Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
There are Florida produce loading opportunities available, but keep in mind it is autumn and volume is much lighter than it will be next spring. However, there are hauls available for vegetables, and strawberry loadings will be available this year, earlier than normal.
Vegetable growers in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties are shipping cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs and fall watermelons while also preparing land and planting for later winter crops. In Miami-Dade County loadings of the fall vegetables and winter plantings have started. Cabbage and leafy greens are in the ground in Flagler and Putnam counties. Florida growers are also shipping eggplant, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, fall watermelons and some specialty items.
Florida strawberry shipments will be starting earlier than normal this year.
Light loadings typically begin in late November, and slowly build in early to mid-December, with good volume occuring by late December.
Because of earlier maturing berries this year, excellent volume will be taking place in time for Christmas holiday deliveries. Produce truckers should expect high volume by late November and early December, with shipments hitting full stride around December 20th or so.
Florida strawberry shipments could be up as much as 20 percent this season. Big volume loadings typically occur through March and finishing by mid-April.
Florida veggies – grossing about $2400 to New York City.
There still will be a lot of potatoes for hauling this season which will extend into next summer despite the fall crop in the United States being down 5 percent compared to 2012.
Here’s a glimpse of the leading potato shipping states:
Idaho 132.9 million hundred weight (cwt)., down 6.3 percent; Washington 96 million, up less than 1 percent; Wisconsin 27.9 million, down 5.2 percent; Oregon 21.6 million, down 5.9 percent; Colorado 20.3 million, down 1.5 percent; Michigan 16.8 million, up 5.4 percent.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5400 to New York City.
Washington Potato Shipments
Year to date, loadings have been running a little ahead of schedule compared to recent years.
Most of this is due to early season shipments in July and August when potato supplies were very short across the country. Washington’s fresh producers account for 26,000 acres of the 160,000 acres of potatoes in the Evergreen State. About half of that total are russet potatoes, and the other half is a mix of reds, yellows, whites and other specialty potatoes.
Washington state, Columbia Basin potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
The North Dakota potato crop will come in at 22.6 million cwt. down about 10.1 percent from last year. Some folks were forecasting shipments to be down 25 to 30 percent at one point.
81,000 acres were planted in North Dakota compared to 88,000 last year, and harvested acres dipped from 84,000 last year to 78,000 this year.
Potato production in Minnesota dropped from 18.8 million cwt. in 2012 to 17.5 million this year, a drop of just under 7 percent. All but 2,000 of the 47,000 planted acres planted in Minnesota were harvested.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
Texas produce shipments, largely out of the Lower Rio Grand Valley, are led by citrus, onions, cabbage and greens. However, if you are loading produce out of South Texas, chances are you are picking up fruits and vegetables grown in Mexico and delivered across the border to a distribution warehouses in McAllen, Pharr, etc.
Mexico has emerged as the source of about 60 to 65 percent of the fresh produce that is shipped from south Texas to markets across the U.S. and much of Canada.
About 40 percent of fruits and vegetables consumed in America have been imported.
In fact, Texas has surpassed Arizona, which includes Nogales, in terms of total volume of fresh fruits and vegetables coming across the border from Mexico. In 2012, approximately 160,000 truck loads of Mexican produce were hauled into Texas, with 100,000 of those truck loads crossing the border at the Pharr-Reynosa Bridge alone.
With the nearing completiton of the Mazatlan-Durango highway and Baluarte Bridge in Mexico, the volume is expected to keep increasing.
Part of this expansion is believed to be coming at the expense of California. That state’s high taxes, and ever increasing rules and regulations continue to add costs to the operations of businesses, both in produce and trucking alike. This is making Mexico more attractive for agricultural operations.
South Texas produce – grossing about $4200 to New York City.
From sweet potatoes to green beans, cranberries and more, here’s an outlook for fresh produce hauls relating to items popular for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is November 28th.
The leading states for sweet potato shipments are North Carolina, California, Mississippi and Louisiana. There will be 20 percent fewer loadings of North Carolina sweet potatoes this season, although it may not be noticeable during the next few weeks, since Thanksgiving is the most popular holiday for the product. There also is less sweet potato volume from Mississippi and Louisiana.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to New York City.
