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It certainly isn’t that good, but here are your best bets for fresh produce loading opportunities in the Eastern Time Zone.
Florida
It is Florida hands down, but even here you are looking at multiple pickups and multiple drops in most cases.
Nearly 750 truckload equivalents of Florida tomatoes are being shipped weekly. This is mostly the mature greens, with much smaller volumes found with grape (cherry) and plum tomatoes.
Strawberries from the Plant City, FL area are averaging about 575 truckload equivalents a week. There are modest amounts of fresh grapefruit and oranges, with even smaller amounts of other citrus amounting to around 475 truckload equivalents weekly.
There also are lesser amounts of cabbage, sweet corn as well as a new crop of red potatoes just getting underway.
Florida produce shipments primarily from central and southern areas – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Port of Philadelphia
Chilean fruit arrivals by boat at Philadelphia are averaging around 750 truckloads a week. This consists mostly of table grapes although there are some peaches, plums and nectarines.
Michigan
Not much here except apples from the Grand Rapids area in the western part of the state, as well as some onions.
North Carolina
Sweet potatoes by shippers mostly in the Eastern part of the state are averaging over 200 truckloads a week.
California avocado shipments should hit 369 million pounds, a 70 percent increase over last season.
Unlike a year ago when shipments were limited primarily to the Western states, much wider distribution is possible, according to the California Avocado Commission.
The forecast for the big increase in shipments is attributed increased rains resulting in improved health of the trees and a better fruit set.
California avocado shipments remain relatively light, but will be increasing through March, with peak volume continuing from April through the summer, with smaller supplies lasting into September.
Despite a much larger crop, California avocado shipments will be going mainly to markets in California and the Western states. California avocado volume pales in comparison to shipments from Mexico, which is the primary supplier to two thirds of the U.S.
Global shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is using logistics and digital supply chain solutions from Blume Global for all motor carrier partners.
The transition to Blume Logistics began in North America in January.
Blume Logistics digitally connects Hapag-Lloyd’s network of motor-carrier partners, according to a news release. It covers everything from dispatch work orders to live tracking, invoicing and proof of delivery.
Hapag-Lloyd operates 231 container ships with a container capacity of 2.6 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), according to the release.
“Blume Logistics will help improve the quality of our door service for our customers including first- and last-mile visibility while enhancing the efficiencies of our motor carrier partners,” Uffe Ostergaard, president of Hapag-Lloyd’s North America Region, said in the release. “Our North American customers are asking for enhanced end-to-end shipment visibility to better manage their supply chains and by implementing this integrated cloud-based solution we will be able to offer that value-added service.”
While there is a strong labor market shoppers are looking to spend wisely, even though U.S. consumer confidence is high. These are some finding by McKinsey & Company.
The company found in its annual US Sentiment Survey of over 22,000 people that unemployment is at a historical low, wages are rising at their fastest rate since the onset of the recession, and consumption continues to grow at a steady pace.
To gain a clearer idea of how consumers in the region are thinking, September 2019 data from the survey, covering more than 4,500 consumers, was analyzed by McKinsey.
“U.S. results show that feelings of financial pressure are at their lowest levels since the recession, and few consumers cut back on spending,” the survey noted.
“Only 39 percent of consumers feel financial pressure today, compared with 77 percent in 2009; just 27 percent are cutting back on spending today, versus 63 percent during the recession.”
Additionally, even though consumers have no plans to cut back on spending, they are still price-sensitive and use multiple strategies—such as using coupons and shopping around to save money.
While thrifty, consumers are more often willing to trade up to more expensive, often premium, products: 11 percent of respondents today are willing to trade up, as opposed to just 7 percent in 2016.
In food, consumers are inclined to trade up in the fresh and ready-made-meal categories, such as dairy-free milk, fresh produce, and chilled meals.
In good news for premium brands, these consumers are happy with their choice, as 81 percent of respondents prefer the higher-priced product and believe it to be worth the extra money.
Millennials are particularly prone to trade up when considering all types of consumers. Strikingly, they are 2.5 times more likely than baby boomers to do so.
