Posts Tagged “feature”
The world’s heaviest mango has recently been found in Colombia, weighing in at 4.24 kilograms or 9.36 pounds and was certified as an official Guinness World Records title.
Colombian farmers, Germán Orlando Novoa Barrera and Reina Maria Marroquín managed to break a record after growing the mango in Guayatá, on the San Martín farm in the Boyacá area, according to the Guinness World Records website.
The previous record was held by a mango found in the Philippines that weighed 3.435 kilograms or 7.57 pounds in 2009.
“Our goal with this Guinness World Records title is to show to the world that in Colombia we are humble, hardworking people who love the countryside and that the land that is cultivated with love produces great fruits,” Germán was reported as saying.
“It is an award and a recognition of the effort and dedication to the Guayatuno countryside, and the love for nature that our parents passed down to us,” he also was reported saying.
After being documented for the record, the family celebrated by sharing and eating the entire mango.
The family said it was delicious though they made a mold out of it to make a replica and donate it to the city to be recorded for historical purposes.
Peru is the world’s leading exporter of blueberries and volume continues to grow.
Blueberry Producers of Peru (Proarandanos) has forecasted the volume of organic blueberry exports will double during the 2021-2022 season.
Total blueberry exports are estimated to total over 200,000 tons with organic exports reaching 14,000-15,000 tons, up from 7,500 tons last season.
The Association of Exporters (ADEX) has estimated organic blueberry exports will increase 220 percent, as this projection considers shipments for last season standing at 4,000 tons.
With the estimated growth rate, Peru would export 12,800 tons. While export items don’t distinguish between organic and conventional, it is difficult to have a reliable record. The only way to have a reliable record is to gather information from each blueberry company.
According to Proarandanos, the growth in both conventional and organic blueberry exports is due to the productivity, increase in the cultivated area in which they increased by 6,178 acres, for a total of 3,707 acres now.
Peru’s blueberry harvest began in May and will conclude in March 2022, with the largest volumes being exported from August to December.
California is a big force in the U.S. onion market.
According to a report from University of California, Davis, California is the largest onion producer (including fresh and processed) in the U.S. and is the only state to produce both spring and summer-harvested onions.
In 2015, the report said California produced 31% of the nation’s total onion crop.
About 16% of California onions are spring harvested, and the state produces 42% of the nation’s spring harvested onion crop.
About half of California onions are grown for the fresh market, and about half for processing, according to the report.
The proportion of spring, summer, fresh and processing onions tends to be stable, according to the report.
Onions are grown throughout California.
In a recent census, the counties with the top onion acreage were Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Siskiyou, and San Joaquin, with over a third of the state’s acreage located in Fresno County, according to the report.
The high desert region of Antelope Valley in Los Angeles County and the Salinas Valley also include some fresh market onion acreage, the report said.
In 2020, truck onion shipments from California’s Central Valley totaled 339.9 million pounds, up 2% from 33 million pounds in 2019 and up 12% from 304.8 million pounds in 2015. Shipments were recorded in every month in 2020 from California’s Central Valley, with peak shipments in June, July and August.
In 2019, shipments of California’s Central Valley onion truck shipments accounted for 7.5% of total U.S. onion truck volume. That was up slightly from 7.4% in 2019 and down slightly from 7.7% of total U.S. onion truck shipments in 2015.
Truck onion shipments from California’s Imperial Valley totaled 144.9 million pounds in 2020, up 5% from 138 million pounds in 2019 and up 22% from 119.1 million pounds in 2015. May was the peak onion shipment month for California’s Imperial Valley, with shipments starting in May and ending in June.
In the season-to-date truck shipment report through May 15 this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 66.8 million pounds shipped, down slightly from 68.1 million pounds the same time a year ago.
Imperial Valley onion shipments accounted for 3.2% of total U.S. onion truck shipments, up from 2.9% in 2019 and 3% in 2015.
Southern California’s onion truck shipments in 2020 totaled 16.1 million pounds, down 43% compared with 27.9 million pounds in 2019 and down 85% from 110.5 million pounds in 2015.
Truck shipments from the region were active from January through May, with peak shipments in January. Southern California onion truck shipments accounted for 0.3% of total U.S. onion truck shipments, down from 0.6% in 2019 and lower than 2.8% in 2015, according to the USDA.
With Chilean clementines and lemons already in market, and navels and mandarins on the way, the Chilean Citrus Committee of ASOEX has released an updated season forecast.
Clementine volumes, originally expected to increase by seven percent to 55,000 tons, are now projected to jump to 59,000 tons, a 14% increase over 2020. Export volumes of lemons, navels and mandarins remain in line with the first 2021 forecast (98,000, 89,000 and 145,000 tons, respectively). With a total citrus forecast of 391,000 tons, Chile expects to ship roughly 85% of all volume to the U.S. market.
