Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Ohio has more than the Bengals, Browns and Buckeyes. This time of year it becomes an important player in shipping vegetables.
Ohio Vegetable Shipments
The state got underway with radishes mid-May, and dill, cilantro and turnip and mustard greens by the end of the month. Following shortly after that were beets, lettuces, parsley, sweet corn, green onions and celery.
Ohio radish shipments continue from mid-May to mid-November, with other commodities starting in June and winding down in October.
Then you have sweet corn, celery and peppers, which should get underway in mid- to late July and last until the first frost.
Ohio experienced its hottest May since 1988 — which was a drought year. Some daytime highs were in the 90s, although the 80s were more typical. The heat helped bring the vegetable crops on earlier and grow faster.
Here are a few of the major shippers of Ohio vegetables:
Bettinger Farms Inc., Swanton, OH
Wiers Farm Inc. and Dutch Maid Produce, Willard, OH.
Holthouse Farms, Willard, OH.
Buurma Farms, Willard, OH
The harvest of California navel oranges is winding down as July approaches and the season’s production could be close to 81 million cartons, although late season citrus is requiring more grading as marketable product keeps falling. At the same, Valencia orange shipments are replacing navels.
For much of the season, utilization rates — the percentage of fruit that could be sold as fresh — remained in the low 80s, but now it has dipped into the 70s as the crop has been picked over. Subpar oranges are diverted to juice.
Meanwhile, harvest is under way for a diminished Valencia orange crop. Growers this season are expected to ship a 20-million-carton crop, down from 22 million cartons last year and a little more than half the 39 million cartons produced in 2001-02.
Only about 25 to 30 percent into that crop has been harvest, but the Valencias are coming out fewer than expected.
The harvest hits as a fourth year of the California drought and its related federal surface water shutoffs have resulted in many growers taking trees out of production. It is estimated as many as 50,000 acres of orange and other citrus trees would be bulldozed.
The orchard removals could take a particular toll on Valencia trees, which were already being replaced with navels and other more lucrative citrus varieties before the drought began. Valencia acreage has seen a precipitous decline in recent years; there are about 34,000 bearing acres this year, down from 65,000 in 2001-02.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for citrus, veggies and fruit have been fluctuating by nearly a $1000 in a given week to New York City. On average, rates appear to be around $7700 to the Big Apple.
Holt Logistics Corp., of Gloucester City, NJ has landed separate business agreementsthat has attacted two additional weekly shipments from South America and Central America to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
The “South American Express” service started June 3rd, operated by SeaLand, the Denmark-based Maersk Group’s intra-Americas regional ocean carrier, plans to begin calling on the terminal.
The service previously terminated in Norfolk, Va., and the change expands SeaLand’s direct connections from Central America into the northeast and provides shippers with better access to U.S. consumers and a user-friendly docking environment for refrigerated peribshable goods, including tropical fruits and other commodities, according to a news release.
Additionally, a joint vessel sharing agreement between SeaLand and American President Lines is designed to create a new “North American Express” service that should attract an additional ship to the terminal each week.
The “North Atlantic Express” service is pending regulatory approval but is scheduled to commence in late June.
The service rotation plans to cycle between the Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama, Cartagena, Columbia, south Florida, Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia and New York.
It boosts SeaLand’s network and offers additional direct connections and service between the West Coast of South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. Business at the Port of Philadelphia continues to grow, and the addition of two weekly service calls from SeaLand/APL will increase efficiency, shorten overall transit times and provide greater opportunities to expand business in both perishable and non-perishable commerce between North and South America.
There should be excellent loading opportunities for produce haulers as shipments start to ramp up ahead of the Fourth of July. Here’s a round up of some Independence Day produce favorites.
Watermelon Shipments
On the East Coast watermelons loadings will be available from Northern Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. While Florida melon shipments are rapidly declining, Georgia loadings just started this week, with decent volume seen the week of June 15th….Meanwhile, in North Carolina, shipments of seeded watermelons should get underway around June 25th, followed by seedless melons about July 1st.
