Posts Tagged “California citrus shipments”
California strawberries shipments are shifting to Ventura County, while the state’s citrus volume is predicted to be down this season.
While California strawberry shipments got off to a roaring and early start at the beginning of they year, the late season shipments are well below normal as a result. Now the situation finally moving back to increased volume as the season shifts from the Watsonville area in the north to Ventura County in Southern California.
California Citrus Shipments
The estimates for the 2014-15 California citrus shipping season stands at 78 million 40-pound cartons, which would make it the smallest crop since the freeze year of 2008-09. However, California Citrus Mutual thinks the crop is even smaller than the USDA’s estimate, since it does not take into account losses due to the current drought conditions.
“After canvassing a significant number of producers and shippers, CCM believes the crop estimate is high,” CCM President Joel Nelsen said in a recent statement. “We know acreage has been removed from production” due to the drought, but getting figures for a range has been difficult. We know the lack of water has affected fruit size during the growths stages, but surveying 126,000 acres is almost impossible. We also agree there is more fruit on the tree as compared to last year” in terms of the number of pieces of fruit. “However fruit size is a concern. All of this affects the number of cartons ultimately packed.”
Unlike Navels, Mandarins should be up in volume this year because of more acreage in production.
California supplies 85 percent of the nation’s fresh citrus,
Southern California Citrus – grossing $5600 to Atlanta.
California Citrus Shipments
California shipping estimates will undoubtedly plunge as more information is becoming available on that December 4-10 freeze in the San Joaquin Valley.
The USDA January estimate lists numbers three to five percent lower than December estimates for oranges and tangerines. But it is worse. The heaviest damage is in Kern County, while other citrus areas in the valley saw only minor effects. The reason – Kern County doesn’t have wind machines to fight the freezing temperatures.
Preliminary damage estimates for the Kern County’s citrus crop may exceed $100 million following the harrowing freeze in the area this last December. Official loss estimates won’t be available until April.
Kern County growers of lemons, tangerines, and mandarins have lost as much as half their crop to freeze damage. One estimate has losses of 15 percent of Kern County’s Valencia orange crop and 35 percent of other large orange varieties being damaged. Lemons took the largest hit, with an estimated 50 percent of the total not meeting fresh market standards. Tangerine and mandarin losses are estimated between 40 and 50 percent.
The cold weather has also changed the timeline for shipments. Normally the valley has navels into June and occasionally into July, but loadings this year will probably end in May, or at the latest by early June.
Southern California citrus and berries – grossing about $6400 to New York City.
Here’s a round up of some major Western U.S. produce shipping areas.
California Citrus Shipments
It has been since early December that extended nights of freezing settled into the San Joaquin Valley of California, and as of early January it was appearing the total loss of shipments to the remaining on-tree crop could be at least 30 percent or more. Officials are hoping for more specific information by the end of January.
Citrus growers are finding everything from almost no damage to complete losses in different blocks, and sometimes those blocks are not that far apart. This has made it really difficult to come up with a good damage estimate number.
Southern California produce shipments- grossing about $4700 to Chicago.
Desert Vegetable Shipments
Meanwhile, California desert vegetable shipments have been more lucky thus far. Although the Imperial Valley and Yuma vegetable shipping areas had freezing weather, damage has been minimual. Some veggies such as lettuce, may look a little “roughed up”, but should be okay for shipping.
Imperial Valley/Yuma District desert veggies – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Idaho continues to ship spuds primarily from the Upper Valley and the Twin Falls-Burley District. The state is averaging around 1,300 truck load equivalents per week, with a higher percentage than most produce items moving by rail.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
Numbers are still vague, but one thing is for certain, California citrus shipments will be down this season. Florida is facing a similar situation, but for different reasons.
San Joaquin Valley citrus packers have hired extra workers for inspecting fruit as they try to separate the good from the bad after a freeze last month. Citrus industry officials are reluctant to put a percentage on the damage from nearly a dozen days of subfreezing temperatures, but some citrus packers are estimating damage at between 30 and 50 percent for the entire industry.
This year’s crop was only 15 percent harvested before the freeze hit. At the time it was estimated to be 88 million cartons, down slightly from the previous year.
California citrus and produce – grossing about $4700 to Chicago.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Florida fresh fruit shipments have declined more than 20 percent so far this season because of crop declines, smaller fruit sizes and a later start to the harvesting season.
