Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Florida spring produce shipments continue to roll along, while Georgia is starting to show signs of life.
Over a 1,000 truck loads of mature green, plum and roma tomatoes are being shipped weekly from central and southern portions of Florida. Over 700 trucks loads of sweet corn also are be loaded each week, while good volume also is found with potatoes, bell peppers, cabbage and cucumbers. Dozens of other spring veggies also are being shipped in smaller quantities.
April has seen a big increase in volumes of Florida blueberry shipments. In late March there was virtually no movement, but volume exploded the week of April 6th as shipments took off. However, peak volumes in Florida should start tapering off this week. Total Florida blueberry shipments could be 5 to 7 million pounds above last season.
Florida vegetable shipments – grossing about $3200 to New York City, $2700 to Chicago.
Georgia Produce Shipments
Georgia now is shipping blueberries in light, but increasing volume. Other Georgia produce shipments are mostly light with items ranging from carrots to greens (collards, kale, mustard, turnips, etc.) . There is light, but increasing volume with squash. Cabbage remains light, but should be in good volume by the week of May 4th.
Vidalia onion shipments are increasing, hitting good volume by early May. Peaches from the Fort Valley area should start the third week of May.
While we tend to focus more on imported produce during the winter months when Southern Hemisphere fruits and vegetables are in good production, there is still a substantial amount of product crossing our borders or arriving at ports.
Mangos have become a major commodity over the past couple of decades in America and there currently are larger-than-normal volumes expected from Mexico during the second quarter of 2015. Mexican mango imports will be approximately 36 million boxes during Q2 of 2015, which is about 10 percent more compared to approximately 33 million boxes of mangos imported during the same period from Mexico a year ago.
Additionally, Mexican mango imports in Q2 of 2015 are expected to be 3 percent higher than in 2013, which is the year that had the highest volume of Mexican mango imports on record. The tropical fruit is crossing the border both at Nogales and in South Texas.
Peruvian Avocados
Peruvian avocado exporters expect to ship 204,000 tons of fruit for the 2015 season, an increase of more than 16,000 tons from the 2014 season. Over 71,000 of those tons will be destined for the U.S. market, arriving primarily at East Coast ports. Hass avocados will begin in late April, with production hitting its stride in the summer months and winding down in September.
Nogales Produce Shipments
Mexican imports through Nogales are past a peak for the year, but there is still substantial product, ranging from cucumbers to melons, squash and peppers. The first Mexican grapes should start crossing the border any time now.
Lower Rio Grand Valley Produce
Mexican produce items crossing the border in South Texas range from watermelons to papayas. Texas items range from sweet onions to citrus and cabbage.
Apple shipments, an amazing amount: 61 million bushels fresh-market apples had yet to ship as of April 1, an astounding 27 percent more than last year at the same time.
The April total also was 37 percent higher than the five-year average. As usual, Washington accounted for about 55 million bushels of the fresh-market apples still in storage. New York had 2.4 million bushels, Michigan 2 million bushels and Pennsylvania 694,000 bushels.
The big numbers apply to all major apple varieties. About 23.4 million bushels of red delicious had yet to ship, up from 17.5 million bushels.
Galas still to be shipped increased from 6.7 million to 9.7 million bushels, granny smith from 7 million to 7.2 million bushels, golden delicious from 5.4 million to 6.6 million bushels, fuji from 4.6 million to 5.7 million bushels, Pink Lady from 1.4 million to 1.9 million bushels and Honeycrisp from 329,000 to 670,000 bushels.
Michigan apples – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
Hudson Valley, NY apples – grossing about $1600 to Baltimore.
Yakima Valley, WA apples – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
Apricot Shipments
In an average year California ships about 1.5 million 24-pound packages of apricots. Harvest should get underway in the southern San Joaquin Valley in late April and moves up the state’s Central Valley throughout the spring and early summer.
California apricot shipments, which tend to mirror California cherry shipments, should be finished by the end of June.
Around 400 growers produce apricots from orchards covering 21,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California. About 95 percent of the apricots grown in the United States come from California.
Produce truckers should find good seasons ahead for two of Georgia most popular agricultural commodities – Vidalia sweet onions and peaches.
