Posts Tagged “California cherry shipments”
Unlike a year ago a more normal harvest for California cherries is setting the stage for a much better season, according to cherry shippers.
Oppy, based in Vancouver, B.C. notes the California cherry industry is still estimating a crop in the 8 [million-] to 9 million-box range, just slightly down from last season. But also of importance is a more regular season starting from the end of April compared to closer to the end of May like last year. This season also should have better sizing and overall quality of fruit.
Oppy expects its harvest of California cherries to start at the tail end of April with its southern grower and then extend through to the midpoint of June as Oppy shifts into its northern orchards around the Lodi area.
Other shippers agreed the outlook for California cherries is positive.
Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA also sees its season starting towards the end of April. This will be much earlier in contrast to last year’s record late start. Volume will slowly increase through early May, building into peak volumes approaching Memorial Day and through early June.
King Fresh Produce LLC, of Kingsburg, CA., expects to begin harvest of California cherries about May 1.
Early indications appear that the California cherry crop will yield good volume.
At Rivermaid Trading Co., shipments for California cherries will start earlier than last year and closer to historical norms. That is welcome news since last season’s start was late and overlapped heavily with the Northwest cherries.
Unlike last year, California shippers will supply substantial cherry volume in May.
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.
A lot of optimism is found with the upcoming California cherry shipping season, although a cold, wet growing season is expected to delay its start by two weeks or more.
Primavera Marketing of Linden, CA will begin its 34th season of selling California cherries. While the company usually starts cherry marketing in late April and continues through mid-June, this year’s timetable is about two to three weeks later than last year, although more like and 10 to 12 days later than what is considered normal.
While a few growers may start harvesting in late April, volume will pick up around May 17 and build momentum through May 25.
Peak volume shipments are expected from about May 26 through June 15, while wrapping up by June 20.
It remains to be seen how much of an overlap there will be from California cherries to the Northwest cherry season.
Oppy of Vancouver, BC expects its California cherry season to get underway around the second week of May, with peak volumes between May 20 to June 10.
Oppy’s California cherry season will end around June 20, just in time to overlap with the start of the Pacific Northwest cherry crop. The company’s 2023 California cherry crop should see a big increase over the short 2022 crop, which was hurt by frost damage and poor pollination.
Once Oppy completes its California season, it will move up through Oregon and ending in British Columbia. In Oregon, Oppy is celebrating its 100th anniversary with Orchard View cherries in The Dalles, Ore.
The USDA reported total cherry shipments from California’s San Joaquin Valley in 2022 totaled 2,256 truckloads, down 59% from 4,442 truckloads in 2021.
Although there are some counter-seasonal imports, nearly 90% of fresh cherries in the U.S. are shipped in May, June and July.
The Flavor Tree Fruit Company of Hanford, CA., is gearing up for good volume cherry shipments this season. Peak loadings will occur in May.
The company reports there have been ideal growing conditions in California in all of its cherry-growing regions.
Although the business doesn’t see the high yields of a year ago, it expects larger sized fruit. That still should translate into good volume overall.
The Flavor Tree Fruit Company has been preplaning as much as possible in all areas of logistics. This includes earlier than normal ordering of packaging and materials months in advance of the season before it was even know how big the crop would be.
The company also expressed concern over the availability of transportation during the season due to skyrocketing diesel fuel prices, etc.
Stemilt Growers LLC, headquartered in Wenatchee, Wash. kicks off its domestic cherry season in the Golden State and operates as Chinchiolo Stemilt California, which has a cherry-packing facility located in Stockton, CA. The company’s cherries are grown in both new and established districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The company holds a unique position in the cherry industry, boasting the longest cherry season.
Stemilt expects to harvest cherries in late April, with good volume in early May. Peak volumes should run for three consecutive weeks beginning around May 9 through Memorial Day.
The company is looking forward to the possibilities of more 5 River Islands cherries from the Delta region in California.
California cherries are now in peak shipments and should continue through June 6.
The California Cherry Board reports loadings are expected to exceed 8 million boxes, which would be up from the 6.58 million boxes shipped a year ago, — and be higher than the previous two seasons.
The California cherry crop was initially estimated at 9.47 million 18-pound boxes, and had the chance to beat the banner year of 2017, when a record 9.55 million boxes were picked. However, heat and wind damage earlier in the season is seen as affecting fruit size and packouts.
The cherry board reports California has about 40,000 acres of cherries. The Stockton-Linden-Lodi district, where the traditional Bing cherry is grown, accounts for about 60% of the crop. The southern San Joaquin Valley produces about 35%, and about 5% comes from the Gilroy-Hollister area.
Delta Packing Co. of Lodi, Inc. reports since the Coral harvests start earlier than the Bing, increased plantings of the variety have moved up timing of peak California cherry shipments.
The shift to more Corals has also led to more California cherry shipments during the month of May than in June.
An estimated 25% of the California crop will go to export markets this year, up slightly from 23% last year, with Canada, Korea and Japan being the biggest buyers.
California cherries – grossing $10,000 to $11,000 to New York City.
Stemilt of Wenatchee, WA is primed for good volume shipments of California cherry to arrive at retail supermarkets in time for the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May.
Memorial Day is May 31st and California cherry shipments are expected to exceed the small crop of last year.
Stemilt’s World Famous cherry season started off with strong qualities, classic ruby colors, and medium-sized fruits. The company will move into harvesting varieties like Tulares, Hazels, and Coral in the coming weeks to load for Memorial Day.
