Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
The state of Arkansas has about 2,000 acres of tomatoes, according to the Arkansas Farm Bureau, making the commodity one of the state’s largest specialty crops.
Gem Tomato & Vegetable Shales of Hamburg, AR is reporting an exceptional crop and is among the nation’s first field-grown vine-ripes to be harvested each year.
A few tomatoes were picked in late may, but there is now a jump in volume occurring.
Gem Tomato offers round, roma, and for the past few years, grape tomatoes and ships primarily to customers in the midwest.
Round tomatoes are the company’s bestseller, but demand for romas has increased each year since they were added to the product line more than 20 years ago.
Harrod & Hensley Tomato Co. of Hermitage, AR in Bradley County, is known nationally as a prime tomato-growing region, shipping round, grape, heirloom and roma tomatoes. The fifth generation family owned company normally has the first tomatoes shipped of Arkansas.
The company also sells tomatoes for four or five other growers.
The state’s tomato loadings continue into the first week of July.
Naturipe of Watsonville, CA will have strong supplies of berries throughout the spring and summer of 2023 from different growing areas.
The company was underway in early May with peak supplies of California strawberries that will last through the summer months. Good volume should continue as well with blueberries this spring and summer.
Naturipe blueberries will source from diversified farming regions in the spring, which include Mexico, California, Florida and Georgia, and then will transition in the summer months into its farms from New Jersey, Michigan, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.
The company will continue to have good raspberry volumes from its farming regions across Mexico. Blackberries are now in peak supplies from Georgia and North Carolina farms for late spring and early summer.
Jalisco entered the U.S. market for the first time , on June 28, 2022,
29 years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) opened the doors for Mexico, the world’s biggest producer of avocados, to import the fruit into the U.S.
Jalisco Avocado Exporting Producers Association reports before exports to the U.S. began, Europe accounted for about 30% of its exports, Japan 31% and Canada with 33%, totaling around 115,000 tons of avocados divided among the three countries.
With the opening of the U.S. market, 50% of total exports are now destined for the U.S., with Canada and Japan going down to around 19%, while European exports have reduced drastically to around 8%.
The association notes European exports decreased due to logistical issues with the pandemic, both in terms of time and costs. In some cases, this affected the quality of the arriving fruit, reducing costs, which is why Jalisco exporters have decided to allocate more of their fruit to the U.S. which has because less risk.
For the U.S. market, the fruit travels for less than 24 hours, while the European market transit can take up to 25 days.
Avocados from Jalisco complement Michoacan (the main producing region), because the season starts in July, and usually, between May and July, there is not enough volume from Mexico to supply the U.S. market.
So the new exporting region intends to fill up that gap so Mexican avocados are available to the U.S. year-round.
New Jersey fruit and vegetable volume over 2022 due in large part to more favorable weather.
“Last year, New Jersey saw a late-spring freeze that affected the harvest of blueberries, peaches and some apple varieties that were in bloom when the cold hit,” said Joe Atchison III, assistant secretary and director of marketing for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. “This year, we are seeing heavy blossoms and fruit set and expect full crops with good availability throughout the season.”
New Jersey grows more than 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables on about 70,000 acres, Atchison said.
Some of the primary spring vegetables are asparagus, spinach, leafy greens, herbs and lettuces. Jersey also is known for blueberries, peaches, peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, squashes and, especially, Jersey tomatoes in summer.
The state had a mild winter with little to no snowfall across much of the state. Mild temperatures continued into spring, and there were no damaging frosts.
Consalo Family Farms of Egg Harbor City, NJ was able to begin harvesting two to three weeks ahead of schedule because of the warmer weather. Full production of lettuce started in early May, and an early start on blueberries also is expected.
The company also ships Little Smoochies items, including grapefruit, clementines, lemons and limes.
Good quality is reported for radish, parsley, cilantro, spinach and kale.
The company’s volume should be up compared to 2022.
The operation offers a full line of New Jersey produce, which also includes herbs, cooking greens and wet vegetables.
