Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
The Peruvian avocado ramped up volumes in mid-April.
Following a year-on-year drop in export volumes last season of 17 percent, Peru is forecasting a 5 percent increase over 2018, when 336,000MT were exported. But unlike 2018, when the volumes were greatly concentrated in a few weeks, supplies are more consistent and spread out throughout the season. The peak volume is expected to be from May through July.
The Peruvian Hass Avocado Growers’ Association (ProHass) reports there had been a slight slowdown in exports, but it was believed this was more related to companies learning about how to implement the new measures under the covid-19 pandemic and also due to market uncertainty over recent weeks.
There have so far been few problems in terms of logistics in Peru, with
enough truck drivers available and accommodating to the new schedules. The flow of containers from the ports to the packing houses and vice versa has also not been much of an issue, but the response times and efficiency of these operations have slowed. The first exports of the Peruvian avocado season have been focused on the European market.
Peruvian exports to the U.S. has been increasing in recent years. Peruvian avocado supplies are viewed as a good complement to the domestic and Mexican supplies. Exports from Mexico are at the lowest point in the Northern Hemisphere summer months.
While avocados from Peru arrive mainly at East Coast ports in the U.S. they as shipped nationwide.
Europe is still Peru’s primary market, and it is now shipping there, as well as China and Japan.
California avocado shipments are far outpacing last season, primarily because of heavy demand from retailers in early and mid-March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the California Avocado Commission reports loadings have now slowed down in line with retail demand.
Despite retail orders being offset somewhat by the huge drop in foodservice demand, California avocado growers harvested nearly 46.7 million pounds this season through March 22.
This compares to only 5.1 million pounds for the same time last year. Some of this increase is due to a larger crop in 2020, but much is due to strong early-season demand. There has been a lot consumers stocking up and panic-buying, especially with the start of the pandemic, but there have been some expectations of softer retail traffic going into April. This has resulted in many growers to temporarily slow down on harvesting.
Unlike some produce items, mature avocados can remain safely on their trees, providing some harvesting flexibility.
Georgia Vidalia onion shipments are underway and loadings should be similar to a year ago.
There are 9,373 acres on onions in the ground, which is similar to 2019 crop acreage, which was about 2,000 acres down from 2018.
The Vidalia Onion Committee reports more onions are being grown on less acreage. There are about 80,000 to 110,000 onion plants per acre being cultivated by hand to produce the 5 million to 7 million 40-pound equivalents shipped every year.
In 2019, the Vidalia onion industry produced 5.3 million 40-pound equivalents. There is a six to eight-week harvest period for fresh onions, and then about half the crop, or 3 million to 3.5 million bushels, is shipped from cold storage or controlled atmosphere storage through summer.
Last year was one of the best shipping season in Vidalia onion history and the industry has hopes for the same results this go around.
Every year the Georgia Department of Agriculture sets an official start date for the season after hearing from a 13-member advisory panel of the Vidalia Onion Committee of growers. This year’s start date was April 16.
California strawberry shipments could exceed last year’s volume thanks to increased plantings and higher yielding varieties.
Strawberry growers planted nearly 27,000 acres of strawberries for winter, spring and summer production this year, about 1,000 acres more than 2019.
The California Strawberry Commission of Watsonville, CA. reports the combination of increased acreage and the introduction of high-yielding varieties offers growers the potential of producing more than last year’s 202 million plus trays.
Ventura County accounts for 19 percent of the state’s acreage, Santa Maria has 35 percent and Watsonville has 45 percent.
As of March 9, the state had shipped nearly 8.5 million trays of strawberries compared to 4.3 million trays at the same time last year.
Well-Pict Inc. of Watsonville, CA was picking in Oxnard the second week of March and the area hit a peak at the end of March.
Santa Maria began loadings in late March, but the crop was slowed due to earlier weather issues. The areais now entering peak shipments.
Meanwhile, Watsonville shipments are ahead of schedule this year.
Red Blossom Sales Inc., Salinas, CA started shipment from Santa Maria the second week of March 9 but was planningt to start picking in Watsonville around April 30, as usual.
Bobalu Berries of Oxnard started its strawberry season in Ventura County and will be shipping from Watsonville in May.
Truck rates from Ventura County have plunged in recent days from 15 to 30 percent, depending on the market. Oxnard rates have dropped over 20 percent – strawberries and vegetables to New York City – about $6200; down 30 percent to Atlanta – now about $3900.
