Posts Tagged “feature”
By Pacific Trellis Fruit/Dulcinea Farms
Los Angeles, California – For the 2019 season, Mexican grape exports are estimated to be up 34 pecent over 2018. “Pacific Trellis Fruit has been among the Top 5 importers from the Latin American region for several years now and we are well-positioned to leverage that improved outlook for our retail partners,” comments General Manager Josh Leichter, and explains: “We are the grower and shipper for the majority of our conventional grape volume. The remainder is sourced from partners we have worked with for 10 or more years – so we are well-positioned to service our customers during the Mexico import season.”
While conventionally grown grapes still make up the majority of sales, organic varieties continue to gain sales and market share. Several years ago, Pacific Trellis Fruit started developing their own organic program. In 2019 this program will yield 200,000 boxes of organic red, green and black grapes.
To ensure premium quality and steady supplies, dedicated Pacific Trellis staff is on the ground the entire time. Explains Earl McMenamin, Mexico Program Manager at Pacific Trellis Fruit: “We own the value chain end-to-end, from sourcing and growing to quality assurance and shipping. We can offer maximum control – and, with it, the ability to design custom programs that make sense for any customer. Customer service is essential for our success, and the success of our partners.”
Leichter added: “It’s fair to say we know the ins and outs of the import grape business. Simply put, we have deep expertise and long-standing relationships in Mexico and other regions. That experience allows us to build strong programs around guaranteed volumes – for conventional and organic grapes.”
About Pacific Trellis Fruit / Dulcinea Farms:
Established in 1999, Pacific Trellis Fruit is one of North America’s top year-round growers, packers and marketers of premium fresh fruit, including grapes, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, pears, and citrus. With the acquisition of Dulcinea Farms in 2014, Pacific Trellis Fruit added PureHeart® mini seedless watermelons, Tuscan Style™ Cantaloupe and SunnyGold® yellow mini seedless watermelon amongst other premium melons to its portfolio. Pacific Trellis Fruit is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA – with sales offices in Fresno, CA, Gloucester, NJ and Nogales, AZ
Increased California cherry shipments are expected, especially compared to the 2018 season.
In 2018, cherry volume statewide totaled only 3.96 million cartons, thanks primarily to lousy weather conditions, compared to 9.56 million cartons in 2017. This year’s total volume may end between 10 and 11 million cartons. If so, that would be a new record for shipments.
2018 was highlighted by an early freeze, followed by heat later in the year.
Grower Direct Marketing LLC in Stockton, CA has noted an excellent bloom on cherry trees, preceded by chill hours and plenty of moisture, leading to plenty of optimism in 2019. Harvest and shipments started a week ago.
Loadings will continue well into June. About 60 percent of the volume will occur in May, with the balance taking place the first half of June. Heaviest shipments are not expected to occur until around May 20th.
At this moment, the cherry crop seems to have plenty of potential to be large, if not very large, in volume,” he said.
“The winter seemed to have brought enough chilling hours for early varieties grown at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley — varieties such as royal tioga, brooks, tulare and coral. However, lingering rainy and colder-than-normal weather is pushing most varieties to start the harvest about a week to 10 days later than normal.”
Bing cherries in the northern region looked “very good,” Ilic said.
“However, not exactly knowing what the weather will be for the next 60 or so days, will always make it a difficult thing to predict a cherry crop,” he said.
Rich Sambado, sales manager at Linden, Calif.-based Primavera Marketing, voiced optimism about the crop.
“As far as potential cropload, the industry will not have much of a feel until early April. At this point, there is concern about crop set, but all the while there is optimism in the air,” he said.
An increase in fruit imports of South America fruit is expected by The Port of Virginia due to the recent completion of the USDA’s Southeast In-Transit Cold Treatment Pilot program.
“We’re the U.S. East Coast’s leading vegetable exporter, and this designation positions us to achieve the same success with imported fruit,” John Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, said in a news release. “This is important for logistics and supply chain managers importing agricultural products because it means this cargo will get to its market more quickly.”
