Posts Tagged “California produce shipments”
Here’s a quick look at Western produce shipments, starting in British Columbia, extending down to California and wrapping up in West Texas and New Mexico.
While Washington state cherry shipments are in a seasonal decline, loadings from British Columbia are picking up.
British Columbia certainly is no Washington state when it comes to volume, but the Canadians do provide decent loadings for about a four to six-week period every year. Shipments from an area ranging from Kelowna to Creston are underway with about 100,000 cases already shipped. There is an estimated 500,000 additional boxes to be shipped. The season is expected to last through the third week of August.
California Produce Shipments
Stone fruit shipments continue steady from week to week out of the San Joaquin Valley, led by peaches….From the valley’s Westside district various melons are being loaded, led by cantaloupe, averaging about a 1000 loads per week….Moving to the Watsonville district movement continues steady with strawberries, averaging around 875 truck loads weekly. California produce rates continue to decline, some by as much 15 percent in the past week.
Watsonville berries and Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit, melons and other items – grossing about $4300 Dallas.
Texas/New Mexico Produce Shipments
In West Texas, the Hereford High Plains area has light, but increasing volume with potatoes, with some shippers also in Eastern New Mexico. Southern New Mexico also continues to ship onions.
Here’s a round up of some of the major Western produce shipping areas including volume and freight rates.
California Produce Shipments
Big volume produce shipments continue out of both the Salinas Valley and the San Joaquin Valley of California. We’re certainly not witnessing any record rates this year. This is believed due to several factors. For example the California drought most certainly has resulted in fewer plantings of fruits and vegetables. Taking up at least some of the lack is Mexico that continues to increase production. Mexico not only has cheaper labor and production costs, but fewer restrictive rules and regulations than California.
However, rates were generally stagnant or in many cases lower this week as there was a surplus in refrigerated equipment. Rates on Salinas veggies plunged by double digits in some cases, as vegetable shipments have been less than spectacular this season – in part due to numerous shipping gaps.
Salinas Valley Produce Shipments
The Watsonville district continues shipping strawberries and other berries in good volume. Strawberries are averaging about 950 truck loads per week. Meanwhile, dozens of vegetables continue out of Salinas ranging from various types to lettuces to broccoli, and cauliflower, among others.
Salinas Valley produce – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
San Joaquin Valley Produce Shipments
From the Westside District, cantaloupe, honeydew and other melons are increasing in volume….Watermelons are averaging about 300 truck loads weekly and increasing in volume….There also is good volume with stone fruit ranging from peaches to plums and nectarines….Another big crop of grapes continues to be shipped…Pear and apple shipments are just starting from Northern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Between 1.5 and 1.7 million boxes of apples are forecast and should continue until mid October.
Central San Joaquin Valley fruits and vegetables – grossing about $6100 to Atlanta.
Southern California Produce Shipments
Avocado loadings continue in good volume, although it is declining as we head into the latter part of the shipping season….Tomatoes are big item. Vine ripe tomato loadings continue from the Oceanside and San Diego areas, including produce crossing the border into San Diego from Baja California.
Southern California citrus, avocados and tomatoes – grossing about $4800 to Houston.
California’s Westside District, known for its cantaloupe shipments, gets underway this week.
The area gets its name from being located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Centered around the town of Huron, the melons are starting a week to 10 days earlier than normal.
A number of California produce shipments shipped earlier than ever in 2014 and then broke that record this year. Melons are in a similar situation. The first California melons were shipped out of Brawley in the California desert on April 27. Yuma melons were early as well.
Despite the California drought, melons are still be produced with a key factor being that growers a shifted the location of their acreage to areas that have more water. Some have moved north, while other growers moved west or east or found land with well water when surface water wasn’t going to be available.
Cantaloupes have a short season crop and are considered a low water use crop, plus do well on well water.
The highest volume for Westside District cantaloupes will be from the end of June through the middle of October, if the weather cooperates in September and October.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for fruits and vegetables – grossing about $4900 to Houston, $6100 to Atlanta.
California produce shipments
With the Huron shipping district in the San Joaquin Valley finished, the primary suppliers of the nation’s vegetable row crops are the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys.
