Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
An unprecedented reduction in the projected Florida citrus crop just a month after its initial forecast has been issued by the USDA.
Florida is predicted to produce only 74 million boxes of oranges, the lowest harvest in 52 years. That is 6 million fewer boxes of oranges than its Oct. 9 projection, an 8 percent decline, and 24 percent below the 2014-15 orange crop of 96.8 million boxes.
The Florida grapefruit shipments have been cut by 100,000 boxes to 12.2 million boxes, but left the projected tangerine crop at 1.75 million boxes. The expected tangelo harvest plummeted by 11 percent over the month to just 400,000 boxes, the lowest total in 59 years.
The increasingly damaging effects of the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening, which has spread to virtually all of Florida’s 501,396 grove acres, led to the reductions. Greening’s most significant effects on the crop are smaller fruit sizes and an increase in the amount of mature fruit that drops to the ground before it can be harvested.
Chilean Cherry Imports
As of mid November, Chile has exported 32,661 boxes of cherries vs. 992,334 boxes (156 tons vs. 4,392 tons) compared to the same time last year. This is a reflection of a delay in harvest dates caused in part by an unusually cold spring, as well as a drop in production due to other weather conditions.
The committee has released a revised estimate of 88,500 tons (17.7 million cases), a reduction of 31,500 tons from its original projection in September and a decrease of 14,500 tons from last season.
Potato shipments from the Red River Valley of North Dakota, the nation’s largest red potato growing area, should be the largest in more than decade.The North Dakota potato shipments are forecast at 27.2 million hundredweight (cwt.), or 3.3 million cwt. more than 2014, a 14 percent increase. It is the largest North Dakota potato crop since 2003.
More planted acres and higher yields are being attributed to the big crop. 82,000 acres were planted to potatoes in 2015, 3,000 more than in 2014. The average yield in the state, a combination of irrigated and dryland crops, was 340 cwt. per acre smashing the old record by 25 cwt./acre set just last year.
Minnesota Potato Shipments
The November estimate has the Minnesota potato crop at 18.48 million cwt., up just over 2 million cwt. from last year or a 12.7 percent increase. The average yield in Minnesota was also up sharply from last year at 420 cwt. per acre, compared to 400 last year. Red River Valley potato shipments typically have tight truck supplies every season.
U.S. Potato Shipments
The estimates for the U.S. 2015-16 season is at 408.6 million cwt., up nearly 5 million cwt. compared to last year. Unusually high yields in many states contributed to the increase. Record yields were reported in North Dakota, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin, and near record yields in several other states. On the flip side, summer heat took the top off yields in the Northwest, particularly in Idaho, the nation’s biggest potato shipper by far.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1700 to Chicago.
There have been nearly 19.6 million boxes of the 2015-16 crop of Washington apples shipped as of November 1st. This represents 16.5 percent of the projected 118.4 million boxes of fruit harvested. Meanwhile, Chilean citrus imports continue to grow.
The amount shipped thus far at this time a year ago is more than the 15.5 percent shipped at this point on the 2013 crop, which was of a similar size of 115 million boxes. The harvest of the 2015-16 apple crop began earlier this year and progressed quickly. The Washington apple shipping estimate is likely to change as growers get a firmer handle on the total crop size.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Chilean Citrus Imports
Chile shipped nearly 204,000 tons of Navels, lemons and easy peelers (clementines and Mandarins) globally, with 165,000 tons, or 81 percent, coming to the United States and Canada between May and October 2015.
Total citrus exports from Chile climbed 30 percent over the previous season. Concerning global Chilean citrus exports, easy peelers represented 37 percent, oranges 33 percent and lemons 30 percent. The largest increase in terms of shipping volumes vs. last season corresponded to late Mandarins (57 percent), followed by lemons (43 percent), oranges (18 percent) and then clementines (11 percent).
The most impressive growth was with Mandarins, as North America volume skyrocketed to 42,124 tons from 27,354 tons — an increase of 54 percent.
Observers foresee 20 percent annual growth in combined volume of clementines and Mandarins for at least the next three years, so total volume will soon exceed 100,000 tons.
If you eat a salad, or haul vegetable items making up a salad in late fall or winter, you probably picked up that product in the Yuma, AZ vegetable district, or California’s Imperial Valley.
The Yuma vegetable district has 90,000 acres of winter veggies.
The website of the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association proclaims, “Yuma farmers produce enough Iceberg lettuce each year for every person in the United States, Canada and Mexico to have their very own head of lettuce — with enough lettuce left for every person in the United Kingdom to have one too.”
So far the Yuma vegetable season, which is now shipping in light volume, is felt by many to be a normal one from an acreage, production and shipping stand point. Some weather issues early in the planting and growing season is leading to lighter volume and some minor shipping gaps for the early period. It will probably be early December before good steady volume and shipments are available.
