Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
From the South Texas-Mexican border to the Canadian border, here is a look at produce shipments originating out of the central United States.
Lower Rio Grand Valley Produce Shipments
There are steady Texas grapefruit shipments, amounting to around 200 truck loads weekly, with about one-fourth this volume in oranges. Just south of San Antonio, cabbage shipments are increasing…..However, the biggest volume comes with Mexican produce shipments. There is everything from such tropical as mangos, papayas, and pineapples to watermelon, peppers, roma tomatoes, broccoli and carrots.
A word of caution. Although volume is very light with Mexican tomatillos and chayote, some quality problems are being reported.
Lower Rio Grand Valley/Mexican produce – grossing about $4800 to New York City.
Sweet Potato Shipments
Both Louisiana and Mississippi are shipping sweet potatoes, but volume is light.
Michigan Produce Shipments
Heaviest produce volume in Michigan remains with apples, primarily out of the Western area of the state, averaging about 175 truck loads per week…There are about 125 truck loads of potato loadings a week….Finally, there are still some storage onions left, but it is in a seasonal decline.
Michigan apples – grossing about $2400 to Atlanta.
Wisconsin Potato Shipments
Central Wisconsin is shipping over 300 truck loads of primarily russet potatoes weekly.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $2200 to Houston.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
Eastern North Dakota and Western Minnesota are shipping red potatoes in similar volume to that of Wisconsin.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1950 to Chicago.
Here’s an update on California strawberry shipments, plus a glimpse at the outlook for several other California fruit loadings.
As California strawberry shipments increase heading towards an April 5th Easter, acreage for 2015 is 37,438, which is about a 3 percent decrease from last year, but that may not result in less volume.
Newer varieties tend to yield better than older varieties, and weather factors can easily affect volume by at least 5 percent. Due to a mild winter and relatively dry spring, California growing conditions have been very good. This could result in total volume being near or above last year’s shipments of about 192 million trays.
The southern growing district of Orange County/San Diego, continues to lose acreage at a relatively fast clip. In 2012, those growers planted planted 1,446 acres, compared to plantings of 973 acre this year, nearly a 50 percent drop in four years. The region now represents only about 3 percent of the state’s total acreage, primarily due to urbanization and construction.
Another noteworthy trend is the increase in fruit planted in the summer for fall shipments. These plantings help California come very close to shipping year-round.
The Oxnard and Santa Maria areas now responsible for the increase in summer plantings. Growers are projecting summer plantings of over 5,700 acres. In 2011, 3,500 summer acres were planted. That jumped to more than 3,700 in 2012 and surpassed 5,000 acres for the first time two years ago. This year’s number represents a 10 percent increase over last year.
Ventura County berries and vegetables – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Summer Fruit Shipments
California’s hot weather will likely affect most summer produce shipments, including blueberries, cherries, stonefruit and table grapes.
The first blueberry shipments typically kicks off in mid to late April, with stone fruit and table grapes following in early May, but could start a few days earlier this year.
The high temperatures began March 13th. However, the San Joaquin Valley is susceptible to hail damage and frosts as late as May, so anything can happen. We’ll keep you posted.
We’re rapidly approaching the prime shipping season for Florida spring vegetables.
Growing conditions have mostly been favorable and if anything crops tend to be maturing a little earlier than normal. Peak shipments will occur during April and May.
Overall, Florida should have normal volume this spring. Shipments are increasing on items from Southern Florida ranging from bell peppers to cucumbers, squash, sweet corn, beans, cabbage and eggplant. Shipments of red potatoes continue.
Brisk movement entering April will be pushed even more since Easter is early this year – April 5th….Cabbage shipments had been heavy leading up to St. Patrick’s Day (yesterday), but good volumes will continue.
An exception to normal supplies are Florida tomatoes. Cold February weather has reduced supplies and shipments of tomatoes, but are now starting to rebound and will be back to normal by late March.
Citrus shipments continue to be good and volume is steady from week to week from Central and Southern areas.
Florida blueberry shipments are just getting underway from Central Florida, with good volume by early April. South Florida watermelon loads should become available by the end of March.
Strawberry shipments from the Plant City area continue in good volume, but shipments will soon decline with the season ending in early April.
South Florida produce shipments – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Florida citrus shipments continue on a steady pace, while the state’s blueberry shipping season is just getting underway.
The Sunshine State’s orange production has declined slightly with the issuance of the USDA’s March 10th report. However, production of grapefruit and tangerines has remained steady.