Schiller Park, IL – Optimal temperatures and growing conditions are resulting in peak production of Sun Belle blackberries and Green Belle organic blackberries from central Mexico through late May. Premium proprietary varieties Aketzali and Amelali, as well as the new Erandy variety, provide consumers with large, shiny, flavorfully sweet blackberries.
“The sunlight and beautiful spring weather on our farms are producing abundant volumes of extra sweet berries, sure to delight consumers and move retail sales,” said Sun Belle President and Founder Janice Honigberg. “Packed on the farm, our blackberries then go to one of our five distribution centers where they are carefully inspected to ensure the highest quality product for our retail partners and their customers.”
Sun Belle markets and distributes blackberries year-round. The company imports the Aketzali, Amelali and Erandy varieties from Mexico from August through mid-June, and markets excellent University of Arkansas varieties from Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey and Arkansas throughout the summer.
SUN BELLE and GREEN BELLE are leading brands of premium quality conventional and organic blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, golden berries, cranberries, pomegranate arils and red currants. Sun Belle operates five distribution centers nationally, including Schiller Park, Illinois; Jessup, Maryland; Oxnard, California; Miami, Florida; and Laredo, Texas.
Las Cruces, NM — National Onion, Inc. begins its 41st season marketing and selling onions for Agrocosa – a Gomez Farm company. This long-standing partnership brings high quality short-day and intermediate white, yellow, and red onions to the U.S. and Canadian summer markets.
“Our longevity is based on a combination of product quality and customers service. Agrocosa has the unique ability to grow and yield a consistent product year-after-year, which has allowed us to further the brand since 1982.” said Micah Smith, Vice President, National Onion Inc.
National Onion looks forward to selling its brands Rio Gold (yellow onions), Rio Pearl (white onions), Rio Ruby (red onions), and Rio Sweet (carton sweet yellow onions) nationwide and to the Canadian market. The company will sell Mexican onions until mid-July and then transition to other sales agreements with growers in the U.S.
Dinuba, CA — California cantaloupe farmers are overjoyed with the amount of rainfall received this winter and for the welcome relief to severe drought conditions that have impacted growing areas for the past several years.
Although rainfall was heavy throughout the winter, cantaloupe-producing districts have not experienced flooding that has impacted other parts of the state. Additionally, California cantaloupe fields had not yet been planted at the time of the state’s heaviest rainfall.
California cantaloupe growers are reporting that wet fields and rainy weather definitely delayed planting, particularly in the southern growing districts of the Imperial Valley. This means that promotable volume of cantaloupe from California will likely not be available until Memorial Day Weekend, with peak supplies expected throughout the month of June.
Cantaloupe plantings in the major San Joaquin Valley growing regions were also slightly impacted by wet fields. But this is not expected to significantly delay harvest of cantaloupe on the westside of California, which should peak in mid-July as it normally does.
“In short, we know the beginning of California cantaloupe season will be approximately two weeks later than normal this year,” said Garrett Patricio of Westside Produce in Firebaugh. “We’ll provide updates on the San Joaquin Valley harvest timing as harvest gets closer but, for now, we are not expecting major delays.
As the Northern Hemisphere citrus season comes to a close and the Southern Hemisphere season begins, Salix Fruits, a leading company in the import and export of fresh fruits, said shipments of citrus are arriving steadily.
According to Alejandro Moralejo, CEO of Salix Fruits, South Africa, the major citrus supplier in the Southern Hemisphere has grown in all citrus varieties.
“The first week of April, RSA (South Africa) started with lemon shipments to the Middle East, their most important market, and to Canada,” he said.
Currently, the U.S. is also sourcing the last shipments of lemons from Mexico while Argentina is starting its shipments to Canada, along with Russia and other parts of Europe. Moralejo said that despite the summer drought in Argentina, lemon volumes are guaranteed for all markets.
On the other hand, the mandarin market is the only one still covered by the Northern Hemisphere. The U.S. is sourcing the last shipments of mandarins from Morocco, while Chile and Peru are waiting for their crops to be ready.