As of early July, Chile had exported 8,142 tons (519,369 boxes) of clementines, totaling 40,040 tons (2,541,962 boxes), up 11% over same time last season, with 98% of the volume being sent to the U.S. (39,392 tons; 2,500,892 boxes). Of the volume shipped to the U.S., 69% was destined for the East Coast (27,315 tons; 1,736,608 boxes) and 31% for the West Coast (12,077 tons; 764,284 boxes).
Navel shipments are steadily increasing, with the largest week of exports was expected in the 2nd week of July. Chile shipped a total of 6,595 tons of navels the previous week, with 5,534 tons (84%) destined for North America. Lemon exports have also been steady and strong, with 11,476 tons (52%) heading to North America. The first mandarin shipments were recorded in early July, with the entire volume (140 tons/8,767 boxes) destined for the U.S.
Good Chilean Citrus volume will continue through October.
Hemp is getting a lot of attention from growers in Florida.
The Sunshine state started issuing licenses for growing hemp in April 2020, and by February 2021 there were 35,000 acres registered, with $270 million in income projected for the coming year, according to WCJB News in Gainesville.
Within the next few years, hemp farming in Florida is projected to grow to about half the size of the state’s citrus industry,” writes Regan McCarthy on the website of Miami’s WFSU Public Media, part of Florida State University. “Much of that growth is driven by CBD production.”
McCarthy quotes Florida agricultural commissioner Nikki Fried, who said, “At this moment Florida has 22,078 licensed acres of hemp cultivation after just seven months.
This acreage is very similar to three of Florida’s key crops—tomatoes, watermelon, and snap peas—and is double of what the state has in production for strawberries. (Note that acreage rose from 22,078 to 35,000 in about a month.)
In many cases, hemp has replaced permanent crops in Florida, including citrus and blueberries.
“We’re talking about citrus groves that weren’t producing,” says Florida cannabis director Holly Bell, “so those are being dug up and the land is being repurposed to bring in revenue and create new jobs.”
Some blueberry growers who were struggling as a result of increased competition from Mexico have also turned to hemp.
Hemp has an enormous number of uses, such as for textiles and even for paper, but markets are limited by a lack of facilities for producing these products.
“Textiles and fiber can be made from the pith,” says Frederick Schilling, a partner in Klersun, LLC, a company that specializes in hemp-derived extracts.
“That will eventually increase once the infrastructure is built out to support those products.”
He foresees this occurring in three to five years.
Infrastructure will, in part, determine the future of the cannabis industry. So will legislation. The third factor is business acumen and integrity.
“As with any emergent industry, there were bad actors doing things that were giving the industry a bad name,” says Chris Bourne, Schilling’s partner. “Fortunately, a lot of those folks have been weeded out.”
Some analysts also believe the industry has lost much of its “wildcat” mentality and is now more comparable to mature packaged-goods companies.
Mexican tomato exports will set a new record in 2021.
The USDA reports Mexico is already broke a record in 2020, with the value of shipments increasing by 20.5 percent and volume increasing 5.1 percent over the previous year.
Between January and March 2021 tomato exports totaled $829 million reflecting an increase of 5.1 percent year-over-year, with almost all of those shipments destined to the U.S.
Restaurant and hotel industry re-openings in the U.S. and Mexico, plus the renegotiation of the Tomato Suspension Agreement, and higher export prices have led to more tomato plantings.
Tomatoes already were the most exported agricultural product by Mexico, with a constant growth in recent years.
In terms of volume, Mexican tomato exports were 579,000 tons, reflecting an increase of 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
The USDA estimates Mexican tomato exports for the 2021-2022 season (October-September) will total 1.83 million tons, 2 percent higher than the previous cycle. While for the 2020-2021 season, the USDA estimates exports will be 1.8 million tons.
Following fewer plantings and shipments a year ago due to the pandemic, it appears New York state vegetable shippers are back on track with more normal volume this season.
Turek Farms, King Ferry, NY reports volume was down about 20% in 2020, but this year, more normal volumes are seen.
Located in the Finger Lakes region, Turek also grows and ships broccoli, Brussels sprouts and a few other items. By mid-July, loadings of cabbage, summer squash, and sweet corn were underway.
Reeves Farms of Baldwinsville, increased vegetable acres by about 5%, slowly as the market demands, but like everyone else is planning no significant increases in acreage. The company begin picking sweet corn the second week of July 10. Summer squash started a in mid June 16. Cucumber shipments were launched in late June 27.
