Archive For The “Trucking Reports” Category
Florida’s biggest shipping season of the year is springtime and 2019 apparently is shaping up as a good one. Produce shipments appear on track for a good volume year, rebounding somewhat since the Sunshine State felt the wrath of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Meanwhile Florida produce rates are showing a significant increase, ranging from a 19 percent increase to Baltimore to a 34 percent increase to Philadelphia.
During this period of around 6 to 8 weeks Florida spring shipments provide important volume for domestic volume with items ranging from blueberries, to potatoes, cabbage, squash, peaches and watermelon before the summer shipping season gets underway in northern and Midwestern states.
The spring of 2019 in Florida indicates the 2019 season should see higher volume than a year ago. However, this spring is not expected to achieve the shipping volumes of seasons prior to Hurricane Irma. At the same time fall and winter crops in Florida will continue through May. Among these commodities are tomatoes, sweet corn, bell peppers and citrus.
Florida weather has been mostly good for growing produce this year. Meanwhile Florida farmers have 5,200 acres to blueberries; 8,600 acres with cabbage; 12,000 acres with peppers; 28,700 acres with potatoes; 39,000 acres with sweet corn; 22,000 acres with watermelon, and 28,000 acres with tomatoes, making it one of the top 5 produce shipping states.
Florida is about even with California concerning fresh tomato shipments, with both two states combined providing nearly two-thirds of the nation’s shipments.
Although no serious truck shortages have been reported, the increasing vegetable volume is contributing is rate increases that are up around 25 percent in the past week or so.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $3300 to New York City.
Exports of American apples topped $1 billion in 2018, 4 percent greater than in 2017. This is 5 times the value of U.S. apple imports. Meanwhile, there has been a huge increase in strawberry imports.
Total U.S. apple exports by value equaled $1.01 billion in 2019, an increase of 4 percent from $969 million in 2017 and 10 percent higher than $920 million in 2016, according to the USDA.
Mexico was the top export market for U.S. apples, taking 28 percent of U.S. apple exports by value. Canada and India were nearly tied for second place among export markets, each accounting for about 16 percent of total apple exports by value.
U.S. imports of apples totaled $198 million in 2018, off 15 percent from $233 million in 2017 and down 26 percent from $268 million in 2016. Chile was the top supplier of imported apples in 2018, supplying 44 percent of the total apple import value. After Chile, other top global suppliers to the U.S. were New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina.
Strawberry Imports
American imports of strawberries have soared over the past 5 years, according to trade statistics.
USDA stats show imports of fresh/frozen strawberries have climbed from $449 million in 2013 to $762 million in 2018.
That is an increase of about 70 percent over those 5 years. Trade numbers from 2018 show peak strawberry imports were recorded in February, followed in rank by March, January, and December.
In 2018, Mexico accounted for 93 percent of total U.S. strawberry imports, followed by Chile with 3 percent and 1 percent from Canada. That was similar to 2013 when Mexico represented 95 percent of U.S. strawberry imports.
Meanwhile, USDA trade data reveals U.S. fresh strawberry exports in 2018 totaled $379 million, up 1 percent from 2017.
The Mexican grape harvest gets underway in early May.
Mexican grape growers expect to ship 22 million cartons of grapes this spring — up 25.6 percent from 2018.
Around 4 million cartons of grapes are expected to be shipped to the domestic Mexican market, which is in addition to the 22 million counted for export.
The total for Mexician grape shipments in 2018 was 16.4 million boxes. In 2017 that total was 21 million.
In 2018, there was unusual weather, and cold in March particularly playe havoc with the crop, which resulted in an irregular harvest schedule in 2018, depending on the weather impact on different Sonoran growing zones.
Heaviest early green grape and red Flame loadings should occur the last half of May to the first half of June.
Mid-season green seedless peak volume will occur during most of June.
Flames account for nearly 50 percent of all Mexican fresh grape shipments, with 10.6 million cartons forecast this year. This is up almost 33 percent from 7.1 million cases in 2018. In 2017, 10.1 million boxes of Flames were shipped.
Sugraone this season moves ahead of green grapes to have a projected 4.3 million cartons. This number was 4.4 million in 2017 and down to 3.1 million last year.
For the 2019 crop, green grape production is estimated to be 4 million cases. This is up 16.5 percent from a total 2018 pack out of 3.3 million. In 2017, green grape shipments from Mexico was 3.6 million.
Black grape loadings from Mexico has fallen for the third straight year. The 2019 estimate anticipates 1 million boxes. Black grape shipments in 2018 was 1.2 million, down from 1.3 million in 2017.
Red Globe volume also is predicted to be down for the third straight year, with 600,000 boxes forecast. Red Globes loadings this year are forecast to be off 3.1 percent from 2018 and well below the 688,000 boxes shipped in 2017.
The packing date for the 2019 Vidalia onion season is set for 8 a.m. on Monday, April 22, according to The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
Five to 6 million cartons are expected to be shipped this season.
