Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
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.
Wisconsin potato shipments should be good this season, as should be onion loadings from Idaho and Oregon.
The Wisconsin potato harvest has been underway for a few weeks and will continue into the fall.
Central Wisconsin potato shipments should average, with good quality. Nice color with yellows and red potatoes is reported, plus Wisconsin is shipping more niche potatoes like fingerlings, yellow and specialty potatoes.
Concerning national potato shipments this fall, it appears volume with be similar to last year, which means there will be plenty of loading opportunities for spuds. However, this won’t be certain for two months or more until product is in stoarges and the danger of frost damage is gone.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3300 to San Antonio.
Idaho Oregon Onion Shipments
A hot summer has led some Idaho and eastern Oregon onion growers to harvest onions as much as two weeks earlier than normal, resulting from triple digit temperature for a two-week span.
That acreage includes about 1,650 acres of red onions, and more than 500 acres of whites. The balance — and the vast majority — is yellow onions.
The region is expecting onion shipments to be similar to last year.
Loadings could be off a little because of the extreme temperatures. The Idaho-Oregon onion season overlaps with California and New Mexico.
Shipments from Idaho and eastern Oregon occur from August through April and rank second only to Washington state in terms of domestic acreage and volume.
Although yellow spot virus is a potential problem in some areas of the Northwest — including Washington’s northern Columbia Basin — Idaho and eastern Oregon growers claim the virus has not appeared to be a big issue for them this season.
Here’s an update on projected shipments of Washington apples, as well as a glimpse at Asian pear loadings out of California.
Washington state apple shipments are forecast to be their third largest on record. Loadings totaling 125.2 million 40-pound boxes of fresh apples are expected to be shipped. While this would be down approximately 10.5 percent from the 2014 record crop of 140 million boxes, it is just behind the state’s second-largest season of 128.3 million boxes shipped during the 2012-13 season.
Red Delicious remains the variety with the most shipments, representing a projected 25 percent of the crop. Gala is close behind at 23 percent, followed by Fuji at 13.7 percent and Granny Smith at 13 percent. This season, Honeycrisp is forecast to come in at 7 percent of the total crop, which would move it past Golden Delicious to become the fifth-ranked variety by production volume in Washington state.
The harvest started at the beginning of August for early varieties. Production typically peaks in September and October, finishing in November.
Yakima Valley apple shipments – grossing about $6000 to Orlando.
California Asian Pear Shipments
There has been a good transition from the Chilean season that is winding down to the California Asian pears in the second half of August. Shipments will continue into at least January, with similar volumes to last year out of the San Joaquin Valley.
Extreme heat in the second half of August had slowed California grape shipments, but volume is now picking back up. Meanwhile, you know fall is rapidly approaching when pomegranate and cranberry loadings get underway.
Grape volume have been hit and miss all season. At one point growers were waiting on green varieties to add sugar. In the second half of August, red varieties were taking their time to add color. It has made for an unpredictable years as far as steady shipments are concerned. Steady, more predictable shipments should come in the months ahead.
California grapes, stone fruit, melons and veggies from the San Joaquin Valley – grossing about $4800 to Houston, $6400 to Philly.
California Pomegranates
Very light volume from the Bakersfield areas has been underway for a couple of weeks, but will be strong from mid-October leading up to Thanksgiving (November 26th) with a resurgence in fresh pomegranate shipments prior to Christmas.
Cranberry Shipments
Fresh Cranberry shipments will get underway from Wisconsin and Massachusetts in late September, followed by Washington state.
About 33 million pounds of cranberries are expected to be shipped fresh in the U.S. this season, up slightly up from a year ago. Growers have seen market prices plunge because of new acreage that was planted in 2009. The U.S. produced 7.01 million 100-pound barrels of cranberries in 2009. In 2013, production was 8.96 million barrels.
The cranberry estimate for 2015-16 volumes is set at 8.6 million barrels.
Two leading fresh cranberry shippers are Habelman Bros in Toma, WI and Decas Cranberry Products of Carver, Mass.
