Posts Tagged “feature”
Fresh citrus shipments as well as orange juice loadings have taken off in recent weeks as shoppers nationwide stock up on vitamin-C packed food and drink items.
California Citrus Mutual of Exeter, CA reports strong supplies of oranges and mandarins as demand increases. The organization notes California fresh citrus volume is capable of meeting consumer demand. Additionally, the Florida orange juice industry has ramped up production.
The U.S. citrus industry has experienced higher demand in the recent weeks for fresh oranges and mandarins due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While demand has started to slow from its peak, shipments are still up. Shipments to the foodservice industry has taken a massive hit, with lemons currently affected the most. However, overall volume for fresh citrus has improved because of consumer demand for nutritious products high in Vitamin C.
This increase comes at a challenging time for the U.S. citrus industry as it faces with citrus greening disease – which had a negative impact on California and Florida crop in past seasons, though the industry saw a slight comeback this year.
Orange juice leaps in sales Although markets are experiencing extreme downturns on average, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shows that frozen orange juice concentrates are performing better than ever before. Soaring 25% in the past month, the market for orange juice is up in a big way.
According to Nielsen data on retail sales of orange juice, provided by the Florida Department of Citrus, frozen orange juice sales have jumped 27 percent.
The risk of having Alzheimer’s dementia in older adults may be reduced by eating more strawberries, according to researchers at Rush University, Chicago.
A team led by Puja Agarwal analyzed data collected from 295 people — ages 58 to 98 and dementia-free at the start of the study — using food questionnaires and neurological evaluations as part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project between 2004 and 2018, according to a news release.
The association between frequent strawberry consumption and decreased Alzheimer’s dementia emerged and information on the link was published in the December 2019 issue of Nutrients.
Researchers said there is a potential link between disease symptoms and more oxidative stress and inflammation. Strawberries appear to have anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties, possibly due to high content of flavonoids and vitamin C. Also, animal studies have shown strawberries improve neuronal function, cognition and some motor outcomes, according to the release.
Strawberry intake ranged from zero to two servings a week in the Rush study. Researcher found for every single serving increase in strawberry consumption, there was a 24 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer’s dementia.
Overall, participants eating one or more servings of strawberries per week had a 34 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia when compared to those consuming none or less than once per month.
California strawberry shipments in the Salinas-Watsonville area kicked off at the end of March, in time to meet increased demand for berries spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Volumes of California strawberries will be plentiful this season, according to a news release from California Giant Berry Farms, Watsonville.
Nick Chappell, director of retail sales for the berry company, said in the release that Oxnard harvest will peak by mid-April and Santa Maria strawberry volumes are “continuing to increase with volumes unlike we have seen in years.”
“Not only are we about to have momentous supply for our partners during a time of increased retail demand, but all regions are producing exceptional quality to kick-start the spring season.”
Sales data from IRI show that berry category sales for the week ending March 15 saw an increase of almost 32 percent from the same period in 2019.
California Giant started an e-mail marketing campaign in late March targeting its most engaged consumers — a.k.a the “Berry Squad” — in the company’s database.
“With the uncertainties and difficulties families are currently facing, we wanted to offer an incentive and support to shoppers that are looking to stock up on fresh, nutritious berries on their grocery runs,” Chappell said in the release.
Digital connectivity and communities are becoming more important as consumers limit contact with others because of the virus. Marketing Manager Morgan Maitoza said a recent customer response statement to consumers and trade customers received a high “open rate” of 43%.
“While routines and realities look very different for families across the nation at this time, our goal is to continue to connect with our shoppers, provide helpful, relatable and comforting content and attainable recipes with ingredients and pantry staples shoppers may already have in their own homes, while adding in the sweetness, diversity and nutritional benefits of berries,” Maitoza said in the release.
In April, California Giant will have a new promotion focusing on heavy volume periods with a “Back to the Basics” theme, as consumers spend more time at home and find comfort in food, according to the release.
Ventura County strawberries and vegetables – grossing $8000 to New York City.
Vidalia sweet onion shipments should be good as the season gets officially underway April 16.
The official pack date is determined each year by The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
Vidalia onions represent about 40 percent of the U.S. sweet onion market and are shipped to every state.
The determined pack date is when growers, packers and shippers are allowed to start selling and moving their Vidalia onions, according to a news release.
“As the keeper of the official trademark for our state vegetable, we are proud of the reputation Vidalia onions have earned around the world by both renowned chefs and home cooks,” state agriculture commissioner Gary W. Black said in the release.
The mild, juicy onion is hand-cultivated by 60 registered growers in 20 southeastern Georgia counties. It’s available for a short period of time each year, mainly spring and summer.