Through the USDA program, which the port joined in October 2017, refrigerated fruit from South America can enter the port. The program includes containers of blueberries, citrus and grapes from Peru; blueberries and grapes from Uruguay; and apples, blueberries and pears from Argentina, according to the release.
The program allows South American fruit to enter more ports in the U.S., following a two-week cold treatment process to guard against pests. Before the program started in 2013, fruit from certain export markets were limited to Northeast ports, according to the release. From there, they were distributed to southern states.
The new port of entry will cut transportation costs and increase fruit shelf life, according to the release.
Other participants in the USDA program include ports in Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Port Everglades, Fla.; Palmetto, Fla., Jacksonville, Fla.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Savannah, Ga.
Florida’s biggest shipping season of the year is springtime and 2019 apparently is shaping up as a good one. Produce shipments appear on track for a good volume year, rebounding somewhat since the Sunshine State felt the wrath of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Meanwhile Florida produce rates are showing a significant increase, ranging from a 19 percent increase to Baltimore to a 34 percent increase to Philadelphia.
During this period of around 6 to 8 weeks Florida spring shipments provide important volume for domestic volume with items ranging from blueberries, to potatoes, cabbage, squash, peaches and watermelon before the summer shipping season gets underway in northern and Midwestern states.
The spring of 2019 in Florida indicates the 2019 season should see higher volume than a year ago. However, this spring is not expected to achieve the shipping volumes of seasons prior to Hurricane Irma. At the same time fall and winter crops in Florida will continue through May. Among these commodities are tomatoes, sweet corn, bell peppers and citrus.
Florida weather has been mostly good for growing produce this year. Meanwhile Florida farmers have 5,200 acres to blueberries; 8,600 acres with cabbage; 12,000 acres with peppers; 28,700 acres with potatoes; 39,000 acres with sweet corn; 22,000 acres with watermelon, and 28,000 acres with tomatoes, making it one of the top 5 produce shipping states.
Florida is about even with California concerning fresh tomato shipments, with both two states combined providing nearly two-thirds of the nation’s shipments.
Although no serious truck shortages have been reported, the increasing vegetable volume is contributing is rate increases that are up around 25 percent in the past week or so.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $3300 to New York City.
Irvington, NY – BrightFarms, the No. 1 brand of locally grown packaged salads, has announced plans for national expansion with new sustainable greenhouse farms in New England (Central MA), New York (Hudson Valley) and North Carolina. The new greenhouses will each be 280,000 square feet and sit on 20 acres of land. Each greenhouse is expected to create around 55 full-time “green-collar” jobs for residents, offering competitive wages and benefits.
The three new greenhouses will further the brand’s presence and add to BrightFarm’s network of local and sustainable farms across the Mid-Atlantic and into the South. The company currently operates greenhouses in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, supplying major retailers in a dozen major metro markets.
In order to more rapidly meet retailer demands for locally grown produce, BrightFarms will also explore acquisitions and partnerships with existing greenhouse growers in each of the new markets.
“We are committed to transforming the produce category to provide the freshest, tastiest and most responsibly grown produce,” said Paul Lightfoot, CEO of BrightFarms. “Consumers are placing high demand for locally grown, fresh salads. With local greenhouses across the Mid-Atlantic and growing, BrightFarms is well positioned to meet these demands for national retailers.”
BrightFarms plans to break ground on the new greenhouses by year’s end, with production starting in the spring of 2020. The greenhouses will each produce more than 2 million pounds of fresh, leafy salad greens and herbs per year while using an estimated 80 percent less water, 90 percent less land and 95 percent less shipping fuel than West Coast farms.
BrightFarms’ national expansion follows the announcement of its successful Series D financing, where the company raised $55 million, and the addition its new CFO, Steve Campione. Campione’s substantial experience in raising capital and making strategic acquisitions will support the company’s aggressive expansion.