Total fresh shipments had fallen 24.5 percent December 15, compared with the same point in the 2012-13 season and almost 30 percent compared with 2011-12. Grapefruit shipments have dropped 23.4 percent since last season, fresh oranges 25 percent and tangerines, tangelos and other specialty varieties by 26 percent.
Fresh citrus represents a much smaller segment of the Florida citrus industry, dominated by juice processing, but it is particularly important in Polk County, the top producer of tangerines and tangelos and home to three of the state’s 10 largest packinghouses in Dundee, Haines City and Lake Wales.
California citrus shipments could very well will be hit even harder than rather than less from recent freezing temperatures. Initally, close observers in the Central San Joaquin Valley were talking slight to moderate damage, but now you are hearing more serious descriptions such as “moderate to severe” damage.
However, specific results on how bad navels and madrians were hit won’t be known until around New Years.
Temperatures in citrus-growing areas in California’s San Joaquin Valley once again dipped to potentially damaging levels for seven of eight days between December 5th and 11th.
Temperatures below 27 degrees for several hours can damage Navel oranges and lemons, while more sensitive Mandarins are susceptible to damage at 32 degrees.
Frost-protection measures such as wind machines and application of water to the groves can provide three or four degrees of protection.
Approximately 12 to 15 percent of the Navel crop and 20 percent of the Mandarin crop has been harvested, leaving a significant percentage of the crop at risk of damage.
There is no doubt that damage has occurred across the citrus belt.
Damaged fruit will be eliminated from the fresh market and directly shipped to juice plants. For California citrus, juice plants are, by design, a salvage operation for lower-quality fruit.
California citrus and berries – grossing about $4600 to Chicago.
It will be a few more weeks before California citrus shipments really get cranked up from the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
About 88 million cartons of California navels should be loaded this season, down slightly at 2 percent from last season. A few growers started harvest the week of October 7. Limited shipments will be underway at the end of October, with good loading opportunities coming the second week of November, just in time for the Thanksgiving holidays.
Table grapes continue to provide heavy volume from the San Joaquin Valley, and it is little wonder if you’ve tasted the fruit this season. With high sugar levels, consumers, including me, keep going back to the store for more. About 1,800 truck loads of grapes per week are being loaded in California.
Carrot Shipments
There is steady movement of carrots out of the Kern District in the Bakersfield area, averaging over 300 truck load equivalents per week.
Huron Lettuce Shipments
It’s only about a 30-day window for head lettuce loadings coming out of the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley, known as the Huron district. Harvest has just started, but it will be the week of October 28th before significant loadings occur….Meanwhile lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower continue out of the Salinas Valley in light to moderate volume.
Pistachio Shipments
The forecast pegs shipments amounting to 460 million pounds, off from 550 million pounds a year ago. Expect substantially higher prices in your local supermarkets.
High temperatures brought on most California produce shipments early and in good volumes this summer. Now, folks are wondering if heavy early loadings will make for lighter than usual loading opportunities in the fall.
As an example, grape shipments are mostly after Labor Day. If the estimated 106.9 million boxes is realized, it will exceed last year’s shipments by more than 6 million boxes.
The month of August has seen record shipments for grapes from California, posting week-ending totals of over 4 million boxes three weeks in a row! The crop is being shipped at what could be a record-setting pace at more than 28 million boxes of California table grapes through August 23rd. The 2013 year-to-date total is 3 percent ahead of last year, which saw a record-high season total volume.
Citrus
Growers and shippers are expecting larger fruit size, but only slightly smaller California citrus shipments than last year when the new navel orange crop takes over for valencias, which are expected to end in October. The navel orange industry packed 90 million 40-pound cartons for 2012-13.
Kiwifruit
Another example of early shipments is with kiwifruit out of the San Joaquin Valley. Kiwi shipments will get underway in mid-October.
Salinas Valley Broccoli
If you are loading Salinas Valley broccoli, there’s been a small amount of hollow core and other quality issues related to the rapid growth of broccoli plants. Again, watch for quality issues if you are planning to haul broccoli. Shipments of broccoli and other vegetables from Salinas will begin declining in volume during September, before switching to the Yuma and Imperial Valley around Thanksgiving.
Salinas Valley vegetables and berries – grossing about $7300 to New York City.
San Joaquin Valley grapes, stone fruit and vegetables, about $5000 to Chicago.