Posts Tagged “California”
There’s been some freeze damage to fresh produce in the West this month, but overall it should not have a big affect on your loading opportunities. The biggest event will be the cold of January 16-17 slowing the growth of some items, which in turn reduces volume for shipping.
There’s been pretty good movement of Iceberg lettuce and romaine out of the Yuma District, but expect reduced shipments beginning in early Februrary….In the nearby Brawley and El Centro areas of the Southern California desert broccoli escaped freeze damage, but again, shipments will eventually decline for a period while the product rebounds from the cold.
As for strawberries, it looks like Oxnard and Orange County in California dodged the freeze bullet, but product out of Santa Maria will have lighter than normal loadings through the middle of February.
Yuma lettuce – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
In the San Joaquin Valley, oranges apparently escaped freeze damage, while mandrains were not so lucky, especially from areas north of Fresno.
California, Arizona and Texas are all importing winter produce from Mexico. There are Baja tomatoes coming into California. The biggest change is happening in Arizona where various types of veggies and melons are crossing
the border at Nogales. Volume is building and plenty of action should be taking place at the many distribution loading docks on this side of the border between now and the next three months or so….Still overall produce loads are not nearly as plentiful as other times of the year in the U.S. Too often produce truckers are facing multiple picks ups starting in Southern California, then proceeding to Yuma, AZ and possiblity even Nogales.
Mexico produce in crossing the border at McAllen, TX ranging from various veggies to citrus and tomatoes. You might have to fill out the load with Lower Rio Grande Valley citrus or cabbage from the Winter Garden District, just south of San Antonio.
Texas produce – grossing about $2600 to Chicago.
Nogales mixed loads – around $5500 to New York City;
$3500 to Chicago.
Oranges, potatoes and sweet potatoes are among the larger volume produce items shipped during the bleak, cold winter months. In a 
recession (or is it a depression?) that has been going on for at least three years, big crops of potatoes mean good movement (loading opportunities) as cash strapped consumers look for something less expensive to eat.
Idaho easily leads the nation in potato shipments. Rails haul a lot of them, but there are only so many rail cars and tracks, so big rigs are still hauling the marjority of the product. Idaho potato shipments are expected to be up 6%, while the nation as a whole is up 7%…..As for sweet potatoes, eastern North Carolina has the most shipments, with loadings also available from California, Louisiana and Mississippi. Total loads are forecast to be up 13% over a year ago.
As for oranges, Florida expects to ship 147 million boxes compared to 58 million boxes for California. Florida is up some from the previous season, while California is down slightly. Florida’s forecast could eventually be reduced some if a recent freeze damages some of the citrus.
California sweet potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – $2200 to Detroit.
Florida citrus – $2000 to Baltimore.
Idaho potatoes – $3400 to Dallas.
When everything we seem to buy anymore is going up in price, two items that should be bucking the trend are pears and kiwifruit. Both are now in abundance.
Wholesale pear prices have actually dropped a little from last season coming of Washington state. The question is whether you’ll see any lower prices at retail. Retailers love to pay less for product, yet pocket the savings for themselves. Much of it depends on how much competition the retailer is facing. I’ve tried 3 varieties of pears so far this season. The Bartlett pears were tasty and juicy; yum, yum. However, the Bosc variety and Red pear was not nearly as good.
I recently wrote about kiwifruit from New Zealand and Italy with NZ winning the taste competition. Now kiwi from California is in abundance and it’s really good in quality and taste. While retail prices on many produce items are climbing, kiwi continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department.
Strawberry loading opportunities are now available from three regions, 
Florida, Mexico and California. Currently, the heaviest volume, which isn’t that heavy, is out of the Plant City are of Florida, averaging around 250 truck load equivalents per week. Volume is much less right now with strawberries crossing U.S. borders from Mexico, as well as from the Oxnard district of California. Volume is less than half of Florida’s from these other two areas. Strawberries from California’s Santa Maria District is at a trickle, but will be increasing in coming weeks along with its sister district at Oxnard. California shipments should be in good volume leading up to Easter Sunday (April 8), barring unforseen adverse weather. Strawberry shipments tend to pay better than many other produce items due to their perishablity.
Berry and citrus from Southern California – grossing about $6500 to Boston.
It’s the slowest time of the year for produce shipments, but as usual, California which accounts for about 50% of the nation’s loads a year is your best best. So far, citrus from the San Joaquin Valley (as well as in Florida) have dodged damaging freezes. California has light shipments of strawberries from Oxnard, Santa Maria and Orange County. There also are light loadings of Mexician tomatoes crossing into Southern California….Western Arizona (Yuma area) is providing the best loading opportunities with head lettuce and romaine, and to a lesser extent with broccoli and cauliflower….In the Midwest, the Stevens Point, WI area may be your best bet with potatoes….In the Southeast, it’s pretty slim pickings, but check out mixed veggies from Southeastern Georgia, and citrus and strawberries from Central Florida.
Yuma lettuce – grossing about $6400 to New York City.
California citrus has dodged a winter weather “bullet” over the holidays as 
frost hit the San Joaquin Valley. While oranges and lemons loads should not be affected, it could be mid January or so before clementines and mandrins are evalulated for possible frost damage. Those latter items have a thinner skin and are more susceptable to freezes. The good news is that citrus escaping freeze damage tends to toughen up and be more freeze resist, plus have better color. California expects to ship around 88 million cartons of navel oranges during the 2011-2012 shipping season. That’s a respectable volume, although it falls short of the 96 million boxes shipped last year, which was a record. Only about 15% of the crop has been harvested so there will loading opportunties for months and months to come.
California citrus – grossing about $4000 to Chicago.
Sadly, the California table grape season is all but over. The red grapes,
particularly the last half of the season have been fantastic — so firm and sweet! We’re fortunate, because some seasons the fruit has been history before the end of the year….We’ll now starting getting imported grapes. As it typical with early season grapes from just about anywhere, you’ll be disappointed in the first arrivals in your stores. They normally lack the sugar content. Perhaps Chile will prove me wrong this season. Let’s hope. But get prepared for sour grapes at the get go.