The primary vegetable items Iceberg lettuce, romaine, red leaf, green leaf and other mixed lettuce items.
Two of the main concerns are the possible effects of The El Nino, as well as a shortage of laborers for harvest.
Yuma lettuce and melons – grossing grossing about $5900 to New York City.
Polk remained Florida’s top citrus county in the 2014-15 season, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It led Florida citrus production with more than 16.8 million boxes, or 15 percent of the state total.
Polk ranked second in production of oranges with more than 15.2 million boxes – 16 percent of total state production of 96.8 million boxes – and just 19,000 boxes behind top-ranked Hendry County. It led in “specialty citrus” production, tangerines and tangelos, at 915,000 boxes, or 31 percent of percent of Florida production.
Polk’s 2014-15 grapefruit harvest was 670,000 boxes, third highest in the state behind Indian River and St. Lucie counties, each with nearly 5 million grapefruit boxes.
Still Polk County citrus production fell compared to the past several seasons, as it has across the state. In 2013-14, Polk growers harvested 19.9 million boxes of citrus, including 17.5 million orange boxes, 1.2 million grapefruit boxes and nearly 1.2 million tangerine and tangelo boxes.
Polk had the most citrus grove land in Florida with 80,488 acres, the USDA reported. That was down 1.6 percent from 81,810, half the statewide loss of 3 percent.
Trailing Polk were DeSoto County citrus with 66,302 acres, Hendry County with 64,063 acres, Highlands County with 58,287 acres and Hardee County with 58,287 acres. None of the remaining 23 major citrus-producing counties has more than 30,000.
Polk also ranks No. 1 in the citrus tree count with 9.9 million trees, the USDA reported. Following are Hendry with 9.7 million trees, DeSoto with 8.9 million trees, Highlands with 7.7 million trees and Hardee with 6 million commercial citrus trees.
Christmas tree shipments started a couple of weeks ago, and in some areas this puts a crunch on truck available for hauling fresh produce.
While fresh fruits and vegetables typically pay better than dry freight, the annual shipments of Christmas trees means even higher paying rates – sometimes 10 to 20 percent more. The downside is some trucker don’t like hauling the trees because they can damage in the inside walls of the trailer. Still produce shippers say it’s more difficult finding enough trucks for fresh produce hauls, especially if you are located in one of the leading states for Christmas tree production.
Christmas tree shipments are rapidly increasing in volume and will actually continue until two or three days before the December 25th observance of the birth of Christ.
Here’s the leading Christmas tree shipping states, based on 2012 USDA numbers: 1 – Oregon, 6.4 million; 2 – North Carolina, 4.2 million, 3 – Michigan, 1.7 million; 4 – Pennsylvania, 1 million; 5 – Wisconsin, 611,000; 6 – Washington, 587,000; 7 – Virginia, 478,000; 8 – New York, 274,000; 9 – Maine, 195,000; and 10 – Connecticut, 159,000.
Christmas trees are grown for sale in 45 U.S states on 174,000 acres of land in the United States.
About 24.5 million live Christmas trees were purchased in 2012, down from 30.8 million in 2011, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Of those, 85 percent were pre-cut and 14 percent were harvested at cut-your-own enterprises. In the same year, 24 percent of Christmas trees were sold from cut-your-own tree farms and another 24 percent from chain stores. Significant percentages of Christmas trees were also sold from retail lots (15 percent), nonprofit groups (15 percent) and nursery/garden centers (11 percent).
Bustard’s Christmas Trees in Lehighton, PA. has been selected to provide the national Christmas tree this year. The tree chosen is a Fraser fir to be used in the White House Blue Room this coming holiday season. The tree stands 19 feet tall and measures about 11 feet wide. The Bustard family has been in the Christmas tree business over 85 years.
The projected total U.S. avocado shipments are expected to set a record 1.7 billion pounds from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016. This includes shipments of imported avocados from Mexico.
Through September, about 1.6 billion pounds of avocados had shipped in the U.S. year-to-date, and 1.2 billion pounds of that came from Mexico. The reason so much more product comes from Mexico is it is the only country, primarily due to climate, that has the ability to ship the fruit year around.
The total from all sources compares to 1.2 billion pounds through September 2014, 14 percent less than this year
The jump for Mexican product is even greater. The 900 million pounds shipped through last September was 38 percent lower than this year’s total.
October, November and December tend to be slower months for avocado shipments, but by the end of 2015, a projected 2.1 billion pounds will have shipped in the U.S. An estimated 1.7 billion pounds of that will be Mexican fruit, up from 1.3 billion bounds in all of 2014,
The contrast to only eight years ago is pretty amazing. The Mexican avocado industry has grown in less than a decade (2007), from 479 million pounds exported to the U.S. That’s barely more than the amount by which exports increased from 2014-15. Increasing volume isn’t expected to plateau anytime soon.