Good news for the produce industry is that another continuing trend is consumers’ increasing preference for healthier products. This trend is especially strong among top-tier consumers, with 20 pecent of them reporting buying more natural or organic products in the past 12 months, and 15 percent report buying more locally sourced products in that time period.
The survey also found that there is strong distrust of big-brand names where 70 percent of respondents believe large food companies put their own financial interests ahead of consumers’ interests, while only 46 percent believe this to be true of smaller food companies.
Also, consumers are taking an interest in the environmental impact of product packaging. Millennials tend to give this more this consideration as 71 percent take sustainable packaging attributes into account in their purchasing decisions, as opposed to just 57 pecent of baby boomers.
We are trudging through February as it is still weeks away before signs of spring produce volume starts to increase. However, you might finding some loading opportunities in the middle of the country. These states are in the Central Time Zone, except for Colorado (MST).
South Texas/Mexico
By far the most volume in this third of the country is the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas with crossings from Mexico. While there is some domestically grown product here such as grapefruit (about 60 truck loads a week) and oranges, there is little else except maybe some partial loads of cabbage in the Winter Garden District.
Otherwise, your best bet is with the distribution houses near the Texas/Mexico border.
Mexican tomatoes, easily led by vine ripes, are averaging nearly 1,100 truckload equivalents a week. Avocados are amounting to about 1,125 loads each week.
After this, volume is much lower with other commodities by comparison. There are about 650 truck loads of Mexican limes crossing the border each week. Other leading vegetables are bell peppers, strawberries, watermelons, cucumbers and broccoli, plus countless other products in much smaller volume.
South Texas produce -grossing about $3400 to Atlanta; $5700 to New York City.
Colorado
Colorado ranks second to Idaho in potato shipments with most volume coming out of the San Luis Valley, currently averaging over 700 truckloads per week.
San Luis Valley potatoes – grossing about $4300 to New York City.
Wisconsin
Central Wisconsin in the Stevens Point area ranks third in potato loadings and is now averaging close to 300 truck loads a week.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Houston.
Organic fruits and vegetables grew twice as fast as sales of conventional produce, according to a new study on 2019 retail organic sales.
With growth over 5 percent last year, retail organic produce sales compared with 2 percent growth for conventional fruits and vegetables. The study is a result of the 2019 Organic Produce Performance Report released by the Organic Produce Network and Category Partners.
Retail volume growth in 2019 of organic fruits and vegetables amounted to 4.6 percent, according to a news release, compared with less than 1 percent volume growth for conventional produce.
The report was created using Nielsen retail scan data covering total food sales and outlets in the U.S.
“Organic growth in retail produce departments continues to be strong,” Matt Seeley, CEO of the Organic Produce Network, said in the release. “Last year, sales of organic fruits and vegetables established a new record, hitting $5.8 billion in retail sales. The rate of growth has slowed slightly from previous years, but there is every reason to believe that the growth of organic fruits and vegetables will continue to outpace conventional products.”
The report showed that Northeast U.S. retail sales grew 6.3 percent, tops among all regions. At 5.7 percent, the West region showed the second best growth, followed by 4.7 percent growth in the South and 3 percent growth in the Midwest region.
A key to creating bigger future retail sales is broadening the range of organic commodities, Steve Lutz, senior vice president of Insights and Innovation at Category Partners, said in the release.
“What we see in the Nielsen data is that organic produce at retail is concentrated within fewer categories than conventional produce,“ Lutz said in the release. “The top 10 organic categories in produce drive nearly 70 percent of volume. These same categories contribute only 53 percent to total volume in conventional.”
The scan data indicated top performers for generating organic sales in 2019 were packaged salads and berries, with packaged salads accounting for almost 20 percent of total retail organic sales and the combined berry category (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry) adding another 15 percent.
Bananas, carrots and apples accounted for 41 percent of total organic volume.
“The top 10 organic categories drive 61 percent of total dollars versus only 38 percent percent in conventional,” Lutz said.
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BrightFarmsopened is largest operation recently, kicking off the first harvest of a 280,000-square-foot facility in Selinsgrove, Pa., with a capacity of two million pounds of fresh produce annually.