The pack date is determined by soil and weather conditions during the growing season. The committee voted unanimously for the April 16 date, according to the release.
“We are going to have a strong harvest this year,” Aries Haygood, newly elected committee chairman, said in the release. He said 9,400 acres of Vidalia onions were planted for the season.
The committee will continue its Sweet Life marketing campaign launched in 2019 to reach home cooks across the country who enjoy cooking and entertaining.
The Vidalia trademark is owned by the state of Georgia because of the Vidalia Onion Act of 1986.
To be considered a Vidalia onion, the vegetables must be cultivated in the South Georgia soil from a Granex seed and packed and sold on or after the official pack date each year.
REUS, Spain — A recent INC-funded study, published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, showed that a high intake of nuts may help protect the elderly from cognitive decline.
A team of researchers examined whether a diet high in nuts might help protect against age-related cognitive decline over a three-year period.
A total of 119 participants aged 65 and over with dementia were selected from the InCHIANTI cohort, a representative population-based study of elderly residents of Chianti, Italy. Participants were selected based on their nut intake: non-nut consumers and regular nut consumers (2.9 g/day).
Nut exposure was measured at the beginning of the study with a validated food frequency questionnaire or with an analytical tool for the characterization of phenolic compounds. In addition, cognitive decline was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination test.
Researchers found that, from 119 subjects, 38 participants experienced cognitive decline, 28 from the non-nut consumers group and 10 from the nut consumers group. Nut consumption estimated either by the dietary marker or by the urinary marker model was in both cases associated with lower cognitive decline.
“The use of a panel of metabolites provides accurate and complementary information on nut exposure and reinforces the results obtained using dietary information,” states Prof. Andrés-Lacueva, ICREA Academia at the University of Barcelona, Group leader of CIBERFES on Frailty and Healthy Aging and principal investigator of the study.
The study was supported by the INC.
About the International Nut & Dried Fruit Council
The INC is the international umbrella organization for the nut and dried fruit industry. Its members include more than 800 nut and dried fruit sector companies from over 80 countries. INC membership represents over 85 percent of the world’s commercial “farm gate” value of trade in nuts and dried fruit. The INC’s mission is to stimulate and facilitate sustainable growth in the global nut and dried fruit industry. It is the leading international organization on health, nutrition, statistics, food safety, and international standards and regulations regarding nuts and dried fruit.
By Ted Kreis – Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, Communications
For the first time all year, fresh potato shipments from the Red River Valley are meeting or exceeding last year’s numbers. Shipments had been running at about two-thirds of last year’s pace until the pandemic broke and consumers abandoned restaurants for eating at home.
Because of large crop losses last fall, prices for red and yellow potatoes from the valley have been higher all year which has slowed shipments to extend the shipping season accordingly. But in mid-March fresh shipments from the Red River Valley exceeded last year for the first time all season. This past week shipments were up nearly 20 percent compared to last year, all this as supplies dwindle in the Red River Valley.
Meanwhile, there has been an opposite effect on the frozen potato market which is highly dependent on foodservice business, which includes restaurants. With restaurant business mostly disappearing with the exception of drive-thru business, stockpiles of frozen fries is backing up causing huge cuts in 2020 contracted acres and much uncertainty going forward. This could also have a trickledown effect on the fresh market this fall if russet supplies in the Northwest are diverted to fresh.
In the U.S., processors are cutting, eliminating or delaying contracts but its not just happening here, this is a worldwide problem. In Western Europe, several potato processing units are shutting down totally or partially. Throughout the European northwest, the industry is calling for a reduction in planting areas as it now expects a huge surplus of fries in storage. One estimate is that the Dutch potato sector has 1 million metric tons of surplus processing potatoes at the current time. In France, an estimated 500,000 tons of potatoes cannot be processed.
We have never seen anything happen to the entire world like what is happening now so there is no playbook or roadmap to economic recovery. However one thing is certain, the world will always have to be fed, and potatoes will help lead the way. We just don’t know how that will look.
(This article appeared in Potato Bytes, an online publication by the NPPGA)
A global avocado network with a partnership to market South African fruit to Europe, China and other Asian markets, including China and eventually the U.S., is underway by Mission Produce Inc. of Oxnard, CA.
Mission Produce is partnering with South African exporter Core Fruit and ZZ2, which will “offer its production, packing and ecosystem creation know-how together with its avocado technical knowledge, resource base, local networks, nursery trees, packing facilities and it’s association with Criterion Africa Partners who have access to significant land holdings,” according to a news release from Mission Produce.
The partnership, known as Mission South Africa, plans to establish regional relationships with growers.
