Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Increased loading opportunities are taking place for Florida strawberries from the Plant City area, while arrivals of Chilean imported stone fruit are occurring on both coasts of the United States.
Florida strawberry shipments got off to a show start this season but good volume finally arrived the week of December 22nd. While volume in late December and early January was high, produce haulers should expect a significant slowing of shipments to begin in mid-January. Volume for Florida strawberry shipments could be off for a couple of weeks before picking back up towards the end of January. Heading into Valentine’s Day (February 14th), truckers should expect bigger volume.
Florida strawberries, vegetables and tomatoes – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Chilean Fruit
Importers of Chilean stone fruit expect a strong rebound from last season’s freeze-damaged crops. Break bulk shipments of Chilean peaches, nectarines and plums began arriving early the week of December 29th at the Port of Long Beach.
Shipments were running seven days ahead of last year. Volumes this season should be at least in line with the 5-year average but much higher than last season, when fruit was hard hit by freezes.
Philadelphia received its first shipments for Chilean peaches, nectarines and plums the weekend of Jan. 3rd. Early varieties of Chilean peaches would start arriving at East Coast ports this week, with nectarine volumes following in early February and plum volumes in mid-February.
Southern California avocados hit by snow, while table grape shipments are just about finished.
California produce shipments
Sunny Southern California was more like a winter wonder land New Year’s Eve when a snowstorm dumped up to 6 inches on parts of Riverside County and caused damage to avocado orchards.
Damage assessments should be available very soon. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, it snows in Temecula, CA! About half of an estimated 330-million pound crop is shipped from the state’s southern growing regions of Riverside and San Diego counties. To the north, Ventura County got some low temperatures Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 but fruit loss was expected to be minimal.
Avocado tree branches were down, although there is hope the fruit on the tree would still be harvestable. Damage from the weight of the snow doesn’t necessarily mean freeze damage.
Grape Shipments
Meanwhile, California table grape shippers have completed harvests, with what appears to be the second largest crop on record, despite the drought. It is estimated there will be 105.9 million 19-pound boxes shipped, which would be short of last year’s 116.3-million-box haul, but exceeding the 101.3 million packages turned out in 2012. Grape shipments could finish this week for the season.
In the meantime, California desert vegetable shipments are unpredictable as ever with shipping gaps occurring due to past freezing weather.
Imperial Valley/Yuma vegetables – grossing about $3000 to Seattle.
Southern California avocados, berries and celery – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
From South Texas to North Dakota here are some loading opportunities for fresh produce being shipped from the Central Time Zone (except Colorado).
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, both grapefruit and oranges are moving in steady volume. Meanwhile, Mexican product is crossing the border at McAllen, Tx ranging from tropical fruit to tomatoes, and vegetables, with truck shortages reported. There’s also cabbage being loaded from the Winter Garden District just south of San Antonio. There also is light volume of West Texas potatoes being shipped out of the Hereford area and Eastern New Mexico.
South Texas produce shipments- grossing about $3100 to Orlando.
Wisconsin Potato Shipments
Central Wisconsin is the nation’s third largest potato shipping area and is averging about 200 truck loads weekly. Truck supplies are very tight.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Dallas.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
Red potatoes out of the North Dakota/Minnesota Red River Valley are moving in steady volume. Truck supplies are very tight.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
Colorado Potato Shipments
The second largest potato shipping state is Colorado. Truck supples are very tight for produce being shipped out of the San Luis Valley.
Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2400 to Chicago.
Record apple shipments in the United States are predicted for the 2014-15 shipping season.
As of December 1st, this season’s fresh apples in storage totaled 122.2 million bushels, a whopping 16 percent increase from the same time last year.
Apples for processing totaled 44.6 million bushels, 3 percent above last year on December 1st. The total number of apples in storage on December 1st was 166.8 million bushels, 12 percent above last December’s total.
The United States has about 7,500 apple producers who grow nearly 200 varieties of apples on approximately 328,000 acres.
The 2013-14 crop estimate, at 248.6 million bushels, was the 10th-largest apple crop shipped since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping statistics on commercial apple production.
Washington state’s Yakima and Wenatchee valleys continue to ship about as many apples each year as all of the apple shipping areas in the United States combined. The state is averaging about 3,500 truck load equivalents weekly.