Vidalia onion acreage in 2019 will hit a 10-year low, according to Bland Farms LLC of Glennville, GA. The least amount of acreage planted during the past 10 years was 10,500 acres — at least until this season when 9,262 have been planted. Last year 11,251 acres were planted.
Vidalia onions represent about 40 percent of the sweet onions shipped in the U.S. each season.
Vidalia onions are grown in parts of 20 southeastern Georgia counties by 80 registered growers.
Each year, the Vidalia Onion Advisory Panel, state agricultural scientists and the Department of Agriculture determine the pack date based on soil and weather conditions in South Georgia during the growing season to help avoid early season onions being picked before maturity and tend to have a high pungency, or hot taste. Onions shipped prior to April 22nd cannot legally be shipped as Vidalia onions.
This year, the Vidalia Onion Committee is launching “The Sweet Life,” a new marketing campaign to reach home cooks across the country. The campaign targets grocery shoppers who enjoy cooking and entertaining.
“The Sweet Life builds on our very successful marketing effort over the last two years that helped to raise the profile of the Vidalia onion among food connoisseurs, particularly millennials who set many of today’s consumer trends,” said Bland. “Now we plan to focus on broader category of consumers who like to cook, entertain and use onions. The goal is to elevate the brand as a signifier of good taste and living well.”
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 distinctive Granex seed and packed and sold after the official pack date each year, resulting in only the highest-quality onions reaching Vidalia fans each season.
Eastern sweet corn shippers are optimistic about the coming crops following good growing conditions.
Florida is the nation’s leading sweet corn shipper in early spring. The Sunshine state shipped more volume as of March 9 than last year at the same time: 145.3 million pounds, compared to 136 million pounds in 2018, according to the USDA.
Nationally, 259.8 million pounds of corn were shipped this season through March 9, which is 23.3 million fewer pounds at the same point last season, which was at 283.1 million.
Scotlynn Sweet Pac Growers of Belle Glade, FL reports an excellent sweet corn crop spurred by great weather that is leading to good volume and supplies.
The company ships corn initially out of Belle Glade, then Bainbridge, GA., and finishes with Vittoria, Ontario.
Belle Glade sweet corn shipments run from mid-March to June 1st.
Scotlynn’s Georgia sweet corn shipments will be available from May 15 until July 15, and from Vittoria, availability runs from July 15 until September 5.
Duda Farm Fresh Foods of Oviedo, FL plans on similar volumes as in recent years from its winter and spring corn seasons in South Florida, followed by its short Georgia season.
After Duda’s Florida winter corn shipments finish at the end of March, spring corn is available the first week of April through end of May. The season winds down with Georgia’s quick harvest from late May to early June.
Turek Farms of King Ferry, NY is working with Florida and Georgia growers from SM Jones and Co. to ship corn the year-round. Sales are handled by Cayuga Produce Inc of King Ferry. The company ships New York sweet corn from mid-July through early October.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $2600 to New York City.
Citrus shipments for the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are expected to continue through mid- to late May.
Wonderful Citrus, with offices in California and South Texas should be shipping Texas grapefruit and Texas oranges through May this season.
At Texas Citrus Mutual of Mission, about 40 percent of its grapefruit and 75 percent of its late oranges remained to be shipped as of March 25.
Total Texas grapefruit shipments forecast by the USDA stand at 6.2 million boxes for the 2018-19 season, up from 4.8 million boxes in 2017-18.
South Texas Organics of Mission, said it should finish with it’s organic valencia orange shipments as well as its Rio Star grapefruit the last half of April.
The USDA reports through the middle of March season-to-date domestic shipments of Texas grapefruit totaled 134.7 million pounds, down from 172.3 million pounds a year ago. Total shipments last season were 205.6 million pounds.
Texas export shipments of grapefruit totaled 10.1 million pounds by mid-March, down from 14.6 million pounds a year ago. Total grapefruit export shipments a year ago were 15.2 million pounds.
Texas Orange Shipments
Texas orange shipments through mid-March were 69.6 million pounds, off from 99.2 million pounds at the same time a year ago.
Total Texas orange shipments last season totaled 121.9 million pounds, the USDA reports.
In December, the USDA predicted Texas all-orange output for 2018-19 at 2.4 million boxes, up from 1.88 million boxes in the 2017-18 season.
Argentina lemon exporters are taking a cautious approach in their second year exporting to the U.S. market after a long absence.
About 10 lemon exporters resumed lemon exports to the U.S. after a 17-year absence, and in their second season are planning to have more volume.
Europe is the biggest market for Argentina’s lemons, with arrivals mostly in Spain, the Netherlands and Italy.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Argentina lemons notes fresh lemon production for the marketing year 2018-19 is forecast up to 1.6 million metric tons, an increase from 1.5 million metric tons in 2017-18. Of that, lemon exports to all countries are estimated at 290,000 metric tons, up from 265,000 metric tons in 2017-18 and 241,000 metric tons in 2016-17.