“The Mission Produce-ZZ2 relationship is a strong combination and demonstrates our commitment to expanding globally and leading the avocado industry,” Mission Produce President and CEO Steve Barnard said in the release.
“Southern Africa is an ideal source because of the region’s location, fruit quality and access to Europe and Asia,” Barnard said in the release.
The partnership is expected to add value to growers and assist in developing the avocado production potential of the region, according to the release, with a rapid expansion of Mission’s “vertical integration model in an advantageous supply window,” accord to the release.
Banana imports from South America are expected to remain steady as South America has had good weather, helping to offset cooler temperatures that have slowed Mexican banana shipments.
Oke USA Fruit Co. of West Bridgewater, MA reports good supplies with steady volume.
Earl’s Organic Produce of San Francisco notes cool temperature has affected production along the central west coast of Mexico, slowing growth and lowering yields. However, warmer weather is not improving the situation.
Organics Unlimited Inc. of San Diego points out Mexican banana production typically slows during the winter. Yet the cooler than normal temperatures in Colima resulted in harvest delays. Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica have experienced similar problems.
Dole Food Co. of Westlake Village, CA sees good volume for all of 2020, point out it has an exceptional worldwide shipping and logistics system allowing it to provide bananas the year around. While one region may have adverse weather, another is usually in good shape since it harvest bananas throughout Latin America, including Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador.
As examples, Dole point to its organic banana production in Ecuador and Peru where volume has been steady.
Ports of the Delaware river (Wilmington, Philadelphia and Chester) are called instead of New York where the banana trade used to take place. In the 1980s, Chiquita and Dole relocated their facilities to Wilmington, which created a significant cluster of refrigerated import activities with specialized terminals, on-dock and inland refrigerated warehouses, and labor trained to handle these types of goods.
A similar pattern applies on the West Coast where Hueneme and San Diego are used instead of Los Angeles and on the Gulf Coast with Gulfport, the dominant facility of the range that replaced New Orleans when United Fruits relocated its facilities.
This appeared in April 2020 10-4 Magazine. Who would think we would end up like this… There is connection between us being lazy and blind and the current state of affair….
—–
We have been told that manufacturing is out of style. We have been told we can import produce from abroad. We have been told our trucks are bad for the air we breathe. We have been told diesel fumes will bring the end of the human race. We have been told that professional drivers, with their blood-shot eyes, are misfits and undesirables. We have been told automated trucks are the only way to go. We have been told all these lies. The truth is this – if it weren’t for this tired and humiliated truck driver (and so many others) that people flip the bird at for staying in the left lane just a little longer so he doesn’t cut off someone’s mother or wife messaging about empty shelves, we would be living in apocalyptic hell already now. But we are not – yet – because his old school (banned) diesel engine relentlessly pulls that cool box back and forth across the country, bringing the Midwest fresh produce from California and then meat back in a 28-hour straight shot. And, that dedicated driver is not even asking for a raise on the rate (even though all truckers deserve it) – he is just asking you to stay positive and strong and watch out for your elderly neighbors. We will be okay if we stick together and do the right thing. We will git ‘er dun because THAT is the Spirit of the American Trucker! God Bless.”
California avocado shipments should experience a huge rebound this year with 369 million pounds forecast. This is about a 70 percent increase over 2019.
Still, California is a small player compared to the volume out of Mexico. While some California avocados are shipped to the East Coast, the vast amount goes to markets in the Western states. Last year, with a small crop, most destinations were to markets in California.
The California Avocado Commission of Irvine reports early-season volume has slightly exceeded projections. Peak loadings should occur from April through July and continue through Labor Day.
Some growers started harvesting in mid January due to strong markets and their big crops, with others starting in February.
Index Fresh Inc. of Riverside, CA plans to have good volume into September.
Calavo Growers Inc. of Santa Paula, CA also had an early start. Two years ago the company was hit harder than most by fires in groves as well as a heat wave.
Another reason California growers have started shipping sooner was due less volume this year from Mexico.
Mission Produce Inc. of Oxnard, CA started a month earlier this season than originally planned.
Eco Farms of Temecula, CA got off to a slow start in January, but loadings picked up in February.
Henry Avocado Corp. of Escondido, CA was shipping light volume in February, but shipments picked up in March, and the company will be full capacity from April to July, before starting to taper off in August.
The company has some spring and summer fruit going to customers in the East, but most of its fruit stays on the West Coast.
The Giumarra Cos. of Los Angeles has two California packinghouses, one in Escondido and one in Ventura and is shipping from both facilities.
Southern California avocados and citrus – grossing about $6400 to New York City.