Late-season orange production, which includes navels declined 2 percent or 1 million equivalent cartons from the previous month’s report. The late season valencias, which ship primarily to processed channels, remained unchanged. Valencias account for 55 million cartons with the other oranges at 47 million cartons.
Final season navel shipments is reported at 1.4 million cartons. Navels ship primarily fresh while around 96 percent of the state’s oranges are harvested for processing.
Overall, Florida this season is expected to ship 120 million cartons of citrus, down from last season’s 124 million cartons.
Florida citrus – grossing about $3500 to Boston.
Florida, Georgia Blueberry Shipments
Florida blueberry shipments are just starting from the Southern and central parts of the state of the state and loading should be available into early May. Northern Florida blueberries normally start in early April and will be available through late May. That freeze which damaged Georgia blueberries several weeks ago, did little or no damage for Central Florida blueberries.
The amount of damage to Georgia blueberries is still be assessed, but the state will still probably have decent shipments this season.
In recent years Georgia has surged to become the biggest domestic producer. For the 2014 season, Georgia’s 56 million pounds topped perennial leaders Michigan and New Jersey.
For years, Michigan and New Jersey traded the top spot for fresh production, with New Jersey leading four out of five years. In the mid-2000s, Georgia’s fresh volume was double Florida’s, a pace that continued as both states boosted production.
In the most recent season, Georgia’s fresh volume was more than three times that of Florida.
Here’s an outlook for the new season with California avocado shipments, plus a round up of the huge amount of U.S. apples remaining in storages to be shipped between now and late summer.
California avocado shipments this year should be about 10 percent greater than last season, although in 2014 volume was the smallest it had been in a decade.
The 327 million-pound crop is coming on about a month a head of schedule in both the northern and southern shipping areas of California. Volume is light now, but it should improve significantly by the end of March and will continue through the summer.
In an extremely rare weather event, 6-8 inches of snow hit the Temecula area in late December and early January. The result the snow and wind was a thinning of the crop. The weight of the snow also snapped some tree limbs. However, there will be a significant increase in volume of California avocados from March to June, with peak shipment occurring prior to the Fourth of July.
Southern California avocados, berries, citrus and veggies – grossing about $5500 to Atlanta.
Apple Shipments
About 79 million bushels of U.S.-grown fresh-market apples had yet to ship as of March 1st, 28 percent more than last year at the same time. However, the March 1 total was a whopping 37 percent above the five-year average.
Washington accounted for 70.6 million bushels of those still in storage. Michigan accounted for 3.08 million bushels of the total, New York 3.05 million bushels and Pennsylvania 831,200 bushels.
March volumes of all major apple varieties were up over last year. About 29 million bushels of red delicious had yet to ship, up from 21.3 million bushels in March 2014.
Gala volumes increased from 9.4 million to 12.9 million bushels; granny smith from 8.5 million to 8.9 million bushels; golden delicious from 6.5 million to 8.1 million bushels; fuji from 6.1 million to 7.9 million bushels; Pink Lady from 1.9 million to 2.4 million bushels; and Honeycrisp from 652,000 to 1.2 million bushels.
Yakima Valley, WA apples – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
January and February are typically peak volume months for Mexican vegetable shipments through Nogales, AZ. While volumes will soon start declining, there is still a substantial amount of produce crossing the border for shipments destined throughout much of the U.S. and Canada.
No doubt about it, Mexican tomatoes will continue to be the driving force for product grown in West Mexico and shipped through the port at Nogales. This is led in large part by vine ripe tomatoes, the product that drives Florida tomato shippers absolutely crazy, because the vine ripe are largely viewed as having much better flavor than the Florida grown mature green tomatoes. There also is decent volume with romas coming out of Mexico.
Besides tomatoes, there remains good volume with green bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon and various squash, ranging from zucchini to yellow, butternut, acorn and spaghetti. Most of the vegetable shipments will continue into late May or early June before hot weather in Mexico ends the season.
A trend often referred to as “protected agriculture” continues to grow in popularity in the farming areas of Mexico. Called “mesh houses,” or shade houses, vegetables receive more protection from Mother Nature’s weather whims. Better quality vegetables also reduce the chances of claims and rejections by produce haulers at destination. Among the more popular vegetables being grown this way are tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Squash and watermelons still are mostly grown in open fields.
Nogales vegetable shipments – grossing about $1300 to L.A., $3700 to Chicago.
April will be here before we know it, and this means increasing volumes for Florida produce shipments.
Southern Specialties announced the company has started shipping Florida grown blueberries. This year’s blueberry crop will include Farthing, Flicker, Chickadee and Meadowlark varieties. Florida blueberries, Southern Selects blackberries and premium Adelita variety raspberries are distributed from the company’s Pompano Beach, FL distribution facility.