Stemilt’s cherry season started off with strong qualities, classic ruby colors, and medium-sized fruits. The company will move into harvesting varieties like Tulares, Hazels, and Coral in the coming weeks to load for Memorial Day.
Depending on location, retailers should start loading as early as May 14. However, the heaviest loading period will begin on May 18 through May 22. With the way things are currently going, the supply and demand almost lines up perfectly with Memorial Day availability.
Volumes are projected to continue past Memorial Day for Stemilt in California, with the latest orchards that deliver 5 River Islands® hand-picked cherries coming off the tree around June 8. This will coincide with Stemilt’s cherry harvest start in Washington State, making the weeks following Memorial Day a big time for cherries at retail.
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.
Increased California cherry shipments are expected, especially compared to the 2018 season.
In 2018, cherry volume statewide totaled only 3.96 million cartons, thanks primarily to lousy weather conditions, compared to 9.56 million cartons in 2017. This year’s total volume may end between 10 and 11 million cartons. If so, that would be a new record for shipments.
2018 was highlighted by an early freeze, followed by heat later in the year.
Grower Direct Marketing LLC in Stockton, CA has noted an excellent bloom on cherry trees, preceded by chill hours and plenty of moisture, leading to plenty of optimism in 2019. Harvest and shipments started a week ago.
Loadings will continue well into June. About 60 percent of the volume will occur in May, with the balance taking place the first half of June. Heaviest shipments are not expected to occur until around May 20th.
At this moment, the cherry crop seems to have plenty of potential to be large, if not very large, in volume,” he said.
“The winter seemed to have brought enough chilling hours for early varieties grown at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley — varieties such as royal tioga, brooks, tulare and coral. However, lingering rainy and colder-than-normal weather is pushing most varieties to start the harvest about a week to 10 days later than normal.”
Bing cherries in the northern region looked “very good,” Ilic said.
“However, not exactly knowing what the weather will be for the next 60 or so days, will always make it a difficult thing to predict a cherry crop,” he said.
Rich Sambado, sales manager at Linden, Calif.-based Primavera Marketing, voiced optimism about the crop.
“As far as potential cropload, the industry will not have much of a feel until early April. At this point, there is concern about crop set, but all the while there is optimism in the air,” he said.
36287528 – rush trucking. speeding blue semi truck on the american highway. trucking concept.
California cherry shipments are just getting underway in light volume with early season varieties, with the total volume expected to be less this season.
Peak loadings for the early varieties should occur from May 8th to May 20th and good volume coming from the later districts in late May and early June.
While most observers agree total California cherry shipments will be down from last season’s record 9.6 million cartons, just how much of a decline seems open to debate.
Most observers are pegging shipments will fall between 4.5 million and 7 million cartons this season. Cherry shipper King Fresh Produce of Dinuba, CA has been quoted as expecting total loads to be around 6 and 7 million cartons. Some others see it being more like 4.5 million to 5 million cartons.
Average to above average cherry shipments are expected from the later producing cherry districts, but this won’t make up for lighter volume starting the season, according to Chinchiolo Stemilt Growers in Stockton, CA.
The five-year average for California cherry shipments is 6.7 million cartons.
Morada Produce of Linden, CA believes the lighter early season loadings may reduce shipments to about 6.5 million cartons this year. Bing cherry shipments should start about May 22nd, with the peak bing volume coming the last week of May and the first eight days of June.
Cherry shipments should be a little lighter from Frenso south although this isn’t quite set in stone yet.
The Patterson district, which is just a little southwest of Stockton, seems to have a strong crop. Cherry shipments in the coastal district of Hollister and Gilroy should finish about June 15.
Northwest cherry volume could start around June 8th.
Huron head lettuce in the San Joaquin Valley is in final weeks of season – grossing abut $8000 to New York City, $5800 to Chicago.
Here’s a shipping forecast for California cherries, and an update on California avocado shipments. At the same, you won’t believe the whopping diesel fuel tax increase being produced in that state.
California cherry shipments are predicted to get an early start this season with initial loadings getting underway the last week of April. The season should run through June. Peak shipments are expected to occur the second, third and last week of May. Assuming favorable weather holds, there should be strong volume leading up to Mother’s Day (May 14th) and Memorial Day (May 29th). While good quality and volume are being forecast, no firm estimates have been released. While California has the nation’s first domestic cherries each year, its total shipments are relatively small compared to Northwest cherry volume, which we’ll report on next week.
Avocado Shipments
Imported shipments of Mexican avocados have declined for the first time in possibly 10 years as the season comes to an end. Mexico shipped 2 billion pounds of avocados to the U.S. in 2016 and is projected to send 1.7 billion by the end of its season in June. Volume from Mexico has been increasing 12 to 15 percent a year while avocado consumption has been following a similar increase.
Now, the California avocado shipping season is well underway. However, projected volume from the West Coast is only at about 200 million pounds — about half of the 2016 volume. One of the biggest shipping season for avocados lies just ahead as Cinco de Mayo falls on a Friday, May 5.
California Fuel Tax
Asking state lawmakers for a more efficient plan, Western Growers is opposing California’s proposed transportation infrastructure funding package.
The funding package (Senate Bill 1) was announced in late March by California Gov. Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, according to a news release.
“The staggering regulatory burdens and costs placed on California farmers have already placed our industry at a competitive disadvantage relative to other states and foreign countries,” Western Growers president and CEO Tom Nassif said in a news release. “These proposed fuel tax increases, including a 500% increase in the diesel sales tax, will disproportionately hit agriculture and communities dependent on our California farm economy.”
California’s current diesel fuel tax is 33 cents per gallon.