These two areas on California’s coast are shipping Iceberg lettuce, all the mixed and specialty lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli and celery, plus dozens of other items in smaller volumes. California now has over 500 truckloads of head lettuce shipments weekly, mostly out of Salinas.
About the best thing for produce truckers this time of the year in California is fewer production areas, making it easier to get full loads due to the increased volume, plus a lot of product typically is loaded at one dock. This certainly beats wintertime when mulitple pick ups can start in Central or Southern California and extend to Coachella, the Imperial Valley and Yuma – and perhaps even Nogales. Not good.
Over the next two to three months California will be in its peak strawberry shipping period with 6 million to 7 million trays or more being shipped each week.
While Ventura County strawberries are in a seasonal decline, the Santa Maria district is shipping over 500 truckloads per week. Strawberry shipments are building from the Watsonville district, and will soon surpass Santa Maria in volume.
Produce Rates
Salinas Valley vegetables and berries – grossing about $4300 to Dallas; $7100 to New York City.
Here’s a round up California produce loadings as Salinas Valley vegetable shipments are increasing.
Items such a broccoli, head lettuce and other lettuces are among many vegetables increasing in volume from the Salinas Valley as they head towards full stride in the next couple of weeks or so. Lettuce from the Huron district in the San Joaquin Valley is on the decline as volume is being replaced by product from Salinas. Overall Salinas shipments are only moderate at this time, although these shipments still exceed those from the Santa Maria district to the south.
Light to moderate spring shipments of broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables are off to an early start from California’s Santa Maria district. Items ranging from anise, to cauliflower and broccoli are shipped year-round from Santa Maria. Mixed leaf kicked off in early March, iceberg started in late March, cilantro and spinach should start harvesting anytime and celery in May.
There also is a wide range of Santa Maria vegetable shipments, including mixed leaf, red, green, and romaine lettuce, romaine hearts, and celery, as well as mixed baby carrots, mixed beets and mixed radishes.
Concerning Ventura County produce shipments, there are loadings of strawberries, raspberries, celery, romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County produce – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
California cherries should provide much better loading opportunities than a year ago.
In 2014 only 3 million 18-pound boxes were shipped. However, this season volumes could reach 6 million to 7 million boxes. Compared to the near crop failure a year ago, 2015 looks a lot better, but cherry shipments will not be huge.
South of Stockton, cherry shipments should start in Bakersfield, Arvin and Shafter with the brooks variety around April 25th. The main variety, bings, should hit peak loadings May 24th to June 4th.
Barring hail damage and other adverse weather, California cherry shipment could hit 7 million packages with a stretched out season from April 20th to June 10th.
Mainly because of another warm winter and lack of chill hours, Kern County has some orchards that are very challenged to set a crop. Particularly the tulare variety looks very light in tonnage just out of the Bakersfield area. Brooks and coral champagne look better for tonnage, but there are a fair amount of doubles and spurs based on last summer’s excessive heat.
Last year’s bloom was bizarre, especially in Stockton. The pollinization timing was off, the top of the tree bloomed after the bottom. It was completely out of whack, but this year’s bloom is much more compact and uniform.
While waiting on cherry shipments to begin, here’s a couple of other more active areas for California produce shipments.
Huron head lettuce, romaine and leaf – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
Ventura County berries and vegetables – grossing about $4500 Chicago.
There have been a lot of opinions expressed about the “Left Coast” and its rules, regulations and politics and what effect it may have on everything from produce truckers willing to do business in California, to produce growers shifting more of their operations to Mexico and other states.
Based on a new report from the U.S Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, as looney as our friends on the West Coast may sometimes seem, last year California still accounted for 47 percent of harvested acreage, 52 percent of production and 60 percent of value in 2014. If that’s the case, then there must have been trucks for the most part delivering those agricultural products to markets across North America.
Production of U.S. melons and 24 top vegetables was down one percent in 2014. The overall value of those crops also fell last year.
About 413 million cwt. of leading vegetables and melons were harvested in 2014. Harvested acreage, at 1.58 million acres, also was down, by three percent.
The value of the 2014 crops, at $10.9 billion, was down 5 percent from a year ago.
In terms of production, onions, head lettuce and watermelon were the top three crops, accounting for 36 percent of total production.
