Posts Tagged “California”
March can be one of the more frustrating months if you haul fresh produce. 
We are getting there, but certainly haven’t arrived. Several major shipping areas are starting to wind down, while others are still trying to ramp up with spring volume. A great example is in the West. Winter shipments of lettuce and other veggies from the deserts of Arizona and California provide loading opportunities during the winter, but are entering a transition period, where shipments will be moving northward to the Huron area of the San Joaquin Valley, following closely by Salinas. There’s now light volume with vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower from Santa Maria and Ventura County. Strawberry volume in Southern California is ramping up, but certainly not there yet.
Florida is similar in that vegetable volume is increasing, but won’t be hitting seasonal numbers until early April.
The steady, more consistent shipments are with hardware items ranging from apples, pears, onions and potatoes from the Northwest, potatoes from Colorado and Wisconsin; sweet potatoes out of Lousiana, Mississippi and the leader — North Carolina.
By this time next month we should be seeing significant increases in loading oppportunities, particularly from California and Florida, with rates rising accordingly.
Yakima Valley apples and pears grossing – about $5500 to Atlanta.
South Florida vegetables – about $2200 to Baltimore.
Easter is Sunday, April 8th and is always big for such items as strawberries and asparagus. California will be just about the only place shipping such items for Easter as Mexican strawberries will be pretty much finished for the season, while California “grass” from the desert may not have the greatest volume with its season just getting underway. California strawberries will have the market to itself with Florida and Mexico shipments finished. California berries will be heaviest out of the Oxnard district, with lighter volume coming out of Santa Maria.
In Michigan, apple shipments continue from the Western Part of the state, primarily from the Grand Rapids area. The state should ship about 23 million cartons, down some from its record setting season that had 28 million cartons of apples.
In the Appalachian district of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia about 50 truckloads of apples are being shipped each week. New York state is loading about 200 truckloads of apples weekly from the Hudson Valley, as well as Central and Western areas of the state.
Southern California berries, citrus grossing – about $5600 to New York City.
Western Michigan apples – $3200 to Dallas.
Central New York apples – $3150 to Boston.
The seasonal change in California shipping areas for vegetables will be here sooner than you think. In March shipments will start winding down from the desert areas such as the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley, as well as the Yuma district in Arizona. This can be a tricky time of the year, which can either result in shipping gaps as one area may finish before the other start. However, unless adverse weather changes things it should be a fairly smooth transition this spring.
As produce shipments move from the desert up north, there is actually a limited amount of broccoli being loaded from Salinas, CA. Broccoli volume is expected to be limited until the third or fourth week of March…..Head lettuce and leaf lettuce should start loadings in late March from Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. These shipments will last a month or so before transitioning to the Salinas Valley around the third week of April.
The Santa Maria District typically starts lettuce shipments ahead of Salinas and Huron. Look for loadings of leaf, romaine and butter lettuce from Santa Maria to get underway in Mid March.
An exception to all this are carrots. This veggie is typically shipped from the Bakersfield area from Thanksgiving to mid-March. Then shipments will transistion southward to the desert areas of the Coachella and Imperial valleys.
As the seasonal light to moderate winter produce loadings continue, California 
remains your best bet. There’s items ranging from strawberries to avocados in Southern California. In the desert, mixed vegetables ranging from lettuce to cauliflower, broccoli and celery are being shipped. One cautionary note: Excessive supplies of vegetables have led to a glut in the market due in part because of a mild West Coast winter. If any weather event on the East Coast that ma occur, compounds the problem as receivers don’t want trucks stuck in snow, ice etc. with a load of perishable produce.
In the Gulf Coast area, there is Texas cabbage coming out of the Winter Garden District just south of San Antonio. Further south in the Lower Rio Grande Valley there is citrus and mixed veggies, plus crossings of numerous items from Mexico….In nearby Louisiana and Mississippi, sweet potatoes continue to be shipped….In the east, there are sweet potatoes loading from North Carolina. On some days there’s been a shortage of trucks in NC, but this may be in part due to sweet potatoes not being known to get a very good freight rate.
Light to moderate apple shipments are coming from the Applachian District of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Apples are being shipped from New York’s Hudson Valley, as well as central and western parts of the state….The new crop of red potatoes from South Florida are now being shipped.
California desert vegetables – grossing about $5400 to New York City.
Mississippi sweet potatos – $1700 to Detroit.
South Texas and Mexico produce – $2100 to Atlanta.
Central New York apples – $1600 to Baltimore.