The largest amount of Vidalia onion shipments is expected since 2011. The industry may ship at least 5 million 40-pound equivalents this year, which would be close to its 10-year average. In other words, an average size crop is seen. The past three years have been rough on Vidalia onion shipments because of downy mildew, seed stems and freezing temperatures hitting shortly before harvest in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The reported total volumes shipped in the past three seasons were:
- 2012 — 4.4 million 40-pound equivalents;
- 2013 — 5.6 million 40-pound equivalents;
- 2014 — 4.7 million 40-pound equivalents.
Georgia Peach Shipments
Growers anticipate seeing the first shipments of fruit the week of May 18th. Varieties include the Flavorich, which will start around Memorial Day, all the way to the August Prince in late August. Weather has been on the side of Georgia peach growers so far this year. Each year, Georgia produces more than 80 million pounds of the fruit from mid-May to mid-August, and the vast majority of fruit is picked, packed and shipped the same day.
90 percent of Georgia Peaches are grown in a 10,000-acre area known as the Fort Valley Plateau.
Here’s a round up California produce loadings as Salinas Valley vegetable shipments are increasing.
Items such a broccoli, head lettuce and other lettuces are among many vegetables increasing in volume from the Salinas Valley as they head towards full stride in the next couple of weeks or so. Lettuce from the Huron district in the San Joaquin Valley is on the decline as volume is being replaced by product from Salinas. Overall Salinas shipments are only moderate at this time, although these shipments still exceed those from the Santa Maria district to the south.
Light to moderate spring shipments of broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables are off to an early start from California’s Santa Maria district. Items ranging from anise, to cauliflower and broccoli are shipped year-round from Santa Maria. Mixed leaf kicked off in early March, iceberg started in late March, cilantro and spinach should start harvesting anytime and celery in May.
There also is a wide range of Santa Maria vegetable shipments, including mixed leaf, red, green, and romaine lettuce, romaine hearts, and celery, as well as mixed baby carrots, mixed beets and mixed radishes.
Concerning Ventura County produce shipments, there are loadings of strawberries, raspberries, celery, romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County produce – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
There is strong demand for refrigerated trucks for Florida produce shipments, although there appears to be no shortages.
Florida tomatoes are providing the heaviest volume averaging about 750 truck loads weekly. There also is good, but increasing volume with sweet corn, cucumbers, bell peppers and potatoes. A number of other mixed vegetables also are being shipped.
Spring growing conditions in Florida is resulting in mostly good quality product for hauling for items originating out of central and southern areas of the state.
Blueberries shipments have become a big item in Florida and growers expect to harvest between to 21 million-22 million pounds, up from the 17 million shipped last year. Volume will be increasing through mid-April. Steady shipments are now expected through May, overlapping an expected later than normal start in Georgia.
Growers in northern Florida began harvesting the week of April 6th with much higher shipments seen this week. Florida typically finishes blueberry shipments by Mid May, but due to excellent growing weather, loadings are expected to continue further into May.
Because of February freezes, Georgia is expected to increase harvests in early May, later than the typical mid- to late-April start.
Central Florida blueberries – grossing about $2800 to Chicago.
Southern and Central tomatoes and vegetables – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
California grape shipments get underway later in April, plus we’ll take a look at Washington cherry shipments, starting in May.
The 2015 season for California grapes is expected to mirror 2014 in timing, beginning with late April in the Coachella Valley and running through January in the San Joaquin Valley.
California’s table grape growers shipped their second-largest crop ever last season, sending 110 million 19-pound boxes of grapes to consumers worldwide.
The top volume export markets included Canada at 11.4 million 19-pound boxes, followed by Mexico at 5.7 million and China/Hong Kong at 5.5 million. Just over 40 percent of the total crop volume was exported.
Salinas Valley vegetable shipments are increasing – grossing about $5300 to Cleveland.
Washington Cherry Shipments
Cherry pickings should begin picking around May 20th, with the first bing peak shipping period to start about June 8-10, while the rainier peak is seen around June 15-30.
At this point the season appears it will start about five to 10 days ahead of normal, making it the earliest Washington cherry crop in six years.
Assuming the early cherry crop makes it through frost season unscathed, it could mean even greater loading opportunities leading up to the Fourth of July.
