Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Produce shipments should start returning to more normal movement now that we are past the holidays and receivers are starting to replenish their stocks. Here’s a look at produce shipping from several areas around the country.
Western Lettuce Shipments
Lettuce shipments, led by Iceberg and romaine are originating primarily out of the Yuma district of Arizona. Other leading items are celery, broccoli and cauliflower, although cold weather has cut into volume. Loadings are much lighter from the California desert, primarily from the Imperial Valley, Coachella Valley and Palo Verde.
Apple Shipments
Washington’s Yakima and Wenatchee valleys are averaging bout 2500 truckloads per week. New York state, led by the Hudson Valley, is shipping about 250 truckloads weekly. Michigan is third in volume about 175 trucks per week.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
Texas Produce Shipments
Overall, it’s still relatively light for produce items here. This is light to moderate shipments of grapefruit and oranges from the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The is better volume of Mexican tropical fruits and vegetables crossing the border.
South Texas citrus and Mexican produce freight rates were up 15 to 20 percent during the holidays, depending on the destination; for example, grossing about $2900 to Atlanta. Rates could drop with the holidays past us.
East Coast Produce Shipments
Pretty slim pickin’s over all. If you’re coming out of Florida with a partial load, there’s very light volume of cabbage and greens being shipped from Southern Georgia…Eastern North Carolinas is loading sweet potatoes in moderate volume….Dry onion shipments are coming out of Orange County, NY. Partial loads of cabbage are coming out of central and western New York. Apples are available from the Hudson Valley, Champlain Valley, plus central and western areas….Aroostrock County, Maine has light volume with potatoes.
North Carolina sweet potato shipments – grossing about $3000 to Boston.
Weekly boat shipments between the Mexican ports of Veracruz and Altamira and the port of Philadelphia have been scheduled by Miramar, Fla.-based SeaLand of Miramar, FL.
The service will provide goods such as avocados, lemons and tomatoes, according to a Sealand news release. It is geared for producers and exporters of perishable goods to the U.S. and provides the economies of scale, security and reliability of an ocean service combined with expedited transit.
From Philadelphia, Mexican shippers can reach up to 40 percent of the U.S. population within a day’s drive by truck. The service features a six-day transit time, and its first sailing is planned for January 26 out of Veracruz.
The SeaLand Atlantico service will have the following port rotation: Veracruz-Altamira-Philadelphia, the release said.
“We are pleased to provide Mexican exporters an alternative to land transport with a high level of security and care for their products,” Jorge Monzalvo, SeaLand Mexico commercial manager, said in the release. “With the SeaLand Atlantico customers avoid transloading cargo, congestion at the border and limited truck power between countries.”
Here’s an update on California citrus shipments, Red River Valley potatoes, plus the government’s 2016 outlook for food prices.
About 84 million boxes of California navels, 8 percent more than last year, are expected to be harvested this season. The estimate remains unchanged from the preseason harvest. This is a pleasant surprise considering all of the fruit and vegetable shipments that have been disrupted this winter ranging from the California desert to Mexico and Florida.
California citrus – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
North Dakota growers, dealers, and processors held 19.5 million hundredweight (cwt.) of potatoes in storage on December 1, or 72 percent of production. Stocks one year earlier were considerably lower at 16.9 million cwt., which represented 71 percent of the total crop.
Minnesota held 12.5 million cwt., or 68 percent of production, that compares to 10 million cwt. and 61 percent in 2014. Total stocks are defined as all potatoes on hand, regardless of use, including those that will be lost through future shrinkage and dumping.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1700 to Chicago.
2016 Inflation Outlook
Fruit and vegetable retail prices should rise at a faster rate in 2016 than the previous year.
The USDA’s latest Food Price Outlook predicts retail inflation for fresh fruits for 2016 at 2.5% to 3.5%, compared to estimated deflation of -1.25 to -2.25 percent in 2015. The USDA said part of the reason for the decline in fruit prices in 2015 was linked to the supply and price of imports.
Fresh vegetable retail prices are projected to increase by 2 to 3 percent in 2016. That compares with modest projected inflation of 0.75 to 1.75 percemt for retail fresh vegetables in 2015.
Overall retail food inflation for 2016 is projected to rise in a normal range of between 2 to 3 percent, up from estimates of 2015 inflation of 1.5 to 2.5 percent, according to the USDA. Inflation for food away from home is projected in a range between 2.5 to 3.5 in 2016, up from 2.2 to 3.2 inflation projected for 2015.
Growing and shipping fruits and vegetables in winter is risky business and weather conditions too often play havoc. For example, cold weather in the California and Arizona deserts are disrupting vegetable shipments. In Florida, southern vegetables have been pounded by heavy rains, literally wiping out crops. Strawberry shipments further north in Florida are being hurt by heat.
Desert Vegetable Shipments
Cold weather in the early season and variable weather since then has slowed vegetable growth – and shipments of cauliflower, broccoli, Iceberg lettuce, leaf items or Brussels sprouts. With temperature highs varying as much as 20 degrees from day to day, problems happen. Then there are nightly lows around freezing, that curtail early morning harvests. The result is volume running 25 to 50 percent below normal, which will continue through the end of the year. Farming operations are having to remove the outer leaves of lettuce with ice damage.
California, Arizona desert vegetables grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
Florida Vegetable Shipments
South Florida’s Redlands growing region was hit with torrential rains in early December, resulting in severe damage to winter yellow squash, zucchini and green beans.
The 15 inches of rain that pounded Florida City and Homestead, Fla., also hurt tomatoes and sweet corn, but the squash and beans sustained the most severe damage with losses in the 60 to 70 percent range. The excessive water killed many plants and caused serious quality issues that prevented vegetables from being shipped for the Christmas holidays.
The region grows product primarily mid-November through mid-April, similar to Belle Glade, Fla., and Immokalee.
Belle Glade ships corn and beans while Immokalee ships beans, tomatoes and squash.
Florida Strawberry Shipments
Higher than normal temperatures in the Plant City, FL area has resulted in strawberry shipments facing shipping gaps. Volume is less than normal due to the heat. Although volume is starting to increase, it will probably be the second full week of January before loadings are up to where they should be.
Florida vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
The Port of Wilmington, Delaware last week received the first fresh fruit of the winter season for the United States, for distribution throughout the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The fruit arrived on The Pacific Mermaid, a refrigerated vessel operated by Trans Global Shipping N.V. of the Global Reefers service. The boat’s cargo had nearly 618,500 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and table grapes.
This was the sixth consecutive year Delaware has received the initial break bulk shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River, but in the U.S. The Port of Wilmington expects this season to receive at least two dozen more shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo and Caldera.
Over 50 percent of the Chilean fruit sent to U.S. markets travels through Delaware River ports, with Chile becoming Wilmington’s largest refrigerated storage customer during the Southern Hemisphere growing season.
Last season, the port handled over 18.65 million boxes of Chilean fruit, a 10 percent increase over the 2013-2014 season.
More than 2,000 people work at the port and more than 750 jobs are tied to the Chilean fruit trade, which generates about $40 million in personal income for those involved and $4 million in tax revenue.
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.