Avocados should be one of the best buys in your local produce department as produce continues to arrive from Mexico and will continue to do so into May. 
There’s also Chilean avocados which will be on retail shelves into late March. California avocados also are available and will continue well after the imported fruit is no longer available — into September. Even when California has sole possession of the market, prices should remain reasonable. The state expects to produce as much as 415 million pounds of avocados this season, 25 percent more than a year ago.
During the last quarter of 2011 the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables actually declined overall by eight percent, but we may not have necessarily have seen the benefits in our retail stores. Why? A major reason is the cost of fuel keeps rising to get the product delivered.
That means you may not have noticed the savings, for example, with oranges which had an average price of 93 cents per pound in January, compared to 98 cents per pound in December. Another example are tomatoes, which were costing on average $1.54 per pound in January, down a penny from December, but off five cents from the same time a year ago.
According to the Energy Information Administration, which is part of the Department of Energy, U.S. diesel fuel prices are continuing upward.
Truckers are now paying on average $4.051 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, which is 24 cents more per gallon than at the start of the New Year. This is the highest fuel has been since the spring of 2011.
California, to no one’s surprise, has the highest diesel fuel prices, averaging $4.41 per gallon. This is higher than the average for the West Coast, riding at $4.326 per gallon. The average price on the East Coast is $4.134 per gallon. The mid-west has the “cheapest” diesel fuel, averaging $3.914 per gallon.
At this time a year ago, the national average price per gallon for diesel was 33.5 cents per gallon less.
Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables! Right now there are good supplies 
of “grass” arriving in our local supermarkets from Mexico. Retails should even be offering special prices on it….There also is still some asparagus arriving from Peru, although volume is now seasonally down sigificantly.
Come the middle of March we should see asparagus grown in California starting to arrive in stores. This should mean even better prices for consumers since there is less expense with transportation than wilth product imported form other countries. However, there is currently of glut of asparagus which means the folks growing it are not making much. If this continues, there ars concerns some of the California farmers may disc under their crops if they’re not making enough to even harvest it.
Either way, asparagus should be a good buy in your store right on through Easter, which is April 8th.
February may be the slowest month of the year for produce shipments, and 
for the most part there’s plenty of trucks for hauling product from most shipping points nationwide. There are a few exceptions. Equipment appears to the tighest in Florida for hauling mixed veggies, tomatoes and strawberries; sweet potatoes out of Eastern portions of North Carolina and with potatoes out of Northwest Washington.
Nationally, it is reported there are four percent more apples remaining in storages compared to a year ago. Best apple loading opportunities are occuring from Yakima, WA and points in western and central Michigan….Mexican melons and mixed vegetables are crossing the border at Nogales, AZ in good volume…In California, December freezes have apparently reduced citrus shipments for the season from around 93 million cartons to about 74 million cartons. Mandarins were hit pretty hard, especially in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Although packinghouses sort out damaged product, it is a good idea to (as always) to watch what is being loaded.
Washington apples – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – $2250 to Chicago.
Michigan apples – $2400 to Atlanta.
I’ve had plenty of disappointments buying fruit in the wintertime, but these fagile 
items just have a lot more obstacles to overcome, especially with a finicky Mother Nature. But I”ve got to say I’ve been pretty pleased with the winter strawberries and kiwifruit I’ve been purchasing.
Living here in Oklahoma I haven’t had any strawberries from California in a while, probably because of limited volume. However, I’ve been eating plenty of strawberries from Mexico. Latest brand is Fresh Kampo. I’ll give the brand a grade of B-plus. The Mexican berries have good color, quality, taste, and average size, plus have not had any break down for three days after purchase.
California is providing an excellent crop of kiwifruit now. Continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department, at least where I live — 3 kiwis for a buck. Happy shopping!
Various citrus items are now being shipped from California, Arizona, Texas 
and Florida. No major freeze damage or quality problems have been reported from the major shipping areas, so this should reduce your chances of claims at destination.
In California and Arizona, loadings of items ranging from oranges to lemons are pretty normal…In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas overall loadings of grapefruit, which accounts for about 75 percent of the citrus volume, are expected to be off about 20 percent from a year ago….Florida continues shipping product ranging from oranges to grapefruit and tangerines.
Note: It’s okay mixing citrus together in reefer units ranging from oranges to tangerines, mandrians an clementines. But mixing these items with products such as lettuce, broccoli and other veggies available in the same region can result in loss of quality and claims, especially on longer hauls.
California citrus — grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
Texas citrus – about $2300 to Chicago.
Florida citrus – about $2400 to New York.