Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Washington state, the nation’s leading apple shipper is expected to load around 136 million cartons this season, compared to 116 million a year ago.
However, some apple shippers across the state believe volume could be even higher.
Stemilt Growers LLC of Wenatchee, WA notes some estimates have the forecast as much as 145 million to 150 million boxes. The proof in the pudding will arrive in December, when the crop is all harvested. However, this is in contrast to last year’s crop, which had fewer shipments than normal, plus had further reduction due to less fruit meeting minimum shipping standards.
Gala apples will overtake red delicious this year as Washington’s top apple variety.
In Washington’s 2019 estimate, both varieties will gain on last year’s volume, but galas will increase by 16 percent, for a forecast total of 31.8 million 40-pound cartons, to grab the No. 1 spot from red delicious.
Reds will total 29.4 million cartons, or 4 percent more than last year’s 28.2 million.
Fuji (17.7 million cartons), granny smith (17.3 million) and Honeycrisp (15 million) round out the top five apple varieties in Washington for the upcoming season. Honeycrisp volume is expected to jump 24 percent over last year’s 12.1 million boxes.
The Oppenheimer Group of Vancouver, British Columbia ships conventional and organic Jazz, Envy and Pacific Rose apples grown in Washington, as well as New Zealand. It should start moving Jazz around October 15th, with the first Envy shipping about two weeks later.
Chelan Fresh of Chelan, WA shipped about 1 million cases of organic apples last year, and it is anticipating a 20 percent increase this season. The company loaded organics into July this season and expects the same for this new season.
During the past 20 years Guatemala’s exports of specialty vegetables and fruits to the U.S. have been steadily on the rise.
The Guatemala Produce Trade Association, and the USDA have reported increases of fresh and frozen fruit imports from Guatemala by 18 percent from 2014-18, to 5.8 billion pounds. Fresh vegetables in that category have remained steady, at an average of 147 million pounds a year, according to the USDA.
Imports include French beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas, blackberries, baby vegetables, rambutans, papayas and plantains.
“We can offer year-round because Guatemala offers attractive growing conditions throughout the year,” Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for Southern Specialties Inc. of Pompano Beach, FL., said in a release. Additionally, its proximity to South Florida enables us to move product quickly and manage the cold chain efficiently.”
Katiana Valdes, marketing director at Crystal Valley Foods of Miami, said Guatemala’s infrastructure has been improving rapidly.
“Our growing partners all maintain rigid quality and food safety programs,” Valdes said in the release. “It’s with this focus on quality and food safety, the variety of production areas, and continuous advances in agriculture techniques that Guatemala’s specialty exports have been able to expand.”
As the California avocado shipping season is virtually over, imports from Mexico, which have been lighter than usual, will increase significantly in the months ahead.
Mexico shipped about 2 billion pounds of avocados to the U.S. during its 2018-19 season, up from about 1.9 billion pounds for the 2017-18 season.
However, Mexican avocado imports crashed last summer. For example, during the last week of June, Mexico shipped only about 8.6 million pounds to the U.S., off from about 30 million pounds in 2018.
Volume from Mexico should gradually start to build in October and November, as the main crop begins harvesting, with January through August being the heart of the season.
Peruvian avocado exporters also had an off year, but still managed to ship more avocados to the U.S. than last year to help fill the gap caused by short crops in California and Mexico.
The Peruvian Avocado Commission reports Peruvian growers will ship an estimated 189 million pounds of avocados to the U.S. this season compared to 180 million last season.
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The Chilean Avocado Importers Association reports Chilean avocado growers are expected to export about 65 million pounds of avocados to the U.S. during the 2019-20 season, which is similar to volume exported during the past two seasons.
California avocado shipments should total 190 million to 200 million pounds of avocados by the time their season ends this month, compared to just over 360 million pounds last year, according to the California Avocado Commission.
Calavo Growers Inc., Santa Paula, Calif., expected to finish its California crop by the end of August, said Rob Wedin, vice president of sales and marketing.
Brooks Tropicals Inc. of Homestead, FL notes Florida is expected to ship about 800,000 bushels of green-skin avocados this season, which began in May and can continue as late as April. The company accounts for about 40 percent of Florida’s avocado volume.