Mississippi sweet potatoes – about $1800 to Chicago.
Cranberry Shipments
The harvest of cranberries in Wisconsin is late this season and is still going on. However, good supplies for hauling are available from Central Wisconsin, as well as the other leading state, Massachusetts.
Green Beans
This is a seasonal low point for Florida produce shipments, but some vegetables, including green beans are being hauled. Beans are now originating out of the Belle Glade and Homestead areas.
Imports
Spanish, Morroccan and Chilean clementines will be arriving at U.S. ports by boat in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Most of the arrivals will be on the East Coast.
Peruvian Onions
Sweet onions from Peru have become a popular items during the past decade and volume has increased significantly. In fact, many of the leading domestic sweet onion shippers, are acting as the importers and have growing operations in that South American country. Arrivals are occurring in good volume at U.S. ports on the East Coasat and should continue into Feburary.
While mixed loads of fresh produce have become more common than ever over the years as distribution warehouses and other receivers look for ways to reduce inventories, there are even fewer straight loads of fresh fruits and vegetables this time of year. California and other areas tend to have less volume in winter. Translated – this often means multiple picks and drops. Those multiple pick ups too often are spread over hundreds of miles.
During the past decade or so a number of wholesale distributors have got into cross docking, particularly in the Los Angeles area, where product is consolidated at a central warehouse. This has helped some in reducing the number of pick ups, and ultimately helps deliver product faster to destination.
We’re entering a transition period with California produce loads where there’s light volume with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and berries from the Salinas Valley. There’s also light shipments of Huron district lettuce in the San Joaquin Valley.
Two of the heaviest volume items are California grapes and carrots out of the SJV. Grape shipments are averaging over 1,500 truck loads per week while carrots loads are hitting about 325 loads per week.
Moderate strawberry volume is originating out of the Watsonville district, as well as Santa Maria, but volume will soon be declining from those areas. Limited volume of strawberries have started from Ventura County and Southern California.
There’s a few vegetables coming out of the California desert and Yuma, but measurable volume is still several weeks away.
San Joaquin Valley produce – grossing about $7000 to New York City.
Southern California citrus – about $4000 to Chicago.
Here’s a round up of California produce loads, as well as loadings from Michigan, New York state and border crossings from Mexico.
California Navel orange shipments should hit about 88 million cartons for the season, down only two percent from a year ago.
Harvest has been underway about a month, with light shipments having started a couple of weeks ago from the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
Mandarin orange and clementine volume should be up a little mostly because of young acreage coming into fuller production.
Lemon loadings from California’s Imperial Valley and from Arizona should be up slightly this seaons.
The California desert, as well as the Yuma area in Arizona have light volume loadings of cantaloupe and honeydew. Lettuce shipments are still several weeks away.
In South Texas, watermelon shipments are winding down, but melons from Mexico are just starting and will be crossing the U.S. border , not only in Texas, but at Nogales, AZ, until next May.
Michigan Produce Shipments
The Wolverine state has light volume loadings of carrots, celery and onions, with better volume for apples, the later amounting to around 250 truck loads per week.
New York Apple Shipments
New York is a big state and apple loadings originate in Eastern areas, primarily from the Hudson Valley and near the western shores of Lake Champlain. Further west in New York, the primary shipping areas for apples are Utica, Ithica, Syracuse and Rochester. Apple shipments from the state are similar in volume to Michigan’s 250 trucks per week.
San Joaquin Valley produce – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Hudson Valley apples – about $3200 to Orlando.
Harvest is virtually over for Red River Valley potatoes. With product in storage, shippers can now give full attention to marketing and shipping their crop.
There’s also a lot of avocados and other Mexican produce crossing the border into South Texas.
Significant moisture received the first two weeks of October resulted in wet and muddy field conditions in some RRV areas, which made for difficult harvest conditions (See photo of tractor and harvestor stuck in the mud).
Red potatoes account for 98 percent of the fresh potatoes grown in the Red River Valley. Overall shipments from the North Dakota and Minnesota area is expected to be down this season, perhaps 20 percent. More on this will soon be available as the harvest is completed.
