Posts Tagged “California grape shipments”
California grape shipments should be similar to a year ago despite acreage facing a small decline…..Looking down the road a piece, New Jersey produce shipments should be good if favorable weather continues.
Table grape acreage accounted for 123,000 of California’s 2016 total grape acreage of 897,000 acres, or about 13.7 percent of the total, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture-U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual survey on grape acreage.
Total grape acres were down 2.3 percent from 918,000 in 2015, according to the report, released April 20.
Table grape acreage was down 0.8% from the 124,000 reported in 2015, but it was 2,000 more acres or about 1.7% more than 2014.
Leading varieties, and their acreage in 2016 (and 2015), were:
- Flame seedless, 15,499 acres in 2016 (16,530);
- Crimson seedless, 9,387 acres in 2016 (10,564);
- Red globes, 7,923 acres in 2016 (9,644);
- Scarlett Royal, 7,254 acres in 2016 (6,706);
- Sugraone, 5,069 acres in 2016 (5,108);
- Autumn King, 6,111 acres in 2016 (5,386);
- Autumn Royal, 4,453 acres in 2016 (4,548);
- Cotton Candy, 406 acres in 2016 (54); and
- Sweet Globe, 245 acres in 2016 (78).
Acreage of raisin-type grapes totaled 172,000 in 2016, or 7.5 percent lower than 2015’s total of 186,000 acres.
The wine-type grape acreage is estimated at 602,000 acres, with 560,000 bearing and 42,000 non-bearing.
The CDFA works with the Pacific Regional Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service on the annual voluntary acreage survey.
New Jersey Produce Shipments
Everything has lined up about as well as it could have so far this year, as the Garden State has had some nice warm weather. This has resulted in produce crops general being ahead of schedule as the growing season progresses. Growers are “knocking on wood” and keeping fingers crossed regarding the weather.
In only a few weeks there will be shipments of Jersey peaches and Jersey blueberries, two of the states leading produce items. Crops at this point are described as beautiful.”
New Jersey Asparagus cutting has been occurring at a fast and steady clip, leafy greens also are being harvested and shipped. There also are greenhouse tomatoes being harvested, as well as a few strawberries.
Coachella Valley grape shipments start soon, kicking off the domestic grape season for the United States.
Nestled just outside of Palm Springs are California’s first grape shipments each year. Coachella Valley grape loadings will get underway in early May, but it will be at least mid May, if not a little later before there is good volume.
In its prime, the Coachella Valley routinely shipped in excess of 10 million cartons per season. Even a decade ago, volume ranged from 7 million to 9 million cartons for the season. Today, 4 million to 5 million cartons is more typical as acreage has declined over the years for a variety of reasons, with nothing being a greater factor than soaring real estate prices for both commercial and residential demands. But that decline may have reached a plateau, according to some. There are now fewer, but larger growing/shipping operations and new varieties of grapes are being introduced to make the Coachella Valley more competitive, especially with Mexican grapes. The latter now has production about double or more what Coachella used to have in its heyday.
The two regions have very similar grape seasons, although Mexico typically starts shipping a few days to a week or so earlier than Coachella. Both Coachella and Mexico serve as a bridge from the end of the imported Chilean grape season and when Arvin District grapes (Bakersfield) gets underway in late June. Arvin and other production areas in the San Joaquin Valley provide the vast majority of California grape shipments.
There still remain a number of old time, well established grape shippers either based in the Coachella Valley, or which have operations there. For example, there is Anthony Vineyards, Inc., Sun World International LLC.; and Stevco, all in Coachella; Richard Bagdasarian, Inc., and Tudor Ranch, Inc., are both in Mecca.
As California grape shipments wind down there’s still a lot more fruit to be hauled than at this time a year ago.
California table grape remaining to be shipped is about 79 percent more than at this same period last year, according to the USDA.
There were about 2.43 million packages of the California grapes in cold storage as of December 15th. This compares to 1.36 million on the same date in 2015. The current amount is about 30 percent lower than the 3.44 million total packages in 2014.
The autumn royal variety totaled 255,255 packages in storage in mid-December, compared to 59,867 a year earlier — an increase of about 326 percent — although the current total was down by about 4.7 percent from the 267,867 of two years ago.
Crimson seedless packages in storage totaled 1.02 million packages, an increase of about 95 percent over the 524,336 in 2015, but a 38 percent less from the 1.66 million 2014.
There were 669,470 packages of other red seedless varieties in storage, about a 287 percent increase over the 173,000 in 2015 and a 121 percent increase over the 303,000 packages in 2014.