Both Michigan and New York state have similar volume this season, with both averaging around 250 truck loads of apples being shipped a week.
By contrast the Appalachian district that includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, Viriginia and West Virginia combined are loading about 100 truck loads of apples per week.
Michigan apple shipments – grossing about $4100 to Houston.
Hudson Valley New York apple shipments – grossing about $1600 to Baltimore.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $8,000 to New York City.
Desert vegetable shipping gaps have been expected for several weeks, and recent freezes appears to be making it even more of a sure thing.
Light freezes started December 26th, but the heaviest frosts started hitting vegetable fields in the Imperial Valley of California and the Yuma, AZ area December 29th.
Frost conditions are tightening lettuce shipments in January. Growers are losing up to 40 percent of their harvests each day as long as they wait for the fields to thaw out.
In the Coachella Valley, temperatures ranged from 30 to 32 degrees at hillside operations, but plunged to 22 to 25 degrees on the valley floor. The Yuma area also had a temperature drop into the 20s.
The cold snap is affecting lettuce and leaf items including romaine and iceberg; green leaf and red leaf lettuce; butter lettuce; and spinach.
It is difficult to predict whether loadings will be available from one day to the next as shipping gaps have started.
Before the freezes, there was a broad consensus that desert vegetables were two to three weeks ahead of normal production due to the warm weather pattern that’s persisted in California throughout 2014.
Produce shipments can be unpredictable anytime of year, but never more so than in winter.
Desert vegetables – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
(Note: Our 12/31 post was about possible damaging freezes hitting the citrus crop in the San Joaquin Valley. The crop dodged the proverbial bullet, so citrus shipments should be normal this season — unless Mother Nature decides to take another shot at it.)
There’s a possible California freeze damaging cold front barreling in from Canada that will hit the citrus shipping region of California’s San Joaquin Valley the nights of New Years Eve and New Years night….Additionally, here’s an update on loading opportunities for imported Chilean fruit.
A winter storm racing into the central San Joaquin Valley from Canada could bring temperatures of 26-27 degrees F. the nights of December 31st and January 1st, although forecasters are saying this could change as the storm nears. If the forecast holds, growers will likely begin irrigating on Wednesday to help warm the ground and protect trees. Wind machines will be turned on at night to mix the air and prevent cold pockets from forming.
Approximately 75 percent of the orange and mandarin crops have yet to be harvested. Navel oranges can withstand about four hours of 28-degree temperatures with little or no damage. However, mandarins are more sensitive, and even 32 degrees can be damaging to them.
If damage does occur, it typically takes days, if not weeks to assess how serious it was.
Chilean Fruit Imports
Apart from some recent rains that affected cherry volumes, weather conditions have been favorable for this season. Volume increases are predicted for Chilean fruit commodities, even cherries. This would be in stark contrast to the large volume decreases in 2013-14 due to severe frosts in the South American country. Exports of Chilean blueberries are expected to show a huge increase of 30 percent over last season, with volume exceeding 200 million pounds. An estimated 70 percent of exports come to North America. In the overall grape category, increases are seen for all varieties. Chilean grape imports will increase significantly in January, February and March.
As we rapidly approach the New Year, vegetable volume will be increasing from Mexico through Nogales, as well as the California desert. Here also is a summary of what recent rains in drought stricken California will mean for produce haulers in the future.
Mexican vine-ripe tomato shipments will be moving into volume shipments around January 1st.
Mexican strawberry volume is increasing along with strawberries from the Plant City, FL area as well as fruit from Ventura County, CA.
Southern California strawberry shipments started the week of December 15th with very light volume. However, increasing the volume has been hampered due to rainy, cool weather. Mexican strawberry shipments have been steadily increasing, but decent volume won’t be available until the first or second week of January.
California Drought Update
A week of storms that swept through California in mid-December came nowhere close to ending the state’s drought. But with continued warm weather in the forecast, conditions are good for rapid crop growth — and possible winter shipping gaps. Celery out of Oxnard and iceberg lettuce out of Yuma, Ariz. are both coming on fast — where less rain fell but warm weather prevailed.
It has taken a crop that was well ahead of schedule and made it even more so,. The combination of rain, with mild conditions has created accelerated growth that is unprecedented. This is expected to result in shipping gaps during the next several weeks.
A NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory study released Dec. 16 found the water storage in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins was 11 trillion gallons below normal seasonal levels. It could take years to replenish that. The study was based on satellite data from earlier in 2014.
Mexican vegetables crossing at Nogales – grossing about $1000 to Los Angeles.
Imperial Valley/Yuma district vegetables – grossing about $5300 to Atlanta.
Here are some of the better loading opportunities occurring in the Eastern United States, although volume from most areas is modest at best.
Florida produce shipments and truck rates tend to get a little funky during the holidays as there is a rush to deliver product for Christmas, then reorder between Christmas and New Year’s. Rates tend to fluctuate more than normal during this time.
Tomato shipments in Florida’s Homestead region should kick off in January, but overall Florida volume will likely fall off as Mexican tomato shipments ramp up. Many Florida tomato growers simply don’t grow as heavily for winter as they do for fall and spring. Shipments in the Ruskin/Palmetto growing region of Florida pretty much finished last week, with Immokalee taking over the lion’s share of the Sunshine State’s tomato volume.
Florida strawberry shipments were slow to pick up thanks to cool weather, but that began changing last week. Volume should hit, good, normal levels in early January.
Central and South Florida produce – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Sweet Potato Shipments
Domestic shipments in the USA for sweet potatoes has risen by 40 percent since 2008, with exports rising exponentially during the same period. North Carolina is the leading state in sweet potato shipments.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
New York Produce Shipments
Apple shipments are originating out of Western and Central New York, as well as the Champlain Valley, but the biggest volume is from the Hudson Valley. Cabbage loadings continue from Central and western areas, while most onion shipments are coming out of Orange County.
Hudson Valley apples – grossing about $2000 to Atlanta.
Mid December rains on the West Coast will benefit produce truckers hauling California citrus next year, plus will be helpful long term with produce shipments throughout much of the state.
The rain storm hit the main citrus shipping regions, but more importantly provided more water for storage, as an initial start to climbing out of a three-year-long drought. The rains are helping to reinvigorate citrus trees, which helps with fruit sizing.
California citrus is about seven weeks into the season with another 25 weeks of shipping ahead.
California Navel loadings began in mid-October, but a lack of rainfall over the summer had led to a smaller-than-usual fruit sizing.
The California Department of Water Resources says the state needs about five or six of these storms this winter and spring to have an above-average water year and to begin to make up the deficits racked up over the past three years. Because of the mid December storms, three of California’s largest reservoirs – Oroville, Shasta and Folsom – rose for the first time since last spring. But each of those reservoirs, which provide much of agriculture with the summer irrigation water it needs, still stand at only about one-third of capacity.
For the drought to be declared over, several cold weather storms that drop snow in the higher elevations are needed. Currently, the snow pack remains below normal. Each year’s snowpack and spring runoff provides California with the vast majority of its reservoir water.
But there is no doubt that the rains have helped.
Southern California citrus – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Nogales produce shipments have been light and inconsistent for the past couple of months, which is pretty typical this time of year. However, volume should show significant increases once we are past Christmas and heading into the New Year.
Everything from Mexican grown peppers to cucumbers, squash, eggpland, beans, tomatoes and melons should be crossing the border into Arizona in good volume.
A lot of people are keeping a close eye on the volume coming through Nogales to see if the port is losing business to the port of entry in McAllen, Tx, which is now receiving vegetables from West Mexico, with the completion of the 143-mile Autopista Durango-Mazatlan highway. West Mexican vegetables have historically moved through Nogales to destinations across the United States and Canada. With the new highway opening, it cuts a days travel time off of loads destined to points east of the Rocky Mountains.
While some Nogales distributors see the area losing business to Mexico, most say this is not the case. Between September 2013 and April 2014 movement across the Arizona border had increased 17 percent. Another advantage some are citing with Nogles over McAllen is the Arizona distribution facilities are fairly close together, while more spread out in Texas. This is a disadvantage for truckers picking up product at multiple distribution centers in McAllen.
Finally, some products in central Mexican – especially toprical fruits and avocados – that used to go through McAllen, are now being hauled westbound over the new Mexican highway and crossing the border at Nogales, for destinations in the Western half of the United States and Canada.
Mexican produce crossing at Nogales – grossing about $4100 to Chicago.