American avocado observers point to optimism about the coming year, with some industry experts predicting overall avocado volume in the U.S. from all sources could reach 3 billion pounds.
While Watsonville strawberry shipments are winding down, loadings will continue in lighter volume until November. Meanwhile, strawberry volume from about 7,000 acres in Oxnard and Santa Maria are building heading into fall.
Picking has just got underway and should continue through October and into November.
Summer-planted acreage for fall production is up about 10 percent from last year. Fresh plants and new fruit from the summer plantings has shippers predicting good sizing and quality for strawberries.
California strawberry shipments are trailing previous years due to rain and cold weather during the winter and spring, which delayed picking.
As of August 3rd, the state had shipped over 131 million trays of strawberries.
At the same time in 2018, the figure was over 148 million trays, and in 2017 it was in excess of 138 million trays.
How close 2019 volume will come to previous years won’t be known for another couple of months. Typically, half the year’s crop is shipped by July 1st.
California strawberry and vegetable shipments from Santa Maria and Ventura County – grossing about $4800 to Chicago.
Shipments of California grape shipments are off about 8 percent from last season, but average per-pound prices for the major varieties are the same.
The USDA reports California had shipped 462.25 million pounds of grapes through August 24, compared to 503.41 million pounds at the same time a year ago. With the arrival of fall shipments, it is unlikely this year’s volumes will approach those of last season during the fall.
The California Table Grape Commission of Fresno reports California grape shippers set a record for most shipments from September 8 through October 12, 2018, moving more than 23 million boxes during the five-week period.
San Joaquin Valley vegetables, melons and grapes – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
This season U.S. sweet potato shippers are looking for greater volume due to the new crop providing better yields. After unfavorable weather conditions last fall, sweet potato yields dropped from 224 cwt. per acre in 2017 to 190 cwt. per acre in 2018.
Sweet potato acreage and yields fell from 2017 to 2018. Acreage fell from 159,300 acres harvested to 144,400 acres and yield dropped 8.27 million cwt. from 35.64 million cwt. to 27.38 million cwt., according to the USDA.
The USDA reported shipments of North Carolina sweet potatoes totaled 14.2 million 40-pound cartons from August 2018 through July 2019, down from 18.57 million cartons the previous year.
Shipments from Louisiana from August 2018 through July 2019 totaled 1.08 million 40-pound cartons, up slightly from 1.03 million cartons the previous year.
The U.S. Sweet Potato Council Inc. noted Hurricane Florence that hit North Carolina and there were relentless rains in the southern states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama. The combination in the fall of 2018 was a shortage of potatoes this year.
Garber Farms of Iota, LA lost one third of its 2018 sweet potato crop to wet weather resulting in shipping gaps until the new shipping season gets underway.
Nash Produce of Nashville, NC experienced a similar shipping season. The company is hopeful volume will be up this season.
North Carolina accounted for 19.69 million cwt. of sweet potatoes in 2017 and 10.99 million cwt. in 2018. The state also harvested 16,500 fewer acres than in 2016.
In terms of exports, North Carolina supplies approximately half of exported U.S. sweet potatoes.
U.S. sweet potato exports saw a drop in supply for the first time in 6 years in April 2019. North Caroline dodge most of the “bullet” from Hurricane Dorian a few weeks ago.
Supply is starting to pick up, due to favorable weather, and the American Sweet Potato Marketing Institute expects export volume and production to rise to previous levels.
Harvest started on time with the peak shipping season being from mid-September to mid-October.
Garber Farms started harvest on time in early September with the peak season being in November.
Apple shipments for the 2019-20 season is pegged at 247.76 million (42-pound) cartons, down 2.2 percent from the USDA’s August estimate of 253.09 million cartons. This forecast by the U.S. Apple Association typically is smaller than the USDAs.
The U.S. apple estimate, which includes fruit for the fresh and processing markets, was up 1 percent from the 2018-19 crop but down 1 percent from the 5-year average.
The association presented its estimate recently at its annual Crop Outlook & Marketing Conference in Chicago.