Mexican Produce Shipments
Total exports of Hass avocados from Mexico into the United States in 2012-13 were a record 517,896 metric tons, up 40 percent from the prior crop year. This topped the previous year by 26 percent. Similar volume is expected this year.
As of the first week in October, the weekly volume was up to where it had been on that date a year ago. Volume increases are seen for November and December. In all, very good volume for avocados are seen out of Mexico for the 2013-14 season. The majority of the fruit crosses the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Mexican avocados (crossing the border), plus other Mexican items and Texas citrus – grossing about $4000 to New York City.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
Produce haulers can expect less loading opportunities of Chilean fruit at U.S. ports this winter.
Freezing temperatures Sept. 17 and again a week later hit Chilean orchards with the worst cold since 1929 as temperatures plunged to 19 degrees F. for an average of seven hours.
Last year, Chilean fruit exporters sold about 282 million boxes of fruit to global markets, and for 2013-14, exports are expect to decline about 50 million boxes short of that level.
How much of Chile’s total fruit goes to the U.S. this season is still up the air. America took about 42 percent of Chile’s total grape exports a year ago. Imports of grapes from the South American country normally hit stride in January and continue for about three months.
The effect of the frost will mainly be in stone fruit, though grape volume could also be down an average of about 15 percent. Stone fruit is mostly peaches plums and nectarines, with much fewer apricots.
Early grapes will fare better than later-season grapes. If this holds true grape arrivals by boat at U.S. ports will probably be much lighter than usual in March.
Kiwifruit damage is rated very heavy, at close to 60 percent.
Further updates will be reported as they become available.
Overall loading opportunities should be up this season for Michigan apples, while the nation’s biggest storage onion region will have fewer onion shipments.
Apple Shipments
The Michigan apple industry set new shipping records for two consecutive weeks in October, loading 414,702 boxes of apples the week of October 12th.
During the week of October 5th, the Michigan shipped 411,973 boxes of apples. That record was broken the following week with 414,702 boxes. In October 2011, the industry set a shipment record of 378,933 the second week in October.
With 9.2 million total apple trees in commercial production on 36,500 acres, Michigan is the third-largest producer of apples in the U.S., and distributes apples to 26 states and 18 countries.
Onion Shipments
Onion shipments will likely be less from Idaho and eastern Oregon (Malhuer County) this year due to disease and weather-related factors. The region that produces about 25 percent of the nation’s storage onions.
Idaho and eastern Oregon farmers harvested 19,100 acres in 2012, down 1,400 acres from the previous year. Shipments this season are estimated to be similar to a year ago.
Idaho-eastern Oregon onions – grossing about $3500 to Chicago.
Michigan apples – about $3600 to Atlanta.
From Washington state apples, to Nebraska and Texas potatoes, as well as North Carolina sweet potatoes and more, here’s some fresh produce loads to consider.
Washington Apple Loads
Apple shipments are really picking up from Washington state’s Yakima and Wenatchee valleys. They have finally got the old crop out the way and the focus has shifted to new season fruit. The harvest is still continuing, but volume should get heavy as we get into November.
Potato Loads
Shipments of red potatoes out of North Dakota and Minnesota remain only light to moderate as digging still continues. The harvest of Red River Valley potatoes is about two to three weeks behind schedule, with a little over half of the spuds now in storage. Loadings should increase in the weeks ahead.
Sweet Potato Loads
Another late harvest is with North Carolina sweet potatoes. Some sweet potatoes were being shipped uncured at the start of the season, but now there has been time for curing. Sweet potatoes are not very sweet or moist when first dug. It takes six to eight weeks of proper curing and storage before they have the sweet, moist taste and texture desired when baked.
Nebraska continues to ship light amounts of potatoes, mostly from the Imperial, Neb area in the southwest part of the state, and from O’Neill in Northeast Nebraska — about 200 loads weekly combined from both areas
There’s also similar volume of potatoes coming out of what’s know as the High Plains district of West Texas, around the Herford area.
Washington state apples – grossing about $6400 to New York City.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – about $1500 to Atlanta.