Taking a look at Salinas Valley vegetable shipments this summer and you get a good hint at one reason why California produce have been less than stellar.
California’s coastal valleys near Santa Maria and Salinas have experienced unusually warm nights all summer long, which has resulted in some hollow hearts and other issues that basically reduced Iceberg and other varieties of lettuce volume and the weight of each head. Less tonnage per acre has resulted in a demand-exceeds-supply situation, with Iceberg lettuce prices topping $20 per carton.
The lack of lettuce quality is closer to what you normally find in late September or October. The lighter amount of lettuce shipments could continue until the end of the coastal valley deals in mid- to late October. In fact, improvements may not come until the transition to Huron in the San Joaquin Valley in the fall. However, many grower-shippers won’t be planting lettuce in Huron this fall because of the California drought.
The shortage appears to be mostly with various types of lettuce category, while supplies of broccoli, cauliflower and most of the other staple vegetable volumes are adequate.
Something else to consider is El Niño. Meteorologists studying the Pacific Ocean say the warm water patterns are surfacing from the equator to much farther north off the California coast which may mean very heavy fall and winter rains. If this weather pattern becomes a reality many low lying produce fields could become flooded, cutting into acreage and shipments.
Most are predicting that if the El Niño conditions that currently exist do bring huge amounts of rain, they will probably start in late September, with the brunt of the storms hitting from December through February. If that occurs, produce shipments could get cut short, and next season growers would have to delay planting in many fields. Enough speculation. We’ll have to wait and see.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $4600 to Chicago; $6700 to New York City.
Here’s the outlook for Michigan apple shipments, as well imports for sweet onions from Peru.
Michigan has had three straight strong apple shipping seasons after having three very difficult seasons in a short period. In 2012 devastating freezes wiped out almost all of the state’s apples. In 2010 there was hail damage and a short crop. In 2007,T every district in the state had hail damage.
Michigan apple shipments are expected to be down only slightly last year.
Harvest of Paula Reds started about Aug. 15th, while Honeycrisp and Galas should get underway the second week of September.
Picking of Honeycrisp harvest should begin around Sept. 12-15 , while the Gala harvest will commence about August 30th. Red and Golden Delicious gets underway about September 29th and Fujis should start about October 25th.
Michigan vegetables and apples – grossing about $2600 to Dallas.
Peruvian Sweet Onion Imports
Peruvian Sweet Onion Imports will be down substantially this season from the 135,000 tons shipped during the 2014-15 season. Peruvian sweet onion hectares are down this season by 30 percent due to overproduction and very poor prices last season (1 hectare = 2.471 acres). About half of Peru’s onion supplies last season were available for export. The other half of the crop was left in fields unharvested.
Peru has planted about 3,500 hectares of sweet onions this season, down from normal plantings of 2,500 and 3,000 hectares. The United States is the main market for Peruvian sweet onions, receiving approximately 80 percent of the volume.
West Texas watermelons are now being loaded, plus here’s an update on California Valencia orange shipments in the latter part of the season before navels get underway.
Texas Watermelon Shipments
Watermelon shipments are underway from West Texas, with good growing conditions and rainfall report to be producing one of the regions better crops. For example, loadings are now taking place with Warren Produce LLC, out of Brownfield, Tx. Acreage is up a little in West Texas this season, particularly on seeded watermelon varieties. Shipments are expected to continue through August and September.
West Texas watermelons – grossing about $2600 to Chicago.
California Orange Shipments
California valencia shippers are reporting brisk loadings of high-quality fruit after a lull the first half of August. Volume has picked back up, especially with the kids starting back to school. Meanwhile, the forecast for the upcoming navel shipments, initially is showing lower volume ahead due to water restrictions.
Valencia shipments have been a mixed bag this summer, as growers approach water restrictions in different ways. Some shippers pushed heavy at the front end of the season, while others took a break and are now increasing shipments heading into fall. Valencia shipments should be strong until early October, about two weeks before growers transition to navels.
The initial estimate of 20 million cartons of California valencias could wind up being slightly high.
Southern California citrus – grossing about $5600 to Atlanta.