By contrast, the inventory of autumn king trailed totals from 2015 and 2014 — this year’s 154,341 packages are down 47 percent from a year ago and down 60 percent from 2014.
Flame seedless grapes in storage totaled 1,985 packages this year, compared to 4,505 last year and 18,701 in 2014. That marked a 56 percent decline from 2015 and 89 percent from two years earlier.
While grape supplies are now low, current volume and shipments are similar to where they have been the last couple of years.
There also have been some reports of discoloration, especially with red grapes and storage quality has not been as good. So extra caution is recommended by drivers when loading product.
Imports of grapes from Peru are underway in light, but increasing volume and Chilean grapes will soon be arriving at East Coast ports and soon to be followed by arrivals on the West Coast.
San Joaquin Valley grapes – grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
The shipping outlook for North Carolina sweet potatoes has improved substantially in recent weeks, while steady movement continues from California grapes.
Heavy rain from Hurricane Matthew in October dropped torrential rains and flooding on North Carolina sweet potato fields with more than half of the crop still in the ground, concerns for high that volume shipments might be drastically affected. However, the covington variety — the state’s major variety — proved to hold up well to excess water. The crop is now virtually harvested and growers are claiming North Carolina sweet potatoes will be available year-round as usual.
In 2015, North Carolina shipped about 16.48 million 40-pound cartons of sweet potatoes. November is the top shipping month with over 12 percent of the total crop being moved. This compares with 8 percent in October and 9 percent in December.
Now instead of a 40 or 50 percent loss of sweet potatoes from the hurricane, estimates are now in the 10 to 15 percent range for North Carolina sweet potatoes in the state. Overall the crop is expected to be about the same if not a little more than last season. Helping offset losses is an increase in acreage from last year.
Eastern North Carolina is shipping about 300 truck loads of sweet potatoes a week.
North Carolina sweet potatoes from the Benson area – grossing about $1000 to Atlanta; $1300 to Philadelphia and Chicago; $1950 to Miami; and $2300 to Boston (with spot rates possibly increasing).
California Grape Shipments
With more California table grapes remaining to be shipped than a year ago, loading opportunities should be good through the holidays.
California grape inventories through October were 14 percent above the same time a year ago. Total supplies of California grapes were 11.94 million boxes on Oct. 31st, up from 10.48 million boxes a year ago, but down from 12.3 million boxes two years ago.
California’s July grape crop was estimated at a near-record 117.06 million boxes, up from 109.6 million boxes in 2015.
Grape shipments from California’s Kern District were running at about 2.4 million (19-pound) boxes per week in early November, while shipments from the state’s San Joaquin Valley were reported at 450,000 boxes per week.
Kern District grape shipments – grossing about $4100 to Chicago; $5900 to Baltimore.
Excellent loading opportunities for California grapes are continuing into the fall shipping season, while strawberries also are moving in good volume. Meanwhile, here’s an update on Georgia fall vegetable shipments.
California Grape Shipments
California grape shipments are above of those of a year ago. About 82.9 million million of grapes were loaded in the San Joaquin Valley in the week ending September 26, up from 70.7 million pounds in the same week last year. However, this was down from 88.1 million pounds the previous week.
Season-to-date, about 2.1 billion pounds of grapes had shipped in the U.S., down from 2.2 billion pounds last year at the same time.
San Joaquin Valley grapes and melons – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
California Strawberry Shipments
California strawberry volumes should continue heavy as fall loadings increase. Weekly volumes shipping in September were at record levels for that time of year, with the trade shipping over 5.5 million trays a week during the month.
During the second half of September, there were volumes from both the Salinas/Watsonville area and the Santa Maria growing district. Higher-yielding varieties were coming into production in from both areas, with being a factor behind the shipping surge. The week of September 19 some Oxnard growers were already shipping some fall strawberries.
By the first or second week of October, loadings from Oxnard should be going good, although fall acreage is down slightly from last year.
Salinas Valley vegetables and Watsonville strawberries – grossing about $6600 to New York City,
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
Late-summer growing conditions have been good for production of southern Georgia cabbage, cucumbers and greens. There will be very light loadings of cabbage in late October. However, volume will pick up significantly in early to mid-November. Good loading opportunities are seen for the holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
Cucumber shipments started in south Georgia a couple of weeks ago, with loadings expected to continue into the first half of November.
In mid-September, Georgia growers typically begin harvesting leafy greens, including kale, collard greens, turnip roots and mustard greens. and ramp up larger volume in mid-October.
