Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Here’s a round up of major active potato and sweet potato shipping areas around the U.S.
Sweet Potato Shipments
Louisiana sweet potato shipments are expected to continue through June. The fresh crop is larger this year due to an increase in acreage and higher yields. Nearby Mississippi has a similar situation. Both states are loading anywhere from 375 to 500 truck loads weekly….In California, a little less volume is coming out of the Atwater/Livingston district….However, as usual, Eastern North Carolina continues to be the big player, averaging more volume than the other three states combined.
Louisiana sweet potatoes – grossing about $1800 to Chicago.
Eastern North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2500 to New York City.
Potato Shipments
Idaho is to potatoes what North Carolina is to sweet potatoes. Idaho is averaging around 1,750 truck load equivalents a week, although rail plays a larger role than with most commodities and shipping areas….Colorado potato shipments rank second at about 750 truck loads a week, with all of it being by truck….Central Wisconsin potato shipments come in third with volume…. Surprisingly, Nebraska is loading about 200 truck loads weekly, although volume is divided between two shipping areas — Imperial in the southwestern part of the state, and O’Neill in the northeastern region.
Western Michigan potato shipments, as well as spuds originating out of Presque Isle, Me are providing light, but steady volume.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5800 to Orlando.
San Luis Valley, CO potatoes – grossing about $2900 to Atlanta.
Valentine’s Day (February 14th) is the one of the most popular days of the year for strawberries and shipments soon will be ramping up for the occasion.
Florida strawberry shipments are steady with adequate volume expected. About 90 percent of some shipper’s supplies from the Plant City, FL have already been pre-sold.
Still, the strawberry industry says there are never enough berries for Valentine’s Day, especially stem berries. These are always popular as a Valentine’s Day gift. Both Florida, as well as Mexican strawberry shipments are running ahead of last year’s totals, while California strawberry shipments are down a bit. Mexican strawberries are crossing the border in south Texas, as well as border crossings into California.
California reached the 1 million tray-per-week level in mid-January, but by the end of the month supplies had dropped below that threshold. However, California berry loadings are expected to increase each week in February as volume builds from Orange and Ventura counties.
Meanwhile, Southern California also has lettuce shipments as well as some other vegetables from the Coachella and Imperial valleys, plus from the nearby Yuma (AZ) district.
In south Texas, besides Mexican strawberries, there are a number of other items available ranging from vegetables, tomatoes, citrus and tropical fruit.
While Florida strawberries are coming out of the growing area just west of Tampa, Central Florida also is shipping in light volume vegetables, tomatoes and citrus.
Southern California berries – grossing about $4000 to Dallas.
South Texas/Mexican produce – grossing about $2400 to Atlanta.
Central Florida berries, veggies – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.
Mexico produce shipments are crossing the U.S. border at Nogales, AZ in good volume – at least with several items.
The heaviest amount of product is with cucumbers, bell peppers, squash and tomatoes. Cucumbers are averaging around 675 truck loads per week. However, keep in mind most of these items are shipped as mixers, instead of straight loads of product. In fact, a lot of trucks arrive at Nogales to fill out a load, after multiple picks up California and other parts of Arizona.
Tomatoes are biggest volume right now, averaging nearly 1,000 truck loads per week. The biggest tonnage is with vine ripes and plum tomatoes, with much lesser amounts of grape and cherry tomatoes.
There also are decent crossings of Mexican bell peppers (600 truck loads weekly) and nearly as much volume with squash. Much lighter crossings exist with Mexican watermelons, beans, eggplant and other types of peppers than bell peppers.
With the completion of the Mariposa Land Port of Entry at Nogales last year, arrivals of Mexican vegetables has been more predictable. Because of the finish of the eight-year-long construction project, fewer delays are being experienced by produce haulers picking up product one of the dozens of warehouses in Nogales.
The upgraded port of entry was designed to increase traffic flow at the border because of better facilities, new Customs and Border Protection and inspection procedures. The port now is able to inspect about 4000 trucks per day through eight primary commercial booths and 56 secondary commercial inspection bays.
Nogales produce shipments – grossing about $1300 to L.A.; $5600 to New York City.
One of the most active produce shipping areas in the United States is the Lower Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.
Numerous vegetables and tropical fruits from Mexico are crossing the border at McAllen, Tx and this area is only going to see increasing volume in the years to come. More warehouse space is being build to receive Mexican produce shipments and to act as consolidation and distribution centers.
