Posts Tagged “Delaware”
The Port of Wilmington, Delaware last week received the first fresh fruit of the winter season for the United States, for distribution throughout the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The fruit arrived on The Pacific Mermaid, a refrigerated vessel operated by Trans Global Shipping N.V. of the Global Reefers service. The boat’s cargo had nearly 618,500 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and table grapes.
This was the sixth consecutive year Delaware has received the initial break bulk shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River, but in the U.S. The Port of Wilmington expects this season to receive at least two dozen more shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo and Caldera.
Over 50 percent of the Chilean fruit sent to U.S. markets travels through Delaware River ports, with Chile becoming Wilmington’s largest refrigerated storage customer during the Southern Hemisphere growing season.
Last season, the port handled over 18.65 million boxes of Chilean fruit, a 10 percent increase over the 2013-2014 season.
More than 2,000 people work at the port and more than 750 jobs are tied to the Chilean fruit trade, which generates about $40 million in personal income for those involved and $4 million in tax revenue.
Very light shipments of Eastern Shore vegetables get underway this week, with loadings in full swing expected by early July. The Eastern Shore is an area including parts of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
Virginia farming operation usually produce about 3,000 to 4,000 acres of red, yellow and russet potatoes, although there has been an eight to 10 percent decrease this year.
The majority of Virginia spuds are shipped to the eastern half of the country. When northern areas are not producing, much of the crop is trucked to those regions. When the Southern states stopshipping, loads are redirected to the South.
There has been a significant acreage in tomatoes, potatoes and green beans, which are the big three items on the Eastern Shore. The largest green bean operation is at Cheriton, VA. There are two major tomato operations on the Eastern Shore, that ship round, roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, which will continue from late June through September.
Of the Eastern Shore potatoes that are shipped, about 60 percent go to tablestock and the remainder goes to chip processing. Potato loadings occur from late June through the first week of August. Harvest started last week.
The Eastern Shore region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is separated from the rest of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay.
While I’ve written some reports suggesting caution when loading Washington state apples from the Wenachee Valley due to 
damage from a July 20 hail storm, information is now starting to come out relating to the pears from the same area. Expect pear shippers to be loading some “hail grade” pears. Appearance is affected, but eating quality should be fine. Just make sure the parties with whom you are working to deliver the load are aware of this condition to the fruit and it is noted on the bill of lading. Washington state pear shipments are expected to set a record this season volume wise.
In Michigan, produce shipments have been running early this season, not only for vegetables, but blueberries. Expect both to complete shipping a week or two ahead of schedule this summer. Michigan blueberry volume will drop significantly beginning the week of August 27th…..Expect a similar situation with “blues” coming out of Oregon and British Columbia.
In the San Luis Valley of Colorado, potato hauls should be ramping up by the end of August…Virtually all USA potato shipping areas are expecting to load more spuds during the 2012-13 shipping season.
On the East Coast, watermelon shipments have increased significantly over the past three years from Maryland and Delaware. Virginia also is shipping melons…..Expect increased loading opportunities on watermelons for the upcoming Labor Day weekend from areas ranging from West Texas to Indiana and North Carolina.
Delaware watermelons – grossing about $1100 to New York City.
Produce shipments on the East Coast are a mixed bag this year and some areas 
are shipping more normal volumes, with other areas doing less.
Shipments of New Jersey blueberries, along with vegetables continue to be loaded in normal volumes. Jersey peach loadings are ramping up and should be in peak volume soon, continuing through July.
Further south in the Mid-Altantic area, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Shore, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia are shipping a variety of vegetables, with more coming into play as we enter July. This area, however, has struggled over the years, as it tries to provide shipments during a gap between states to the south of it, and New Jersey to the north, which in theory is supposed to begin shipments when Delaware, Maryland and Virgina are finishing.
However, it’s a gamble every year and if the southern states are late coming in, or Jersey is early, the the Mid-Atlantic states tend to face poor markets, and fewer loading opportunities for produce haulers. As a result this area does not have as many shippers as it used to.
Meanwhile, there are fewer Georgia vegetables, Vidalia onions and peaches this year due to weather factors, although the vegetables were easily hit the hardest of the three.
Vidalia, Georgia onions – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
New Jersey blueberries – about $1800 to Boston.