumbers get started around July 10th, with peppers getting underway the third week of July. Look for Michigan sweet corn shipmetns about July 20.
Yellow squash and zucchini have just started.
Michigan’s asparagus movement ended about 10 days ago. The state harvested an average crop of 9,500 acres of asparagus, of which about half this volume went to the fresh market.
As much as two-thirds of Michigan’s carrot shipments goes to the processing market. The fresh market harvest is set to begin in September, with shipments running into January. Michigan carrots are planted by seed and the 2015 crop was in the ground by mid-June.
Michigan onion shipments will start in mid-September.
New York Produce Shipments
Coming soon will be dozens of different vegetables. Summer squash loadings have started and many others such as potatoes get underway with the arrival of July.
Apples are perhaps New York state’s biggest crops. A good shipping season that starts the last half of August is expected.
Light to moderate volume of old crop apples still shipping – Hudson Valley apples grossing about $2000 to Atlanta.
Here’s a look at Northwest fruit shipments, the upcoming pear season, and a glimpse at summertime imports from South American and Mexico.
Northwest cherry shipments are peaking, but loadings will probably be down significantly by mid-July. After a slow start due to late rains, Washington cherry shipments have hit stride the second half of June, with plenty of loadings heading into the Fourth of July. No record cherry shipments are seen this season, with the crop likely topping out at 16 million to 17 million boxes.
Pear Shipments
2015 fresh pear shipments forecast at nearly 20.4 million boxes. which is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2percent lower than the 2014 crop. Loadings should begin about a week earlier than last season, starting in late July.
Apple shipments, pear shipments from the old crop, and new crop cherry shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago, $7500 to New York City.
Chilean Orange Imports
The initial arrivals of Chilean imported navel oranges arrived recently in the U.S. with 11,200 boxes on the boat. Future arrivals at US ports on both coast will build in the weeks ahead and continue into early November.
Asparagus Imports
Good supplies of imported asparagus are arriving from Central Mexico by truck a US border crossings and by boat at US ports from Peru. “Grass” is a popular grilling item with many Americans over the Independence holiday.
Eastern Shore vegetable shipments are underway for the summer from Virginia, Delaware and Maryland.
Fresh produce shipments typically start in early June, but those crops were a little late because of a cooler spring. Growers produce two fresh-crop seasons, except for potatoes which have just one season.
Virginia potato shipments began around June 20, and will be in full swing with good loadings by early July
Although numerous fresh produce items are grown in the Eastern Shore region, Virginia’s main crop is potatoes, which has between 3,000 and 4,000 acres.
Most of the potatoes produced in Virginia are shipped throughout the eastern U.S., as far west as the Mississippi River and include red, white, yellow and russet potatoes. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is distributed in those regions. When the Southern states stop producing, shipments are redirected to the South. Some of potatoes are distributed in Canada.
Dublin Farms in Horntown is one of the state’s biggest potato shippers.
The Eastern Shore also has significant acreage in tomatoes and green beans, with C&E Farms in Cheriton being the largest shipper of green beans. The farming operation produces about 750,000 bushels of beans annually off of its 5,000 acres.
The two major tomato operations on the shore are expected to produce about the same volumes of round, Roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes during this season, which runs from late June through September.
It should be a good summer for produce truckers who haul fruit out of the Northwest.
Cherry shipments are underway, while most other stone fruit crops will begin in mid-July, picking up speed as the calendar switches to August, and then going strong until the end of the month, with the late fruit still shipping out in early September. Northwest stone fruit shipments to Canada have been showing significant increases in recent years.
A little over one-third of American households purchase peaches, five times more than buy kale. Kale, of course, is the hot, trendy vegetable in America these days.
Apricot production ramped up in early June and was expected to continue through the month. Apricots are expected to be similar in size to last year’s large 7,500 ton crop. Organic apricots are making their mark. It may only be 2 percent of the U.S. category, but it’s growing at three times the rate of conventional.
Pear Shipments
The 2015 fresh pear shipments are forecast at nearly 20.4 million box equivalents, which equates to approximately 451,000 tons of fresh pears. The projection is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2 percent lower than last year’s crop. The estimate was collected from fresh pear growers in Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford, OR, growing districts.
Northwest pear shipments start in late July with Starkrimson, followed by the Bartlett harvest in early August. Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, Forelle and Seckel will be picked from late August through September.
Apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $7300 to Orlando.
Michigan blueberry shipments will be down this season, but it’s a matter of how much. In New Jersey, blueberry shipments should be similar to a year ago.
Two bitterly cold winters back-to-back hit blueberry bushes in Michigan, causing “winter kill” that will reduce shipments for the 2015 season.
The severity of damage varies widely, though, with some growers saying the crop will be “slightly smaller” and others saying some varieties in some areas will be down 50 percent. Still, decent volume is being predicted for Michigan blueberries starting the second week of July with strong shipments through the end of August and possibly into September.
Michigan apples and vegetables – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
New Jersey Blueberry Shipments
New Jersey blueberry shipments got underway about a week ago and are now moving into good volumes. In 2014, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics service showed New Jersey growers produced more than 57.8 million pounds of blueberries on approximately 8,800 acres. New Jersey currently ranks fifth in national production. Early indications show that New Jersey is on track to match, if not exceed, 2014 totals.