Perhaps the largest volume item crossing the border – particularly this time of the year – are Mexican avocados, spurred in part by this Sunday’s Super Bowl. It has become a huge snack for people watching this event. This year over 285 million pounds of avocados will be imported to the United States; that’s over 7,125 truck loads!
Another leading item is actually coming out of South Texas. Grapefruit shipments are averaging about 400 truckloads a week, while Texas oranges amount to about half this volume. There are Texas cabbage loads coming out of the Winter Garden District near San Antonio.
Still, most of the produce volume is with Mexican produce shipments crossing the South Texas border. Items range from broccoli to carrots, roma tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries and watermelons, among others.
South Texas produce shipments – grossing about $3200 to Chicago; $2800 to Atlanta.
Here’s an outlook on loading opportunities for imported mangoes and watermelons for the next few months.
Cool weather has slowed watermelon shipments in Mexico crossing the border into the U.S., both at Nogales, AZ and South Texas until the middle of March. The good news is Mexican watermelon shipments could be up 20 percent from last year by the last half of March.
Mango shipments could be light until March, when Mexico and Guatemala start shipping in volume.
Peruvian mango volumes were increasing on a limited basis in the second half of January.
At the same time Ecuadorian mango imports to the U.S. should wind down by the end of January. About 8.9 million boxes of Ecuadorian fruit had shipped to the U.S. as of January. 10th.
Peru is expected to ship about 8.9 million boxes to the U.S. this season Through January 10th, about 1.6 million boxes of Peruvian fruit had been received, 21 percent less than was projected for that date.
Mexican mango exports should start arriving at American ports in mid-February and Guatemalan exports about a week later.
Peruvian mango imports will likely peak in early February at U.S. ports before tapering off. Imported mango loading opportunities won’t likely return to seasonal norms until Mexico and Nicaragua ramp up in the middle of March.
Mexican mixed vegetables and melons crossing at Nogales, AZ – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.
Citrus, mixed vegetables, melons, mangos and tomatoes from South Texas and/or Mexico – grossing about $5200 to New York City.
Here are produce shipping updates for Colorado potatoes, as well as for vegetables from the California and Arizona desert areas.
Colorado potato shipments are steady and averaging about 800 truck loads per week. Potato acreage in the San Luis Valley is up 8 percent in 2014 to 53,700 over 2013’s 49,700 acres.
San Luis Valley potato shipment totals through December 2014 are very similar to the previous year, with 10,579 loads having gone out with the end of the year 2014 compared to 10,529 in 2013. Truck shipments of fresh were at 2,654, up from 2,614 the previous year.
Colorado potato shipments – grossing about $2200 to Chicago.
Desert Vegetable Shipments
A couple of weeks of above-normal temperatures since the middle of January have helped bring on vegetables supplies – and shipments – in the western desert areas of California and Arizona. In fact this week plenty of sunshine and highs mostly in the lower 70s are predicted.
In early- to mid-January, there were very light supplies of Iceberg lettuce as well as most other vegetables. But high temperatures in the 70s in Yuma, AZ, and California’s Imperial Valley brought on fields more quickly and increased shipments.
However, it is still the middle of winter with almost three months of weather yet to play out. Although the harvest is ahead-of-schedule there is the potential for supply and shipping gaps if the weather cools off and growing time takes longer.
Desert vegetables – grossing about $7000 to New York City.
Apple Shipments
With the arrival of the New Year about 113.5 million bushels of U.S.-grown fresh-market apples had yet to ship, 16 percent more than at the same time last year. The amount of apples remaining in storage is also 26 percent higher than the five-year average.
Washington state accounted for 100.4 million bushels of fresh-market apples still in storage, while Michigan had 4.9 million bushels, New York 4.2 million bushels and Pennsylvania 1.3 million bushels.
The holdings of all major apple varieties were up from Jan. 1, 2014 ranging from red delicious to galas, fujis, granny smiths, golden delicious, Pink Lady and Honeycrisp.
Washington apple shipments are amounting to about 2,500 truck load equivalents a week from the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys, with a much smaller volume in pears.
Washington apples/pears – grossing about $4600 to Chicago.
The state also is shipping about 700 truckloads of onions per week from the Columbia Basin and the adjacent Umatilla Basin in Oregon. The same area also is shipping about one-half this volume in potatoes.
Washington/Oregon potatoes and onions – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
In Michigan, there is adequate equipment from apple haulers, but shortages of trucks for hauling onions.