Torrey Farms of Elba in western New York has about the usual amount of cabbage, and grow in a five-county region. By mid July Torrey Farms was shipping green beans, zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers and cabbage. Harvesting cabbage continues into November, and some of it will go into storage, possibly into December. The firm will ship cabbage through May.
Besides the storage crop, the new crop of onions just got underway a few days ago and continue into October.
On the North Fork of Long Island, Satur Farms of Cutchogue has a cold storage and shipping facilities in nearby Calverton. Satur Farms has its usual mix and varieties of leafy greens. The volume is similar to past seasons.
Minkus Family Farms of New Hampton, started
shipping onions at the beginning of August.
A compound in avocados could lead to improvements in leukemia treatment, according to a study by the University of Guelph of Ontario.
The compound, avocatin B, targets an enzyme known as VCLAD that scientists have identified for the first time as being critical to cancer cell growth, Dr. Paul Spagnuolo, Department of Food Science said.
The study focused specifically on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This form largely affects adults over the age of 65, and fewer than 10 percent of patients survive five years after diagnosis.
Dr. Spagnuolo explained that leukemia cells have higher amounts of VLCAD involved in their metabolism.
“The cell relies on that pathway to survive,” he said, “This is the first time VLCAD has been identified as a target in any cancer.”
After screening various nutraceutical compounds in search of one that would inhibit the enzyme, the research team found that avocatin B provided the best results.
The compound had previously been researched for its potential in diabetes prevention and weight management. Now, Spagnulo sees a potential usage in leukemia patients.
“VLCAD can be a good marker to identify patients suitable for this type of therapy. It can also be a marker to measure the activity of the drug,” he said. “That sets the stage for the eventual use of this molecule in human clinical trials.”
This could answer a call for less toxic drug options in the treatment of AML. Currently, around half of patients with AML over 65 will enter palliative care while others will go through chemotherapy.
REEDLEY, CA — Fruit World, a family-owned, grower-shipper of organic and conventional fruit and the largest California grower of organic Thomcord grapes, started shipping this popular variety at the end of July, with good volumes available from mid-August through early-October. Thomcord seedless grapes are a hybrid of Concord and Thompson Seedless grapes, with the rich, full Concord flavor and the tender skin and seedless qualities of the Thompson.
Seven years since planting, Fruit World’s Thomcord vines are now fully mature and heavy with luscious purple clusters. “The recent warm weather in California’s Central Valley is rapidly increasing the color and brix, so we’ll begin harvesting 7-10 days earlier than last year,” said CJ Buxman, co-founder of Fruit World.
Fruit World Thomcord grapes are shipped in 10 x 2 lb recyclable and compostable paper totes, with bright, colorful graphics. The company will also be shipping 20 x 1 lb clamshells.
In 2020, Fruit World shipped their organic Thomcord grapes across the United States, in addition to air freighting to customers in Asia. “While we anticipate this year’s crop to be heavier than in 2020, last year we sold out in mid-September,” Brianca Kaprielian, co-founder of Fruit World added. “We encourage retailers to contact us early to confirm their orders and meet the high consumer demand for this popular variety.”
In 2020, Fruit World shipped their organic Thomcord grapes across the United States, in addition to air freighting to customers in Asia. “While we anticipate this year’s crop to be heavier than in 2020, last year we sold out in mid-September,” Kaprielian added.
About Fruit World:
Fruit World is a fresh produce company with generations of history. Fruit World grows and ships the most flavorful fruit in California—including organic and conventional citrus, organic grapes, organic stone fruit, and more.
Possibly the most modern wholesale produce market in the U.S., the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market recently celebrated 10 years in business.
In 2011, the market opened the doors at 6700 Essington Ave., welcoming buyers to its fully enclosed, fully refrigerated 686,000-square-foot facility, according to a news release.
The market is home to 19 wholesale produce businesses that employ hundreds of people in both union and non-union positions and donate more than 2 million pounds of fresh produce to local charities every year.
“We are proud to pave the way as a leader in cold chain management, product safety, staging, loading, security and recycling,” market general manager Mark Smith said in the release. “In addition to establishing the highest global standards for distributing produce, our goal is to divert as much waste from the landfill as we possibly can. Through anaerobic digestion and other environmentally friendly practices, we’ve reduced our waste stream by about 80% and continue to focus on that last 20%.”
Three market business leaders weighed in on what the market means to them:
- Tracie Levin, general manager of M. Levin & Co. Inc.:
“We couldn’t have asked for a better facility to showcase our produce. The bright, clean (and of course ‘cool’) and spacious market that has become our home has been great for the merchants and all of the customers who shop at the PWPM.”