Mushroom loadings increased in the United States during the past year. Additionally, looking at other types of shipments, here are updates on California grapes and Pennsylvania apples.
Mushroom shipments increased during the 2015-16 season, with about 946 million pounds of mushrooms were moved in 2015-16. This was a 2 perecent increase for the pervious season, according to the USDA.
The value of this season’s crop, at $1.19 billion, was down less than 1 perecent from 2014-15, while the average price for mushrooms in 2015-16, $1.26 per pound, which was two cents lower than the season before.
About 346 producers grew mushrooms in the U.S. in 2015-16, 12 fewer than the year before.
Agaricus mushroom volumes in 2015-16 totaled 922 million pounds, 2 percent more than the season before. As has historically been the case, Pennsylvania accounted for 64 percent of total shipments with California a distant second at 12 percent.
The agaricus crop was valued at $1.1 billion, down 2 percent from 2014-15. About 165 million pounds of portabello, crimini and other brown mushrooms were shipped this season, 3 percent more than last season.
The specialty mushroom category, which includes shiitakes, oysters and other varieties, registered the biggest value gain by percentage in 2015-16. Specialty sales rose 30 percent this season to $95 million. The average price, $3.94 per pound was up 40 percent.
California Grape Shipments
California grape shipments are comparable to last year at the same time. Through August 27th, about 1.78 billion pounds of grapes had been shipped in the U.S. for the season, down from 1.88 billion pounds last year at the same time.
In the week ending August 27, about 74 million pounds shipped, down from 82.5 million pounds in the same week last year.
San Joaquin Valley grapes, stone fruit and tomatoes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
Pennsylvania Apple Shipments
Pennsylvania apple shipments should be normal, putting it at around its five-year average. This is approximately 10 million bushels. Harvest started the third week of August in most areas of the state and should be finished by early November. Pennsylvania has about 275 growers.
While many California vegetable shipments have been rather lack luster this year, shipments have soared for mandarins, and table grapes may break a record.
California mandarins produced in the San Joaquin Valley during 2015 have been valued at $197.6 million, a 171 percent increase from the $72.8 million the previous year, according to the The Fresno County Farm Bureau.
Mostly marketed as clementines with branded labels, from 2014 to 2015, the region’s production of mandarins increased from 121,000 tons to 166,000 tons, a 37.2 percent increase. The national mandarin market, which is dominated by Sun Pacific and Wonderful Citrus, Delano, CA , Wonderful packs the fruit under the Halos label that it introduced in late 2013.
The value of mandarins sold nationally at retail jumped 23 percent two years ago and increased 15 percent from the 2014-15 season to 2015-16. The Fresno County data come from the region’s growers, 60 to 70 percent of whom return the crop report requested by the county.
While some mandarin shippers operate out of Fresno County, they have much larger produce from Kern County.
Given that the Fresno County data doesn’t include much product from Sun Pacific and Wonderful, the two dominant players in the market, it makes sense that the national numbers — relying heavily on the Cuties brand and Halos brand sales — don’t match the regional numbers.
California Grape Shipments
California grapes are in the ballpark of an all-time high for shipments, and over 60 percent of the crop will ship after September 1st.
The 2016 grape crop is estimated at nearly 117.1 million 19-bound box equivalents. This is down a bit from the spring estimate of 117.4 million, but that number would still surpass the record harvest of 116.3 million in 2013.
Last year’s crop of 109.3 million boxes rode favorable markets to its highest ever gross value at $1.83 billion.
Fall grapes will include autumn kings, scarlet royals, autumn royals and red globes. Among the many trademark varieties are Holiday and Milano from Columbine Vineyards; AutumnCrisp by Sun World International; Green Emerald from Sunlight International Sales; and Sweet Celebration from Jasmine, Pandol Bros. and other shippers.
San Joaquin Valley mandarins and grapes – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
A seasonal shift in watermelon shipments is taking place, plus here’s an update on loadings for California grapes, Florida avocados and Western onion shipments.
Watermelon Shipments Shift
Volume watermelon shipments are making a seasonal shift to new production areas. Loadings are now taking place from fields west of Lubbock, TX. Shipping will continue through September. Both Indiana and Delaware should have watermelon shipments moving into good volume this week….Mexican watermelon shipments through Nogales, AZ are expected by mid October.
Delaware, Maryland and Virginia watermelon shipments – grossing about $1100 to New York City.