About BrightFarms
BrightFarms grows local produce, nationwide. BrightFarms finances, builds, and operates local greenhouse farms in partnership with supermarkets, cities, capital sources, and vendors, enabling it to quickly and efficiently eliminate time, distance, and costs from the food supply chain. BrightFarms’ growing methods, a model for the future of scalable, sustainable local farming, uses far less energy, land and water than long distance, centralized and field grown agriculture. Fast Company recognizes BrightFarms as “One of World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” and one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Food” in the world.
Exports of American apples topped $1 billion in 2018, 4 percent greater than in 2017. This is 5 times the value of U.S. apple imports. Meanwhile, there has been a huge increase in strawberry imports.
Total U.S. apple exports by value equaled $1.01 billion in 2019, an increase of 4 percent from $969 million in 2017 and 10 percent higher than $920 million in 2016, according to the USDA.
Mexico was the top export market for U.S. apples, taking 28 percent of U.S. apple exports by value. Canada and India were nearly tied for second place among export markets, each accounting for about 16 percent of total apple exports by value.
U.S. imports of apples totaled $198 million in 2018, off 15 percent from $233 million in 2017 and down 26 percent from $268 million in 2016. Chile was the top supplier of imported apples in 2018, supplying 44 percent of the total apple import value. After Chile, other top global suppliers to the U.S. were New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina.
Strawberry Imports
American imports of strawberries have soared over the past 5 years, according to trade statistics.
USDA stats show imports of fresh/frozen strawberries have climbed from $449 million in 2013 to $762 million in 2018.
That is an increase of about 70 percent over those 5 years. Trade numbers from 2018 show peak strawberry imports were recorded in February, followed in rank by March, January, and December.
In 2018, Mexico accounted for 93 percent of total U.S. strawberry imports, followed by Chile with 3 percent and 1 percent from Canada. That was similar to 2013 when Mexico represented 95 percent of U.S. strawberry imports.
Meanwhile, USDA trade data reveals U.S. fresh strawberry exports in 2018 totaled $379 million, up 1 percent from 2017.
The Mexican grape harvest gets underway in early May.
Mexican grape growers expect to ship 22 million cartons of grapes this spring — up 25.6 percent from 2018.
Around 4 million cartons of grapes are expected to be shipped to the domestic Mexican market, which is in addition to the 22 million counted for export.
The total for Mexician grape shipments in 2018 was 16.4 million boxes. In 2017 that total was 21 million.
In 2018, there was unusual weather, and cold in March particularly playe havoc with the crop, which resulted in an irregular harvest schedule in 2018, depending on the weather impact on different Sonoran growing zones.
Heaviest early green grape and red Flame loadings should occur the last half of May to the first half of June.
Mid-season green seedless peak volume will occur during most of June.
Flames account for nearly 50 percent of all Mexican fresh grape shipments, with 10.6 million cartons forecast this year. This is up almost 33 percent from 7.1 million cases in 2018. In 2017, 10.1 million boxes of Flames were shipped.
Sugraone this season moves ahead of green grapes to have a projected 4.3 million cartons. This number was 4.4 million in 2017 and down to 3.1 million last year.
For the 2019 crop, green grape production is estimated to be 4 million cases. This is up 16.5 percent from a total 2018 pack out of 3.3 million. In 2017, green grape shipments from Mexico was 3.6 million.
Black grape loadings from Mexico has fallen for the third straight year. The 2019 estimate anticipates 1 million boxes. Black grape shipments in 2018 was 1.2 million, down from 1.3 million in 2017.
Red Globe volume also is predicted to be down for the third straight year, with 600,000 boxes forecast. Red Globes loadings this year are forecast to be off 3.1 percent from 2018 and well below the 688,000 boxes shipped in 2017.
Mastronardi Produce Ltd., of Kingsville, Ontario, Canada is building a 71.6-acre glass greenhouse for growing Backyard Farms brand tomatoes in Oneida, NY.
“This expansion allows us to meet the incredible loyal consumer and retailer demand for this brand,” Paul Mastronardi, president, CEO of Mastronardi Produce, said in a news release. “It also ensures that all Northeasterners can enjoy what New Englanders have come to expect—fresh-from-the-vine Backyard Farms tomatoes delivered within hours.”