Northern Florida watermelons – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
In the Midwest, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri are typically shipping watermelons by late June or early July. However, use caution as many of these regions have been hit with heavy rains and cloudy weather for days on end. It has to have adversely affected quality, at least with some of these production areas. However, hot, dry weather has set in the past week or so. Maybe this will help.
Sweet Corn Shipments
Georgia should be shipping good volumes of sweet corn ranging from Bainbridge to the Vidalia area.
South Georgia sweet corn, or vegetables – grossing about $3600 to Boston.
Berry Shipments
Heavy volume with strawberries should be coming out of the Watsonville/Salinas area. California also will have strawberry loadings from the Santa Maria district…..California blueberry shipments could be a little “ify.” “Blues” are now shifting from the Golden State to Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
Watsonville berries and Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $7500 to New York City.
Tomato shipments have started from Arkansas, as the state’s sweet potato loadings continue. Additionally, New Mexico is now shipping onions.
Arkansas tomato shipments got underway in early June from the Hermitage area in the southern part of the state. Loadings will include a majority of vine ripe tomatoes, with much smaller volumes in romas and grape tomatoes. Despite a lot rain this spring, and less acreage due to the wet fields preventing some plantings, growers are predicting over all better tomato shipments than the past two years.
Arkansas may not be known for its sweet potato shipments, but Matthews Ridgeview Farms at Wynne in the Northeastern part of the state has been increasing volume significantly in recent years. It is still shipping sweet potatoes from the 2014-15 season. Matthews is looking to increase production 15 -20 percent for the 2015-16 season. It ships sweet potatoes through much of the Midwest and to a few receivers in Canada.
New Mexico Onion Shipments
A normal start with New Mexico onion shipments kicked off in late May and run through late August, with some sheds shipping through mid-September. New Mexico growers planted about 5,200 acres of dry onions in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
by Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum
Citrusdal, South Africa – Excellent weather conditions in South Africa have contributed to an earlier citrus harvest in the Western and Northern Cape regions of South Africa, resulting in earlier arrivals of citrus to the US. Containers carrying Easy Peelers and Navel oranges will arrive at the Port of Newark over the next 2-3 weeks.
“Favorable weather conditions and optimum fruit ripeness determined the onset of the harvesting period. Our growers believe that in terms of fruit color and eating quality, it is perhaps the best fruit in years to start the season. The high eating quality is preferred by the US consumers,” said Suhanra Conradie, CEO of the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum.
The first conventional vessel will arrive at the Port of Philadelphia at Gloucester City by June 15th bringing with about 3,800 pallets of Easy Peelers and Navel oranges. Two other conventional vessels are scheduled to arrive by June 25th and July 6th. “The detailed shipping plan has conventional vessels arriving through October usually every 10-12 days, based on market demand. Container vessels with smaller volumes will arrive between to assure a steady supply of our citrus,” said Conradie.
A pilot project at The Port of Houston will continue and is set to receive shipments, and provide key access to expanded Midwest and Far West regions of the US. “While we have seen 12 percent growth with volumes last year at about 45,000 tons, it is possible that we will ship more during the 2015 season,” said Conradie.
Early season Washington cherry shipments have gotten off to a less than a stellar start, thanks to adverse weather, plus a shipping update on other Northwest produce shipments.
What should have been big time volumes of chelans early in the season, instead has been only a trickle. Rainiers also have suffered some wind and rain damage.
Volumes were down about 65 percent the week of June 1st. Loadings also were expected to be off 50 percent the week of June 8th.
This week, the initial harvesting of bings should start from growing areas not hit as hard by the rains. However, cherry shipments will continue to struggle through June. In July, late season volumes should be much better.
Blueberry Shipments
Blueberry shipments are just getting underway from British Columbia through Northwest Washington state. Blues also are just getting started from Oregon and Washington. Volume currently is very light.
Potato Shipments
Potato shipments in the latter part of the season continue from Washington’s Columbia Basin and Oregon’s Umatilla Basin. About 450 truck loads of potatoes are being shipped weekly. The region’s onion season has pretty much wrapped up.