Giant stores stock BrightFarms lettucee and other leafy greens.
BrightFarms is donating the first harvest from the facility to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg, according to the release.
HaulProduce.com note: Two million pounds of fresh produce a year may be a drop in the bucket considering the total amount of fresh produce shipped annually. It equals about 50 trucks loads per year from this one operation. Over a million truck loads of fresh fruits and vegetables are shipped a year in the U.S. But greenhouse growing continues to expand in the U.S., as well as Mexico, Canada and elsewhere.
Canadian and U.S. greenhouse operations may have a slight negative affect on long haul trucking since these types of growing operation tend to ship locally, if not regionally. Mexican greenhouse operations on the other hand tend to be a part of load consolidations headed to the U.S. Many greenhouse facilities south of the border are U.S. company owned or financed.
Perhaps the biggest plus is greenhouses are much less susceptible to the whims of Mother Nature, thus providing more consistent, quality products.
January and February are two of the slowest months for fresh produce shipments, and while March begins to give hope of things to come it often is not much better.
Still, here is a round up of some of the best loading opportunities from the western states.
Arizona
West Mexico vegetable shipments through Nogales, AZ are typically one of the best locations for produce loads in the winter, but this year it’s not quite up to speed, thanks to weather factors in growing areas south of the border. Produce trucking rates are down 8 to 10 percent to most destinations, at least in part to the lower volume.
Multiple rains in November followed by another round about New Year’s hit vegetables such as cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and green bell peppers pretty hard. These weather events are reported to be more serious than damaging freezes in 2011-12-13. Currently around 850 truckload equivalents of cukes are being shipped weekly and nearly 600 truckload equivalents of bell peppers.
In the Yuma area of western Arizona, most of the nation’s lettuce is coming from here now. There are about 375 truckload equivalents of head lettuce and romaine a week being shipped from Yuma.
Mexican vegetables crossing through Nogales – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
Lettuce and other veggies from Yuma as well as the nearby Imperial Valley and Coachella Valley (the later two in the California desert) – grossing about $6200 to New York City.
California
California certainly is less than exciting from a produce hauling stand point right now. There is the previously mentioned desert areas, plus Oxnard is shipping some veggies, most notably celery, averaging about 400 truckload equivalents per week. The Bakersfield area is led by carrots with around 450 truckload equivalents a week.
Perhaps the most promising loads in the weeks ahead are with strawberries. South California volume now is very light, but there is the potential for record setting shipments from Easter (April 12) through the Fourth of July. Right now the primary strawberry loads are from Mexico through South Texas which are double the volume of California .
Carrots from the Bakersfield area – grossing about $3700 to Dallas.
Washington
Heaviest volume from the Pacific Time Zone is easily with apples, averaging about 2,750 truckloads each week. Storage sheds are mostly in the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys. Otherwise, there are onions and potatoes from Washington’s Columbia Basin and the adjacent Umatilla Basin in Oregon. There are over 800 truckloads of onions and about 360 truckloads of potatoes moving weekly from this area.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
Idaho
The state’s upper valley and Twin Falls areas are shipping about 1,750 truckloads of potatoes a week.
Idaho potatoes grossing – about $4500 to Atlanta.
Summary by North American Potato Market News
Expect fewer potato shipments from the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota this season.
North Dakota- Growers abandoned 15,000 acres of North Dakota’s 2019 potato crop. That is 1,000 acres more than the November estimate. In addition, USDA reduced its estimate of the state’s average yield to 350 cwt per acre from 355 cwt. That reduced the 2019 crop estimate to 20.30 million cwt, a 645,000 cwt decline. The 2019 crop is down 3.43 million cwt, or 14.4 percent, from the 2018 crop (largest percentage drop in the country). Some of the crop was compromised during harvest, which will result in additional storage losses.
Minnesota – Production is estimated at 18.04 million cwt. That is 665,000 cwt, or 3.6 percent less than Minnesota’s 2018 crop. Minnesota is the only state whose 2019 crop estimate was not adjusted in January. That is a major shift from recent years when USDA has made massive adjustments to the state’s crop estimate.