Peak Washington cherry shipments should occur between the first week of June and to the first week of July. However, keep in mind there is still a lot of weather to get through in the next month or so.
Washington apple shipments, Yakima Valley – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
California cherries should provide much better loading opportunities than a year ago.
In 2014 only 3 million 18-pound boxes were shipped. However, this season volumes could reach 6 million to 7 million boxes. Compared to the near crop failure a year ago, 2015 looks a lot better, but cherry shipments will not be huge.
South of Stockton, cherry shipments should start in Bakersfield, Arvin and Shafter with the brooks variety around April 25th. The main variety, bings, should hit peak loadings May 24th to June 4th.
Barring hail damage and other adverse weather, California cherry shipment could hit 7 million packages with a stretched out season from April 20th to June 10th.
Mainly because of another warm winter and lack of chill hours, Kern County has some orchards that are very challenged to set a crop. Particularly the tulare variety looks very light in tonnage just out of the Bakersfield area. Brooks and coral champagne look better for tonnage, but there are a fair amount of doubles and spurs based on last summer’s excessive heat.
Last year’s bloom was bizarre, especially in Stockton. The pollinization timing was off, the top of the tree bloomed after the bottom. It was completely out of whack, but this year’s bloom is much more compact and uniform.
While waiting on cherry shipments to begin, here’s a couple of other more active areas for California produce shipments.
Huron head lettuce, romaine and leaf – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
Ventura County berries and vegetables – grossing about $4500 Chicago.
The first domestic sweet onion shipments in the U.S. should get underway this week from South Texas, with product from Georgia shortly afterwards.
Texas Onion Shipments
The Lower Rio Grande Valley is just starting to dig sweet onions, with shipments of this product from South Texas to get underway within days. This is taking place the same week that onions crossing the border from Mexico are expected to end. Likewise, storage onions from Idaho, Oregon and Washington are also finishing up.
The Lone Star States is expected to have about 3,500 acres of its well-known spring onions, which are usually shipped for about six weeks from early April to mid-May. The 3,500 acres represents about a 2,000-acre decrease in plantings from a year ago.
South Texas produce shipments (grapefruit, oranges, cabbage) and Mexican produce shipments (tomatoes, watermelons, tropical fruit, vegetables) – grossing about $2800 to Chicago; about $4800 New York City.
Vidalia Onion Shipments
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black has set April 27 as the official shipping start date for Vidalia onions, although growers can ship before April 27 if their onions meet federal inspection requirements and are under “positive lot identification” as approved by the Federal State Inspection Service. This means Vidalias shipped before 4/27 cannot be sold as Vidalias.
Bland Farms, Glennville, Ga., has challenged the 4/27 start date in court and a judge in Atlanta ruled in favor of Bland Farms. However, the state has appealed the ruling.
A panel of three judges of the Georgia Appeals Court heard arguments Jan. 14 and have taken the case under advisement. They did not indicate when they may issue a decision.
Bland Farms, contends Black violated state law by trying to impose a new rule instead of going through the state’s legislature. The growing/shipping operation has some of the southern most fields in the Vidalia onion growing districts and believes its onions mature earlier, and should be allowed to ship under the Vidalia name prior to 4/27.
Spring Florida produce shipments are shifting towards high gear!
Florida produce shipments for this spring are shaping up to be a good one for produce haulers because of excellent weather and growing conditions.
Vegetables being harvested in the Sunshine State range from tomatoes to snap beans, sweet corn, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, celery, squash, lettuce and other leaf vegetables. Florida citrus shipments continue, while the strawberry harvest has concluded, but blueberry loadings are ramping up.
The state grows and ships over 350 commodities.
Weather didn’t pose any significant obstacles to growers this season as the state has experienced a mild winter.
Tomato shipments for both grape and cherry tomatoes from the Palmetto/Ruskin areas of Florida should get underway about April 10th, while romas and rounds should follow around April 17-20.
Tomato shipments should reach seasonal norms the week of April 6 or the week of April 13.
South Florida fresh potato shipments commenced in early February and will continue until early to mid-May. Peak Florida potato shipments are occuring during March and April.
Florida red, yellow and white potatoes – grossing about $2975 to Dallas.
Florida mixed vegetables – grossing about $3400 to New York City and about $3100 to Chicago.