Tomatoes, head lettuce and onions were the most valuable, making up 29 percent of total value.
While the vast majority of produce shipments occur by truck, California produce shipments also easily lead the pack in terms of volume over other states.
An extended warm weather streak is occurring in the California and Arizona deserts, resulting in fair to good movement of vegetables. The only problem is treacherous winter weather in many northern and northeastern markets is hurting demand.
Desert vegetable shipments are taking place from the Imperial, Coachella and Pal Verde valleys of California, as well as the Yuma area in Arizona. Everything from head lettuce to romaine, as well as broccoli and cauliflower, and greens are being loaded. The primary problem might be if there are some temporary shipping gaps due to weather factors earlier in the season….Mexican asparagus volume is building at the Calexico, CA border crossing.
Carrot shipments from the Bakersfield area are averaging over 300 truck loads per week.
While strawberry loadings out of the Oxnard district are light, there is better volume with celery.
California citrus shipments ranging from oranges to tangerines and mandarins are available from shippers in Central and Southern California.
California avocado shipments have recently got underway and the forecast calls for loadings to total 327 million pounds during the 2014-15 season, about 10 percent greater than this past season. Volumes are expected to build into March with ‘promotable’ volume beginning in April.
Overall, this is perhaps the lightest volume time of the year for California produce shipments, which too often results in multiple pick ups to fill the trailer.
California desert shipments – grossing about $4400 to Chicago, $6500 to New York City.
Southern California avocados hit by snow, while table grape shipments are just about finished.
California produce shipments
Sunny Southern California was more like a winter wonder land New Year’s Eve when a snowstorm dumped up to 6 inches on parts of Riverside County and caused damage to avocado orchards.
Damage assessments should be available very soon. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, it snows in Temecula, CA! About half of an estimated 330-million pound crop is shipped from the state’s southern growing regions of Riverside and San Diego counties. To the north, Ventura County got some low temperatures Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 but fruit loss was expected to be minimal.
Avocado tree branches were down, although there is hope the fruit on the tree would still be harvestable. Damage from the weight of the snow doesn’t necessarily mean freeze damage.
Grape Shipments
Meanwhile, California table grape shippers have completed harvests, with what appears to be the second largest crop on record, despite the drought. It is estimated there will be 105.9 million 19-pound boxes shipped, which would be short of last year’s 116.3-million-box haul, but exceeding the 101.3 million packages turned out in 2012. Grape shipments could finish this week for the season.
In the meantime, California desert vegetable shipments are unpredictable as ever with shipping gaps occurring due to past freezing weather.
Imperial Valley/Yuma vegetables – grossing about $3000 to Seattle.
Southern California avocados, berries and celery – grossing about $5000 to Atlanta.
This isn’t one of the better times of the year for hauling produce from California as seasonal shifts to different growing areas or varieties are underway, with items ranging from lettuce to citrus and strawberries.
California Produce Shipments
Lettuce shipments continue from Huron in California’s San Joaquin Valley, but a shift is slowly taking place to the desert of Yuma, AZ to be followed shortly by the nearby Imperial Valley in California.
Yuma lettuce shipments should hit decent volume within about a week. Shipments have been light out of California and Arizona for weeks and could very well remain lighter than normal through Thanksgiving, if not the end of the year.
Romaine volume is particularly light and you should use caution hauling this product coming out of Huron. Warmer than normal weather during October is resulting in romaine growing too fast, leading to some quality issues – particularly with the product going to seed.
Lettuce shipments shifted from Salinas to Huron the last half of October. Now the shift is from the short Huron harvest to Yuma and the Imperial Valley.
California Citrus Shipments
Valencia shipments are coming to a seasonal end, while light loadings of navel oranges have started from Central and Southern California, as well as Arizona.
California Strawberry Shipments
While Salinas and Santa Maria strawberry shipments are nearly finished for the season, light, but increasing volume is taking place from Ventura County.
California Grape Shipments
Meanwhile, grapes continue to provide some of the heaviest volume out the San Joaquin Valley. Loadings are averaging over 1,700 truck loads per week.
Central San Joaquin Valley grapes, other items – grossing about $5400 to Atlanta.