Posts Tagged “Colorado potatoes”
Florida tomato volume is rebounding as the recovery from Hurricane Irma continues. Meanwhile, double digit freights on potatoes from some states in the Western U.S. are occurring.
Florida tomato shipments remain much lighter than normal thanks to Hurricane Irma last fall, that is fixing to change. Volume is gradually coming back as the replantings mature, but it will be around Christmas or perhaps early January before volumes return to normal. Irma dumped a ton of water of some fields, so use caution loading. There’s a chance of bacterial and general quality problems with some product, until a little later in the season.
North American Potato Shipping Update
North American fall potato shipments in the most recent USDA update is pegged 505 million cwt. (per hundredweight), down 1 percent from last year. Canadian growers harvested 106 million cwt., up slightly from 2016, and U.S. growers are expected to produce 399 million cwt., down 2 percent from 2016. U.S. growers planted 906,500 acres, down from 923,800 in 2016, and harvested 900,600 acres, off from 909,600 in 2016.
Canadian growers planted 345,800 acres and harvested 342,200, both amounts similar to the previous crop. The USDA reported yields per acre at 443 cwt. for growers in the U.S. and at 309 cwt. for growers in Canada.
Potato shipments for Christmas are getting underway and truck rates from both Idaho and Colorado have increased 10 to 20 percent to many markets. Wisconsin, which has the lowest volume of the three states, is not experiencing volatility in rates. Idaho is shipping moving nearly 1700 truckload equivalents of spuds a week, although a significant amount of this is going by rail. Colorado is shipping around 750 truckloads per week, while Wisconsin is loading about 400 truckloads. The Columbia Basin and Umatilla Basin on the Washington/Oregon border has similar volume (about 350 loads) to Colorado and rates have generally went up 10 to 15 percent recently.
Twin Falls area Idaho potatoes – grossing about $6300 to New York City.
San Luis Valley Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2000 to Dallas.
Stevens Point, Wisconsin area potatoes – grossing about $3300 to Atlanta.
Washington’s Columbian Basin potatoes – grossing bout $5100 to Chicago.
While Colorado potatoes are pretty well known to produce haulers, here are some loading opportunities such as California mandarins, Michigan apples and what — broccoli from Maine! Yep, that is right. Check it out.
The San Luis Valley of Colorado has 51,900 acres of potatoes which is up 800 acres from last season. Russets remain the primary spud shipped from the region, making up approximately 95 percent of the annual shipments.
Red potatoes now account for around 5 to 7 percent of the volume, while yellows are also increasing making up nearly 10 percent of production. Fingerlings and specialties account for about 3 percent. Over all, annual shipments have remained steady in recent years Last season Colorado had 14 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes.
Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2100 to Chicago.
Sunkist Mandarin Shipments
Sunkist Growers Inc. based in Valencia, CA will start shipping California mandarins on November 1st, and will be shipping a lot more of the citrus this season. Mulholland Citrus of Orange Cove, CA recently joined the Sunkist cooperative and will add 8 million 5-pound cartons to Sunkist mandarin shipments this year, doubling the volume of Sunkist from last season. Sunkist has thousands of grower-members as part of its cooperative, which are based in California and Arizona.
Michigan Shipper Expands
Riveridge Produce Marketing Inc. of Sparta, MI ships about 35 percent of fresh Michigan apples and how now entered the apple cider business with the opening of the new Riveridge Cider 17,400-square-foot cold storage. The opening was September 8th starting with blended gallon and one-half gallon cider. It includes cold pressing and bottled blended fresh apple cider, as well as varietal blends of Fuji, Gala and Honecrisp. The new operation can bottle 30,000 gallons a day.
Maine Broccoli Shipments
Hapco Farms of Riverhead, NY has been growing and shipping Maine broccoli for over 20 years, producing in excess of one millions boxes every season from July through October. It has eight different varieties of broccoli, depending upon the time of the year.
Here are the current top five fresh potato shipping regions when it comes to volume being loaded on a weekly basis: Idaho, Colorado, Columbia Basin in southern Washington and Umatilla Basin in Northern Oregon, Wisconsin and the Red River Valley.
There’s a reason why Northwest potato shipments are huge for the 2016-17 shipping season. Some call it high yields, others call it over production. And all of this centers around Idaho, the biggest potato producer of them all.,
For this season Idaho harvested 323,000 acres , totaling 13 billion pounds of potatoes — enough to fill 500 football stadiums 10 feet high. This accounts for one-third of all U.S. potatoes. Idaho is now shipping over 2000 truck load equivalents of potatoes a week. Idaho potatoes are easily the biggest volume U.S. produce item currently being shipped.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5400 to Boston.
In Colorado’s San Luis Valley, about 750 truck loads of potatoes are being loaded each week.
Colorado potatoes – grossing about $1600 to Dallas.
In Washington state, fresh potato shipments are coming from the Columbia Basin, Skagit Valley, and Klamath Basin. Washington State potato growers boast of the highest yields in the world, but total shipments each week are well below Idaho and even Colorado. About 13 percent of Washington’s overall crop is shipped for the fresh market. Washington’s Columbia Basin and adjacent Umatilla Basin in Oregon is averaging around 500 truck loads of potato shipments weekly. This volume leans heavily towards specialty potatoes.
Columbian Basin/Umatilla Basin potatoes – grossing about $5400 to Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Central Wisconsin accounts for the bulk of the Badger state’s potato shipments – currently averaging about 375 truck loads per week.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing abut $2600 to Atlanta.
The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota is shipping about 175 truck loads of red potatoes each week.
North Dakota and Minnesota Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1750 to Chicago.
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