Michigan apple shipments grossing about $2600 to Atlanta, while onions are paying about $500 less per load.
An early January freeze has hampered harvest and reduced shipments of Southern Georgia greens. Also, here’s an update on Florida citrus shipments.
Georgia Produce Shipments
Greens in Georgia were damaged by freezes the week of January 4th, with temperatures in the Norman Park shipping region hitting the low 20s. By the week of January 11th, shipments had taken a hard hit. One grower/shipper was picking just 2,000 to 4,000 boxes of greens a day, down from the seasonal norm of 8,000 to 10,000. Some operators were affected more than others.
Harvest was taking much longer because instead of picking greens by the bunch, workers were picking leaf by leaf, sorting out undamaged from damaged product. Georgia greens shipments should be back to normal around January 24 – 28.
South Georgia greens and cabbage – grossing about $3000 to New York City.
The cold weather didn’t reach down to Florida, and damage greens there.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Florida orange shipments continue to decline.
On January 12, the USDA forecast midseason and late season orange production declined 5 percent from the December 10th report and fell 2 percent from the previous season.
Grapefruit and tangerine production remained unchanged.
In the newest report, the USDA forecast Florida non-valencia oranges, which include early, midseason, navel and temple varieties, to decline 4 million equivalent cartons to 48 million cartons and valencias to fall 1 million cartons to 55 million cartons.
Navel production remains unchanged at 1.5 million cartons.
On grapefruit, total production is forecast at 15 million cartons and tangerines are forecast at 2.5 million cartons.
Overall, Florida growers are forecast to harvest 121.3 million equivalent cartons of citrus, down from last season’s 124 million cartons and considerably lower than the 169 million carton 2009-13 average.
While about 96 percent of the state’s oranges ship to processed channels, 65 percent of its navels, 63 percent of its tangerines, 40 percent of its grapefruit and about 10 percent of its overall citrus ship fresh.
Florida citrus shipments – grossing about $2300 to Chicago.
Desert vegetable shipments out the Arizona and California deserts continue to be lower than normal, but if you do load any product check the quality of what is being put in the truck.
Supply and quality issues will complicate the remainder of the California and Arizona lettuce deals, and prices should stay high as a result, because of shipping gaps.
You also are paying more for lettuce at the supermarket. Cartons of lettuce at shipping point are more than triple what they were this time last year (now $25.50-28.50 for cartons of film-lined 24-count iceberg).
The shipping gaps are hard to predict because some shippers are harvesting, while others may be in a gap due to when they planted, etc. Gaps also are affecting romaine, head lettuce, etc. at different times.
This problem is expected to last weeks, if not months. For example there are about 12 weeks left for shipping lettuce out of Yuma. It is beginning to look like the shipping gaps, and quality problems will be around until the seasonal shift takes the harvest back to Huron, Santa Maria and Salinas.
If colder than normal weather is prevelant in the coming weeks it could further delay or reduce lettuce volume – and shipments.
Yuma vegetable shipments – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
More Trucks are Needed for Onion and Potato Shipments.
Storage onion shipments remain sluggish and shippers continue to have difficulty attracting enough trucks.
About 500 to 600 fewer loads had shipped out of the Treasure Valley season-to-date. There are adequate supplies in storage, and it should stay that way until shipments end in April. Treasure Valley includes all the lowland areas from Vale, OR on the west to Boise, ID on the east. Historically, the valley had been known as the Lower Snake River Valley or the Boise River Valley.
Port slowdowns in the Pacific Northwest are one reason for the slower movement. Washington state onions that normally would have been exported have had to fight Treasure Valley product for a share of the domestic market. Also lack of trucks have been giving shippers headaches this season. Trucks have been tight, and with an uptick in the economy, trains have been busier hauling coal, oil and other products. Some shippers are bemoaning rail service in the area, which isn’t as good as it used to be.
Idaho/Oregon onions – grossing anywhere from $3400 to $4400 to Chicago depending on truck availability.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
Despite transportation challenges, Red River Valley shippers shipped about nine percent more potatoes than they did in the first half of last season. Shipments the second half of the season will likely also exceed last year. Storage issues plagued last year’s crop, especially late in the season. This year’s storage crop appears to be in very good shape.
It is not uncommon for potato shippers waiting up to four days to obtain a truck.
Grand Forks, ND red potatoes – grossing about $3900 to Atlanta.