“ This year’s Florida blueberry crop has nice bloom and great flavor,” said Alex Henderson, Key Account Manager for the company.
Southern Selects Florida blueberries will be available until the end of April when the company transitions its program to Georgia and the Carolinas. Southern Specialties ships blueberries year round.
Southern Specialties is a grower, importer, processor and shipper of a variety of specialty products grown in Central America, South America, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The company distributes from its Pompano Beach, Florida headquarters, and facilities in McAllen, Texas and Los Angeles, California.
Sweet Corn Shipments
Florida sweet corn shipments have been relatively light during the winter months, but loadings will be picking up significant as we enter April. The sweet corn harvest shifts from Homestead to the Belle Glade region about March 16-23. However, peak spring shipments probably won’t hit until around the middle of April. Heaviest volume should be from about April 11th to May 5th.
We will also be having updates soon on a variety of mixed Florida vegetables that will have similar shipping schedules as corn.
Florida produce – grossing about $3000 to New York City.
Desert produce shipments are winding down headed towards an earlier-than-normal finish out of the Arizona’s Yuma district and California’s Imperial Valley.
Volume is already very light on broccoli and cauliflower from the desert regions. Meanwhile, those same items are getting an early start from the Salinas Valley.
Salinas vegetable shipments started with very light volume a week ago, and it will the week of March 16th before broccoli and cauliflower start hitting good volume.
Meanwhile, a similar situation exits with lettuce ranging from Iceberg to romaine and leaf lettuce, which are winding down in the desert areas….To bridge the gap between the desert areas and Salinas, there is about a three-week shipping season out of the San Joaquin Valley’s Huron disrict. However, there’s going to be a shipping gap as Huron lettuce shipments won’t get underway until the week of March 23rd.
Meanwhile, shipping gaps with head lettuce, romaine and leaf that were common during the desert winter shipping season are expected to remain in play through March and into April as Salinas starts shipping.
California/Arizona desert vegetables – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Salinas/Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
The first 20 years of NAFTA has had a big time impact on the fresh produce industry, and produce trucking.
Americans are now consuming twice the fruit and three times the vegetables from Mexico and Canada as they did before 1994, and it takes refrigerated equipment to deliver it to markets.
Likewise, U.S. growers and shippers more than tripled the amount of produce they export to Mexico during the first 19 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Part of the increase in Mexico’s produce imports from the U.S. is attributed to the rapid expansion of Mexico’s supermarkets. As of November 2014, H-E-B had 43 stores in five Mexican states, and Wal-Mart had 2,114 stores in Mexico.
The U.S. is now importing more cucumbers and mushrooms from Canada than it exports. Before NAFTA, the U.S. was a net exporter of those commodities to Canada.
“In 2011, Mexico and Canada combined supplied about 13 percent of the fresh or frozen fruit available in the U.S. and 17 percent of the available fresh or frozen vegetables. In 1990, these shares each equaled 6 percent,” according to the USDA’s report.
Details on specific U.S. production and import/export of specific commodities are included in the report. There are also discussions about retaliatory tariffs related to cross-border trucking requirements.
During the past decade Georgia has become a leading shipper of blueberries, but a recent freeze has raised concerns about volume for the upcoming season.
Estimates vary on how many South Georgia blueberries were damaged during a series of late February freezes, but much of the confusion is due to numerous micro climates that exist in the growing areas.
The freezes hit February 17-20 and during the early morning hours of February 20, temperatures fell into the low 20s for several hours in the Alma, Baxley, and Homerville, Ga., blueberry growing regions, damaging the early season part of the southern highbush crop.
Damage estimates range from 10 to 40 percent.
Georgia harvests and ships two blueberry crops.
Southern highbush blueberry shipments start in mid- to late April while the rabbit eye shipments usually begin in late May. Some growers ran frost protection because of the cold temperatures, resulting in ice damaging many limbs. Losses were higher for growers that didn’t irrigate.
It appears now Georgia “blues” may start shipping up to two weeks later – in late April.
Last year, Georgia shipped 56 million pounds of fresh berries, up from the 32 million shipped in 2013.
Homerville, which normally starts shipping around April 10 with an early variety, may not start loadings until April 20, with Alma and Baxley set to begin closer to May 1.
Otherwise, Georgia produce shipments are pretty quite right now with about the only loadings being with limited amounts of greens and carrots….Certainly no straight loads here. If you are coming out of Florida, you might pick up a pallet or two on your way north.