Washington/Oregon potatoes – grossing about $6000 to Atlanta.
Apple Shipments
Washington apple shipments and pear shipments are experiencing steady loadings from week to week.
Yakima and Wenatchee Valley apples and pears – grossing about $6900 to New York City.
While the agriculturally rich Rio Grande Valley has been spared the brunt of the most recent storms and flooding in Texas, nine months of above-average rain has taken its toll in the fresh produce growing areas, with many acres having already been lost.
There has been 60 inches of rain from the fall through the spring.
Many cities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have tallied impressive rain totals for May, but they are still in single digits. In comparison, Houston received 10 inches of rain during one 24-hour period over the Memorial Day weekend.
The Texas spring onion crop was probably the hardest hit, losing about 30 percent of its acreage. Onion shipments have since ended.
Other crops, including melons and vegetables, have been hit hard and the late spring and early summer harvests should be curtailed a bit because of it. Some growers have seen their entire summer squash program washed out.
The silver lining in the big picture is that the moisture was really need in the drought plagued state. Texas had been in the midst of a pretty severe drought until it started raining late last summer.
Meanwhile, the Lower Rio Grande Valley remains a key distribution hub, particularly for the eastern half of the U.S., because Mexican grown produce continues to be imported.
South Texas/Mexican produce -grossing about $3200 to Chicago; $5500 to Boston.
Here is an outlook for stone fruit shipments ranging from Georgia and South Carolina to California and Washington state. Also, are California vegetable shipments getting over the ups and downs caused by shipping gaps from the coastal areas?
Initial Georgia peach shipments from the Fort Valley area got underway the week of May 18th. With the arrival of June, Georgia peaches are now moving in good, steady volume. Shipments should continue most of the summer…..South Carolina peach shipments are on a similar schedule with a little more volume.….Meanwhile, California stone fruit moves into volume beginning in late June and continuing through July….Washington state stone fruit shipments will build in volume in August for peak peach shipments during September.
California vegetable shipments this spring have been anything but good and predictable for produce haulers. Is that about to change? Maybe, but don’t necessarily bet on it.
Hot weather in the early spring with shipments out of the desert areas and then the Huron District of the San Joaquin Valley, vegetables were maturing ahead of schedule. However, with the seasonal shift of California vegetables to the coastal areas, colder than normal weather has put harvest and shipments later than usual. It also has resulted in shipping gaps and lighter than normal volumes in many cases.
Over 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown and shipped from New Jersey, mostly from the Southern part of the state. Here’s a round up of what is being loaded for distribution, as well as what will be available in the weeks and months ahead.
New Jersey Produce Shipments
New Jersey has 11 primary fresh vegetables: Tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, escarole, snap beans, and asparagus. Jersey’s top five principal fruits are strawberries, blueberries, peaches, apples and cranberries (for processing).
New Jersey vegetable shipments: The Garden state already has been shipping early season spinach, collards, beets, radishes, escarole/endive, Swiss chard, lettuces and herbs such as parsley, dill, coriander and cilantro. Asparagus loadings got underway in late April. Cabbage, pickles and turnip shipments started at the end of May.
Beginning in June and July
Cucumbers and squash will start in mid-June. While sweet corn and tomatoes have normally started by July 4th, neither may have much volume by then this year, due to colder weather moving back the harvest.
Minor quantities of early New Jersey blueberry shipments should be starting the third week of June, with good volume by the end of June. In 2014, New Jersey produced about 8,800 acres of berries yielding about 56.7 million pounds — fifth in the nation.
July to Mid September Shipments
Yellow New Jersey peach shipments should start the third week of July, with fair volume by early August. Larger volume varieties should begin by the early August. Good yellow peachvolume is expected by mid-August through mid-September. White peach volume begins in the third week of August through mid-September. About 150 peach producers grew 44 million pounds of peaches on 4,600 acres in New Jersey in 2014 — ranking fourth in the nation.