Total apples remaining to be shipped from U.S. storages has remained consistently high so far this year, holding steady at 15 percent up from a year ago-on-year.,
As of April 1st in the U.S., there were 81.7 million bushels of apples in storage, up from 71.3 million last year. This year’s figure is also 8 percent above the five-year average.
Fresh apples in storage specifically were registered at 58.7 million, which is also 15 percent up last year. But it is only fractionally higher than the 2017 figure for April of 57.7 million.
Apples for processing in storage came in at 23 million bushels, up 12 percent from a year ago, and slightly below the 23.5 million registered at the same point in the 2017 season.
Breaking down fresh apples in storage remaining to shipped by varieties as of April 1:
Fuji is at 7.7m bushels (6.2m in 2019, 7.2m in 2018) Gala is at 12.3m bushels (9.8m in 2019, 10.7m in 2018) Golden Delicious is at 4.3m bushels (2.3m in 2019, 3.8m in 2018) Granny Smith is at 8m bushels (6m in 2019, 10.1m in 2018) Honeycrisp is at 4.5m bushels (3.8m in 2019, 3.3m in 2018) Pink Lady/Cripps Pink is at 2.9m bushels (2.9m in 2019, 3.3m in 2018) Red Delicious is at 13.6m bushels (15m in 2019, 15.6m in 2018)
A small increase in California cherry shipment is expected this season over last year, assuming heavy rains or other adverse weather conditions such as the heavy rainfall that devastated much of the crop last May.
Flavor Tree Fruit Co., which is the marketing arm of Warmerdam Packing LLC of Hanford, CA reports California cherry loadings will arrive five or six days earlier this year.
Flavor Tree ships about 700,000 boxes of cherries, amounting to about 10 percent of the California volume.
Flavor Tree is just starting to pick cherries, which is a typical start time, but five or six days earlier than last year.
Stemilt Growers LLC of Wenatchee, WA has Chinchiolo Stemilt in Stockton, CA and notes the California cherry crop looks promising.
Stemilt’s 2020 Californiacherry shipments should start the last week of April or in early May. Stemilt expects to have a 40- to 50-day season in California.
Primavera Marketing Inc. of Linden, CA plans to start its 2020 cherry season the week of April 27. The company accounts for about 20 percent of the total volume for California cherries and will wrap up its season sometime between early and mid June.
Last year’s industrywide California cherry volume was headed for the biggest crop in history, but record rains in May “demolished the crop.
At one point, there were 10 million to 12 million 18-pound box equivalents of cherries on the trees, but only about 5.7 million were packed.
California’s record cherry crop came in 2017, when growers picked 9.6 million boxes.
Some observers see a possible crop this season of 6 million to 7 million boxes — an increase of 10 to 15 percent, slightly above the 6.5 million box 10-year average.
Florida ships a nation-leading one-third of the country’s fresh market tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, over 20 percent of the fresh market sweet corn and snaps beans, as well as more than 12 percent of the squash, and over 10 percent of the fresh market cabbage, according to USDA.
Springtime mean the heaviest volume for Florida with loadings of bell pepper, squash, cucumbers, chili peppers, watermelons, cantaloupes, cabbage, broccoli, greens, new crop fresh potatoes and a number of other items.
L & M Companies of Raleigh, N.C. has a strong presence in Palatka, FL, and the ships broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, greens, squash, onions, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes.
Florida is also a primary supplier of Spring vegetables to the major centers of the Eastern Seaboard and Midwest and sometimes as far west as Texas and the Rockies.
Mack Farms of Lake Wales, FL ships the first new crop of potatoes available in early in February and points out other potato produce regions as still shipping storage spuds from last fall.
Mack Farms was among the pioneer growers of seedless watermelons more than 50 years ago, before turning his small acreage in Alabama into the 3,500-acre Lake Wales flagship fields for the growing operation.
The company currently concentrates on early-season potatoes and watermelons grown in four states.
“We grow yellow, red, white and fingerling potatoes,” says Leger. “The potato program has stayed the same since I came here in 2012, and the company has been here since 1967.”
Mack’s Florida vegetable shipments starting in March includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, radishes, greens, beans, spinach, squash, corn and tomatoes.
All of those except broccoli are available in April, when carrots are added to the mix.
During the Spring months, Duda Farms Fresh Foods of Belle Glade, FL is shipping corn, celery, organic celery, cello radishes, value-added radishes, Romaine, Romaine hearts, cello lettuce, green leaf, red leaf, endive, and escarole. All product is grown, packed and shipped out of the Belle Glade Farm.