California Grape Shipments
In the week ending July 30, about 67 million pounds of California grapes were shipped in the U.S., down from 72.7 million pounds in the same week in 2015. The July 30 total, was however, more than the 61.9 million pounds that shipped in 2014. Year-to-date as of July 30, about 1.47 billion pounds of grapes had shipped in the U.S., down from 1.59 billion pounds last year.
San Joaquin Valley grape shipments – grossing about $6200 to New York City.
Florida Avocado Shipments
Florida avocado grower-shippers expect to ship about one-third less fruit compared to previous seasons. Initially, about 1 million bushels of the green-skinned avocados were expected to be moved. However, that estimate was later reduced to about 800,000 bushels. Following an unfavorable growing season, grower-shippers are now eying 600,000-700,000 bushels, about 35 percent smaller than normal. Typically, shippers such as New Limeco LLC in Princeton, FL as well as Unity Groves Corp. and Brooks Tropicals, both based in Homestead, FL, have peak loadings in July, August and September. Most shipments will be finished in December, although very light volume will extend through March.
Onion Shipments
Washington, Idaho and Oregon account for one-third of the nation’s onion shipments. The primary Pacific Northwest shipping locations for storage onions are in the Treasure Valley in western Idaho and eastern Oregon and in the Columbia Basin in Central Washington and North Central Oregon. Three years ago Northwest onion shipments exceeded 32 million hundredweight.
Northwest onion volume is currently very light, but gradually increasing. Much heavier shipments are taking place from southern New Mexico, averaging about 750 truckloads a week. California’s San Joaquin Valley has over 650 truck loads being shipped weekly.
Southern New Mexico onion shipments – grossing about $3100 to Chicago.
California table grape shipments could be on track to match the record volume of 2013.
Loadings are currently forecast to hit 117.4 million 19-pound box equivalents. This would equal the amount shipped three years ago and outstrip last year’s 109.6 million. A final estimate is due in late July,
Many of the newer grape varieties are yielding anywhere from 1,400 to 2,200 boxes more per acre or better. Couple that with a lot of new plantings and there will be increasing shipments out of California for the next three or four years. A lot of it has been transitioned out of older varieties like crimsons. Growers pulled them out and replanted.
Grape shipments will get underway this coming week from the southern San Joaquin Valley and continue into November.
The Coachella Valley always kicks off California Grape shipments around May 1st. Early reports of reduced volumes in the desert may have been exaggerated. Coachella is now winding down grape shipments as the San Joaquin Valley is getting started.
Meanwhile Mexican grape shipments are also declining. Red grapes have finished and white grapes (Sugraones) are on their final leg.
In essence all San Joaquin Valley districts will be picking within about 10 days of each other. This includes McFarland and Delano coming on July 1st.
One major grape shipper, Crown Jewels Produce, say it will upwards of 1 million boxes out of the valley from Bakersfield to Madera this season.
The company started with a few flames out of Arvin around June 21. Then it will have grapes out of Fresno County just south of Fresno, June 28.
Crown Jewels then will have some summer royal black grapes in the first week of July. These will be followed by Thompson green grapes, as well as some princess grapes in mid- to late-July. August, September and October should be big months for California grape shipments.
Coachella Valley grapes – grossing about $4900 to Chicago.
Kern County carrots, potatoes, – grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
It is shaping up to be an overlap of grape shipments this spring from different parts of the world. Late season imported Chilean grapes will be overlapping imported grapes from Mexico, as well as grapes from the desert of California.
Unfavorable weather earlier in the season has made for tight supplies of red grapes coming from Chile as compared to the supply of green grapes. Chilean grapes are arriving by boat on both U.S. coasts. But that situation could flip next month, as more red grapes are expected in the U.S. market.
The supply of red grapes should pick up around late March or early April. By early May, red grapes from Mexico will be crossing the border into the U.S.
During the 2015 season 110.5 million boxes (109.3 million 19‐pound box equivalents) of California table grapes were shipped. The California grape industry surpassed the 100 million box mark for the first time in 2012. Since then, the total crop volume has seen three consecutive years over 110 million boxes.
The 2015 season total of 110.5 million boxes was the third-largest crop volume in the industry’s history, just below the 2014 total of 110.9 million. The largest crop to be shipped was in 2013 at 117.4 million boxes.
California grape shipments are available from May through January. With the 2016 season only about six weeks away, Mexican grape shipments typically start anywhere from a few days to two weeks earlier than California’s first grapes that come out of the Coachella Valley. Most Mexican grapes cross the border at Nogales.