Mexican exports to the U.S. are increasing so rapidly, there’s less room for fruit from countries like Chile. Chile is following a similar path set by California, where domestic demand is so strong, so there’s little incentive to export.
Mexican avocado and other imported produce entering the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $2400 to Chicago, $4000 to New York City.
Now is the heaviest time of the year for shipments of California dates….Plus here’s news on an expansion of a major Florida strawberry shipper.
With the harvest in storage, California has a bumper date crop this year. Although dates are shipped year around, the November-December holiday season is the heaviest. Dates are a great fall item and common on holiday menus. A significant change has occurred in recent years with date shipments. Retailers used to order a heavier volume in early November, stack up the date cartons in their warehouse and keep an inventory for the two end-of-the-year holiday months. Now many retailers want weekly shipments on date and many other items as they seek to cut warehousing costs.
SunDate LLC of Coachella, CA is a major date shipper in the Coachella Valley where most of the product is grown and shipped.
Florida Strawberry Sipments
PLANT CITY, FL – Family-owned and operated Astin Farms, is continuing to expand its operations on the heels of a recent 200-acre farmland acquisition in Plant City, FL.
Astin, which was formed in 2001, has begun to make its mark in the produce industry. Recently the company added 10,000 square-feet of refrigerated old storage space and two new cooling units to address the growth of Astin’s conventional and organic strawberry program.
New expansion will now allow the company to pre-cool about 13,000 cases at a time. The new cooling space is slated to be in operation by mid-December.
In addition, Astin will have 160 acres of blueberries this spring and just recently planted another 100 acres. Astin produces over 40 million pounds of fruit each season which is shipped across and to Canada.
Here’s a round up of produce shipments, ranging from sweet potatoes from the four leading states, to Washington apples, Texas grapefruit and pineapple imports.Due to dry weather Mississippi sweet potato shipments are down this season along with yields of the crop. The state has over 100 sweet potato growers with 23,200 acres of the crop. That is up about 12 percent from acreage planted in 2014. Mississippi, as well as neighboring Louisiana, plus the Atwater, Livingston district in California, are all averaging between 40 and 50 loads of sweet potatoes being shipped weekly. By contrast, the industry leading North Carolina is shipping nearly 300 truck loads a week, primarily from the eastern part the of state.
Washington Apple Shipments
The Washington state apple harvest is virtually finished. Estimates now vary between a low of 110 million bushels and a high of 115 million bushels to be shipped this season. There will still be plenty of opportunities for apple haulers, even with the small crop.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
Texas Grapefruit Shipments
The Texas grapefruit harvest, which got underway in late September should continue through April. Normal shipments are seen this season, with heaviest volume occurring during January and February from the Lower Rio Grande Valley. About a 25 percent decrease is expected compared to last year’s record-crop of 150 million bushels.
Texas grapefruit, oranges, as well as numerous imports from Mexico – grossing about $2200 to Atlanta.
Pineapple Imports
El Nino weather conditions had hit Costa Rica pineapple exports, where most pineapple are sourced this time of the year. As a result, shipments of the fruit to the United States and are now about 17 percent below normal. The lower volume is expected until January.
Here’s a look at the final months of California table grape shipments and the outlook for the new crop of California Navel oranges.
Adverse weather reduced California table grape shipments the first part of the season, but the second half of the season has been more stable with steady shipments. Approximately 15 percent of the crop is left to harvest and about 25 percent of the crop has yet to be shipped. Still, about 2,000 truck loads are being shipped weekly from the San Joaquin Valley.
Actually more shipments are now occurring in the fall and less in the off-season, considered to be spring and summer. Loadings can go up to four million boxes a week during the season and only about two-and-a-half million boxes when not in season.
California grapes – grossing about $5100 to Atlanta.
California Orange Shipments
With harvesting of the California Navel orange crop under way, there is a pre-season estimate of nearly a 10 percent increase in volume. California is projected to ship an estimated at 86 million cartons this season, with all but 3 million of that coming from the Central San Joaquin Valley. This would represent an 8.5 percent increase over last year’s volume.
A survey of orchards indicate a fruit set per tree of 412 in California’s 122,000 acres of bearing trees. That number is 20 percent higher than the five-year average of 336.
California citrus shipments occur from October into July, with the January to April time frame being the peak season. California is bracing for above-average rainfall for the first time in five years as the El Nino weather condition is expected to drop a lot of water, especially in the southern half of the state. The Central Valley runs from the south to the north, but the majority of citrus groves are in the southern half.
California citrus – grossing about $6600 to Boston.