U.S. Fall Crop – The total U.S. fall crop was adjusted upwards by 439,000 cwt. which is just a 0.1 percent increase. Even with that, the total U.S. fall crop is down nearly 9 million cwt. compared to 2018, or 2.1 percent.
By Allen Lund Company
Allen Lund Company is proud to announce its fourth-year completion of Acts of Kindness totaling 86 good deeds for 2019. This tradition kicked off in 2016 to commemorate ALC’s 40th year in business and has only grown since. ALC’s 35 nationwide offices, support departments and corporate have devoted their time to some worthy causes and have surpassed goals this past year.
President of ALC, Eddie Lund commented, “I am very pleased with how our Acts of Kindness initiative has progressed over the last four years. By doing these purposeful acts, we are showing communities how grateful we are for their support which has always been important to my parents as well as promoting kindness to others. Encouraging philanthropy is a cornerstone for our company and we are thrilled to continue to see our employees getting involved with organizations that are meaningful to them and helping people that are in need.”
Some of the project’s offices were involved in included:
| The Cardinal Manning CenterALC corporate employees served food and engaged with individuals at the Cardinal Manning Center, a homeless shelter in Los Angeles, CA. It opened in 1955 and offers a comprehensive program for homeless men transitioning off the streets and into housing. |
| Gilda’s Club of MadisonALC Madison office served dinner to families at Gilda’s Club which is a cancer support organization that creates a community of free emotional support, cancer education, and hope for children and adults with any cancer diagnosis and those who care for them. |
| Great Cycle Challenge USARD Castro from ALC San Antonio participated in the Great Cycle Challenge USA riding 116.3 miles to fight kids’ cancer which is the largest killer of children from disease in the U.S. with over 15,700 children diagnosed with cancer every year and sadly, 38 children dying every week. Kids should be living life, not fighting for it. |
| We Care LAALC Los Angeles sales office gathered donations at headquarters and fed and clothed over 150 people of the LA homeless community. In addition, employees prepared 500 sack lunches, hygiene packets, and distributed clothing. |
| Kids’ Food BasketALC Grand Rapids office purchased items to put together 300 supper sacks for Kids’ Food Basket to help nourish children living at or near the poverty level. |
| Flood Support – Little RockThe ALC Little Rock office got together to help their community after the floods in June 2019. The office spent the day bagging up sandbags and donated water and Gatorade for people in need. |
- Wreaths Across America – Corporate, Boston, Phoenix
- Navidad en el Barrio – Corporate
- One80 Place – Charleston
- Therapeutic Riding Institute – Cincinnati
- Military Heroes 5/10K Run – Dallas
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation – Orlando
Allen Lund Company is proud to continue an impactful tradition. These acts of kindness are our way of giving back to the communities that have supported us over the years, as well as encourage ALC employees to give back their time.
About Allen Lund Company:
Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices and over 550 employees, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to arrange dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics, and an International Division licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF. If you are interested in joining the Allen Lund Company team, please click here.
Established in 1976, the Allen Lund Company was recognized by Food Logistics magazine as a 2019 Top 3PL & Cold Storage Provider for TransKool Solutions, Logistics Tech Outlook for our software division ALC Logistics as a 2018 Top 10 Freight Management Solution Providers, 2018 FL100+ Top Software and Technology Providers, 2017 Supply & Demand Chain Executive Top 100, 2017 Food Logistics 100+ Top Software and Tech Provider, a 2016 Top IT Provider by Inbound Logistics, 2015 Coca-Cola Challenger Carrier of the Year, 2015 Top Private Company in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal, 2015 Top 100+ Software and Technology Providers, 2015 Top 100 Logistics IT Provider by Inbound Logistics, a 2014 Great Supply Chain Partner, and was placed in Transport Topics’ “2014 Top 25 Freight Brokerage Firms.” The company manages over 365,000 loads annually, and received the 2013 “Best in Cargo Security Award.” In 2011, the company received the TIA 3PL Samaritan Award, and NASTC (National Association of Small Trucking Companies) named Allen Lund Company the 2010 Best Broker of the Year. More information is available at allenlund.com