Fresh citrus shipments as well as orange juice loadings have taken off in recent weeks as shoppers nationwide stock up on vitamin-C packed food and drink items.
California Citrus Mutual of Exeter, CA reports strong supplies of oranges and mandarins as demand increases. The organization notes California fresh citrus volume is capable of meeting consumer demand. Additionally, the Florida orange juice industry has ramped up production.
The U.S. citrus industry has experienced higher demand in the recent weeks for fresh oranges and mandarins due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While demand has started to slow from its peak, shipments are still up. Shipments to the foodservice industry has taken a massive hit, with lemons currently affected the most. However, overall volume for fresh citrus has improved because of consumer demand for nutritious products high in Vitamin C.
This increase comes at a challenging time for the U.S. citrus industry as it faces with citrus greening disease – which had a negative impact on California and Florida crop in past seasons, though the industry saw a slight comeback this year.
Orange juice leaps in sales Although markets are experiencing extreme downturns on average, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shows that frozen orange juice concentrates are performing better than ever before. Soaring 25% in the past month, the market for orange juice is up in a big way.
According to Nielsen data on retail sales of orange juice, provided by the Florida Department of Citrus, frozen orange juice sales have jumped 27 percent.
California strawberry shipments in the Salinas-Watsonville area kicked off at the end of March, in time to meet increased demand for berries spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Volumes of California strawberries will be plentiful this season, according to a news release from California Giant Berry Farms, Watsonville.
Nick Chappell, director of retail sales for the berry company, said in the release that Oxnard harvest will peak by mid-April and Santa Maria strawberry volumes are “continuing to increase with volumes unlike we have seen in years.”
“Not only are we about to have momentous supply for our partners during a time of increased retail demand, but all regions are producing exceptional quality to kick-start the spring season.”
Sales data from IRI show that berry category sales for the week ending March 15 saw an increase of almost 32 percent from the same period in 2019.
California Giant started an e-mail marketing campaign in late March targeting its most engaged consumers — a.k.a the “Berry Squad” — in the company’s database.
“With the uncertainties and difficulties families are currently facing, we wanted to offer an incentive and support to shoppers that are looking to stock up on fresh, nutritious berries on their grocery runs,” Chappell said in the release.
Digital connectivity and communities are becoming more important as consumers limit contact with others because of the virus. Marketing Manager Morgan Maitoza said a recent customer response statement to consumers and trade customers received a high “open rate” of 43%.
“While routines and realities look very different for families across the nation at this time, our goal is to continue to connect with our shoppers, provide helpful, relatable and comforting content and attainable recipes with ingredients and pantry staples shoppers may already have in their own homes, while adding in the sweetness, diversity and nutritional benefits of berries,” Maitoza said in the release.
In April, California Giant will have a new promotion focusing on heavy volume periods with a “Back to the Basics” theme, as consumers spend more time at home and find comfort in food, according to the release.
Ventura County strawberries and vegetables – grossing $8000 to New York City.
Vidalia sweet onion shipments should be good as the season gets officially underway April 16.
The official pack date is determined each year by The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
Vidalia onions represent about 40 percent of the U.S. sweet onion market and are shipped to every state.
The determined pack date is when growers, packers and shippers are allowed to start selling and moving their Vidalia onions, according to a news release.
“As the keeper of the official trademark for our state vegetable, we are proud of the reputation Vidalia onions have earned around the world by both renowned chefs and home cooks,” state agriculture commissioner Gary W. Black said in the release.
The mild, juicy onion is hand-cultivated by 60 registered growers in 20 southeastern Georgia counties. It’s available for a short period of time each year, mainly spring and summer.
The pack date is determined by soil and weather conditions during the growing season. The committee voted unanimously for the April 16 date, according to the release.
“We are going to have a strong harvest this year,” Aries Haygood, newly elected committee chairman, said in the release. He said 9,400 acres of Vidalia onions were planted for the season.
The committee will continue its Sweet Life marketing campaign launched in 2019 to reach home cooks across the country who enjoy cooking and entertaining.
The Vidalia trademark is owned by the state of Georgia because of the Vidalia Onion Act of 1986.
To be considered a Vidalia onion, the vegetables must be cultivated in the South Georgia soil from a Granex seed and packed and sold on or after the official pack date each year.