“Peru will start the early mandarin season in the next few weeks. It will be the late mandarin supplier to Northern Hemisphere markets. The earliest fruit is waiting for market windows in the Northern Hemisphere,” said Moralejo.
In all, Moralejo noted that it is a season with an earlier window for the Southern Hemisphere citrus because of the lack of product from Spain, Morocco and Turkey, though later production will continue from Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco.
Moralejo said there is strong demand in the U.S. and Canada for imported citrus, and Salix will continue offering citrus from its sourcing regions including Argentina, South Africa, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.
“We are very pleased with the supply from our Egypt office, which will give us a large volume for the next season in the Northern Hemisphere,” he said. “This is in addition to the excellent quality product from Spain and Morocco, where Salix has been present for the last two years.”
U.S. importers report heavier imported mango supplies will be coming this summer, while 2023 so far has had lighter than normal volume.
Mexico is the primary source of mangoes during spring and summer months, providing over 90% of the total supply, according to the National Mango Board, Orlando, FL.
The supply of mangoes to the U.S. from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador for 2020-22 has been on average 135 million boxes.
Mission Produce Inc. of Oxnard, CA notes rain early this year led to a slightly delayed start to the Mexico mango harvest. Mission Produce receives several varieties of mangoes from multiple growing regions.
The company reports high-quality tommy atkins and honey mangoes from Mexico have been arriving at its North American forward distribution centers, although in limited volumes. Mission also is sourcing tommy atkins mangoes from Nicaragua and Guatemala.
As summer approaches, the harvest of fibreless varieties, such as kent and keitt mangoes, generally begins in northern and central Mexico. Mission will start sourcing kent mangoes from Mexico this month. It also plans to source organic tommy atkins, kent and keitt mango varieties from Mexico.
Central American Produce, Pompano Beach, FL., will import mangoes from Central America until around mid-May and will continue to source from several areas of Mexico throughout the summer. The company offers tommy atkins, haden and honey mangoes.
Central American Produce also imports a few organic mangoes.
Vision Import Group of River Edge, NJ, which early this year formed a joint venture called Vision Global Group with William H. Kopke Jr. Inc. of Great Neck, NY, is importing mangoes from Mexico and Guatemala this spring.
The company handles mostly the tommy atkins variety, some honey mangoes and a few hadens. A few kents should be available from Guatemala.
A difficult California growing season characterized by rain, snow and unusually low winter temperatures is finally giving away to more promising weather and more shipments of table grapes, strawberries and cherries.
Grape Shipments
The California table grape season starts in the Coachella Valley with harvesting just getting underway.
Harvesting in the San Joaquin Valley (Arvin) should begin in late June or early July. Early expectations are the 2023 crop will be similar or slightly larger than last season’s 95.1 million 19-pound boxes.
Autumn King, Scarlet Royal, Sheegene-20, flame and Sheegene-21 varieties accounted for 47% of the total volume in 2022. Exports accounted for 30% of the volume last season. The top three markets included Canada, Mexico and Taiwan.
Strawberry Shipments
Strawberry volume began recovering from adverse weather in early April, with shipments much lower than last year.
As of the week ending April 1, California shipments of conventional and organic strawberries totaled 8.5 million trays, down from 20 million at the same time in 2022.
Fall-planted acreage for 2023 winter, spring and summer production was 31,852 acres, up from 30,499 in 2022. About 45% of the acreage is in the Watsonville growing region, 34% is in the Santa Maria area and 20% is in Oxnard. Although some acreage was lost due to a levee break along the Pajaro River in March, about 95% of the strawberry crop was undamaged from the storm.
Cherry Shipments
California’s cherry crop will come on seven to 10 days later than usual, with picking beginning in late April or early May. California is the first state to ship cherries each year.
King Fresh Produce LLC of Dinuba, CA expects there will be good volume by May 20, with loadings continuing until about the third week of June.
Growers project this year’s crop will be slightly larger than last year’s 5.2 million 18-pound boxes, which is down from about 10 million boxes the year prior, mostly because of an unusually warm winter.