The U.S. received only a small fraction of Argentina’s lemon exports last year.
According to the USDA report, U.S. imports of Argentina lemons in 2018 were 5.9 million pounds in 2018, or about 2,681 metric tons. Arrivals of Argentina lemons arrived by boat at Philadelphia from May through August and into Tampa in June, according to the USDA.
This is a transitional season for Chilean fruit as items such as peaches and nectarines are wrapping up, while others such as kiwifruit will soon be ramping up.
However, for the time being Chilean table grapes remain the focus of fruit imports from this South American country. Strong volumes of Chilean table grapes will continue arriving at American ports through April. Over 26 million cases of Chilean grapes were shipped to the United States through March 17th.
There have been heavy arrivals, although overall volume is now starting to slowly decrease. There are the more traditional varieties such as Crimsons, Flames and Thompson Seedless. However, there is increasing volumes of proprietary and newer varieties like Timco, Sweet Celebration and Jack’s Salute.
While peach and nectarine volumes are in a seasonal decline, there were still strong volumes of plums shipped in mid-March from Chilean ports, resulting in good volumes arriving at U.S. ports well into April.
While Chilean kiwifruit have been exported to the U.S. for many years, volume is now to the point where the Chilean Kiwifruit Committee plans marketing campaign for the first time in the United States.
Chilean kiwi exports begin in April with good volume occurring at U.S. ports by late May.
By Honeybear Brands
The first imports of the Honeybear Brands 2019 Chilean Honeycrisp are leaving their southern hemisphere orchards and will begin to arrive at U.S. ports in early April and are expected to be delivered to retail supermarkets no later than April 15th. The crop represents the first fresh picked Honeycrisp apples to arrive at U.S. retail in this year.
Since Honeybear’s first Chilean Honeycrisp crop was planted in 2008 in the Araucania region of Southern Chile, production has grown to more than 400,000+ cases in 2019, making Honeybear Brands the leading importer of record, not just of Honeycrisp but all apples and pears out of South America. Likewise, Honeybear is also the leading organic Honeycrisp importer with supply doubling compared to 2018 as more acreage is transitioned from conventional to organic production.
Honeybear’s 2019 crop is both the largest production volume of high quality fruit to ever to come out of the company’s southern hemisphere orchards thanks to two key factors. Exceptional growing conditions with just the right balance of warm days, cooler nights and perfect rainfall have given the crop the classic traits of the perfect Honeycrisp: high color, firm texture and juicy, crisp bite. And the precision work of the company’s team on the ground in growing, picking and packing premium quality apples is second to none.
About Honeybear Brands (www.honeybearbrands.com)
Honeybear Brands is a leading grower and developer of premium apple varieties. The company started as Wescott Agri Products, a family run apple orchard in the early 1970s. From that early start several generations ago, today Honeybear still employs the same hands-on, personal attention to each and every apple variety produced through the Honeybear Apple Varietal Development Program. Honeybear is the leading provider of Honeycrisp apples in the Northwest region and offers complete domestic and global supply integration from varietal development to growing, packing, shipping and retailer support. The company has close to one hundred varieties in various stages of commercial testing and is renowned for bringing retail star Pazazz to market.
California Valencia orange shipments for the season remain unchanged in the USDA latest forecast, while there is a mixture of changes in the estimates for Florida citrus shipments, depending on the items.
The USDA is forecasting the California Valencia orange shipments at 19 million 40-pound cartons, the same as the final utilized production of valencias in the 2017-18 season.
The state’s bearing acreage is 29,000, the same as the most recent season.
The growing season had mostly dry weather early, but rainy throughout February. The average number of fruit per tree, 573, is 9 percent greater than last season, and above the 5-year average of 568.
Data was collected from 349 groves, primarily in Tulare, Kern, Fresno, Ventura and San Diego counties.
Florida grapefruit shipments dropped 10 percent for the current growing season in Florida, while the orange volume remains steady.
The USDA reports Florida remains on pace to ship enough oranges to fill 77 million 90-pound boxes — the industry standard — during the current season.
Meanwhile, growers are on pace now to fill 5.4 million boxes of grapefruit, which is down from 6 million boxes projected in February.
Also, projections of specialty citrus such as tangelos and tangerines, which declined by 16.7 percent over the first 2 months of the year, fell another 5 percent in the latest forecast, from a projection of 1 million boxes in February to 950,000 boxes.
Despite the lower projections for grapefruit and specialty fruit, the industry appears headed to an improvement over the past two growing years.
Hurricane Irma in 2018 devastated the 2017-2018 crop, resulting in just 49.58 million boxes of oranges, grapefruit and other citrus.
During the 2016-2017 season, meanwhile, Florida had 68.7 million boxes of oranges.
The recent figures pale for an industry that two decades ago produced more than 200 million boxes of citrus a year. The industry continues to struggle against citrus greening disease, development pressures and a change in drinking habits.