Compared with the USDA numbers, the U.S. Apple estimate shows lower expected output in Washington, slightly higher production in New York and nearly the same estimate for Michigan.
Here are US Apple estimates and the change compared with the USDA’s August 2019 estimates:
By California Pear Advisory Board
Sacramento, CA — Summer is quickly coming to an end, but a multitude of pear varieties are still being shipped from the Mountain District areas of California.
“We are just beginning harvest of Comice, French Butter, Forelle, Seckel and Organic Bosc varieties this week,” says Scott Fraser, sales manager at Scully Packing Company in Lake County. “The California Mountain District has experienced perfect growing conditions this season and the quality has been excellent!”
California is the major supplier of freshly harvested, heirloom variety pears at this time. The River District has wrapped up its pear harvest season, but the Mountain Districts is now in full swing for harvesting a number of specialty heirloom pear varieties. Both shipping areas will continue to have supplies of these heirloom variety pears through mid-October with the mainstream varieties of Bartlett and Bosc available for sale into November. Organic options are also available for many varieties.
“As fall approaches, consumers will be looking for specialty pear varieties and we want buyers across the U.S. to know that California has fresh-crop pears for sale now,” says Chris Zanobini, Executive Director of the California Pear Advisory Board.
Heirloom pear varieties are versatile for use in many recipes and look wonderful in table decorations or floral arrangements.
California pears are grown by approximately 60 farming families in the state, many of whom are farming the same land tended to by their great grandparents. California heirloom pear varieties are grown using sustainable farming practices on orchards that are up to 100 years old.
Despite record-breaking heat in July, 2019 eastern apple shipments are shaping up to be a strong and on par with previous years.
The New York Apple Association of Fishers, NY reports Empire State farmers are expecting to ship about some 31 million bushels this fall. Although is would be off compared to last year, it would be more than some previous seasonss.
New York state apple acreage has been holding steady, with more of a focus on newer varieties, including Honeycrisp, SnapDragon, Evercrisp and SweeTango. Many farmers have been transitioning out standard-size trees in favor of dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties. This results in more trees planted per acre, yielding more fruit per acre. The trees also reach fruit-bearing age faster.
Fowler Farms of Wocott, NY packs and ships 24 varieties of apples grown on 2,500 acres lining the shores of Lake Ontario in Wayne County, NY. Its varieties include the old standards Red Delicious, McIntosh, Jersey Mac, Empire and Raeburn, along with the newer varieties like Gala.
The company grows and ships the largest amount of Honeycrispin the Northeast, as wells as with SweeTango.
Fowler Farms also grows SnapDragon, and volume has doubled each of the past three years. – particularly with loadings destined for the Southeastern U.S..
Fowler Farms has its own nurseries, grows its own trees, packs and stores its own fruit, and even makes much of the equipment it uses to work its orchards.
The company reports the Northeastern 2019 apple crop looks great and is on par to match last year’s volume, with product coming from over 70 apple growers in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia. Large increases in volume are expected with Gala, Honeycrisp and other newer varieties, including Evercrisp, RubyFrost and SnapDragon.
SweeTango is another one of the newer apple varieites on the market. The season is just kicking with SweeTango as one of the earlier premium apple varieties.
Mexican avocado shipments should pick up as fall progresses after experiencing a shortfall this summer.
Mexico’s flora loca — or off bloom — crop peaked recently, and this will be followed by the aventajada crop in September with good volume in October as main shipments get underway. Both California and Peru avocado seasons will be over by this time.
Calavo Growers Inc. of Santa Paula, CA reports peak flavor for Mexican avocados comes between November and June. The company expects Mexico to have a larger crop next year, with December through June looking good for big volume from Mexico.
Healthy Avocado Inc of Berkeley, CA report by October, Mexico will be trucking up to 1,400 loads of avocados per week into the U.S.
Eco Farms of Temecula, CA expects good, steady Mexican avocado volume until mid- to late September, which should be followed by big volume.
Mission Produce of Oxnard, CA agrees August and September were modest for Mexican avocado shipments with good volume arriving by mid- to late October, when the main crop matures.
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