Founded in the 1940s, Mastronardi Produce is a large vertically integrated producer and distributor of greenhouse-grown produce, marketed under the Sunset and Backyard Farms brands.
The greenhouse will provide Northeasterners with better access to fresh-from-the-vine Backyard Farms tomatoes delivered within hours, Mastronardi said in the release.
The expansion is the first phase of the company’s ambitions for its locally grown Backyard Farms label, according to the company.
The greenhouse more than doubles Backyard Farms’ greenhouse growing acreage and increases Mastronardi Produce’s internal greenhouse network to seven locations nationwide, providing more than 4,000 acres of growing capacity.
New-York-grown Backyard Farms brand tomatoes are expected to be shipped by the fall of 2019, according to the release.
The packing date for the 2019 Vidalia onion season is set for 8 a.m. on Monday, April 22, according to The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
Five to 6 million cartons are expected to be shipped this season.
Vidalia onion acreage in 2019 will hit a 10-year low, according to Bland Farms LLC of Glennville, GA. The least amount of acreage planted during the past 10 years was 10,500 acres — at least until this season when 9,262 have been planted. Last year 11,251 acres were planted.
Vidalia onions represent about 40 percent of the sweet onions shipped in the U.S. each season.
Vidalia onions are grown in parts of 20 southeastern Georgia counties by 80 registered growers.
Each year, the Vidalia Onion Advisory Panel, state agricultural scientists and the Department of Agriculture determine the pack date based on soil and weather conditions in South Georgia during the growing season to help avoid early season onions being picked before maturity and tend to have a high pungency, or hot taste. Onions shipped prior to April 22nd cannot legally be shipped as Vidalia onions.
This year, the Vidalia Onion Committee is launching “The Sweet Life,” a new marketing campaign to reach home cooks across the country. The campaign targets grocery shoppers who enjoy cooking and entertaining.
“The Sweet Life builds on our very successful marketing effort over the last two years that helped to raise the profile of the Vidalia onion among food connoisseurs, particularly millennials who set many of today’s consumer trends,” said Bland. “Now we plan to focus on broader category of consumers who like to cook, entertain and use onions. The goal is to elevate the brand as a signifier of good taste and living well.”
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 distinctive Granex seed and packed and sold after the official pack date each year, resulting in only the highest-quality onions reaching Vidalia fans each season.
A moderate decline in volume has been reported for U.S. banana imports in 2018, while tomato imports are increasing, according the USDA.
U.S. imports of bananas totaled 4.2 million metric tons in 2018, off 4 percent from 2017. By value, imports of bananas totaled $1.91 billion in 2018, up 2 percent from 2017.
Guatemala was the leading supplier of bananas to the U.S. in 2018, accounting for 1.88 billion metric tons, down 5 percent from 2017. By value, imports of Guatemala bananas totaled $851.4 million, up 2 percent from 2017. Guatemala accounted for 45 percent of volume and value of total banana imports.
Other leading suppliers of bananas in 2018 to the U.S., by value and compared with last year, are:
- Costa Rica: $399.9 million, down 10 percent;
- Honduras: $218.5 million, down 1 percent;
- Ecuador: $189.2 million, up 16 percent;
- Mexico: $136.2 million, up 19 percent; and
- Colombia: $104.8 million, up 15 percent.
Tomato Imports
In 2018 total U.S. tomato imports increased 9 percent in value and 4 percent in volume.
USDA trade statistics show that total U.S. tomato imports were $2.38 billion in 2018, up 9 percent from $2.17 billion in 2017.
Volume of tomato imports rose 4 percent in 2018, climbing from 1.79 million metric tons in 2017 to 1.86 million metric tons in 2018.
Mexico is the top supplier of imported tomatoes, accounting for 87 percent of the value of total U.S. tomato imports and 91 percent of imported tomato volume. By value, U.S. imports of Mexican tomatoes, at $2.06 billion, were up 12 percent from 2017.
The volume of U.S. imports of Mexican tomatoes totaled 1.69 million metric tons in 2018, up 5 percent from 1.61 million metric tons in 2017.
By comparison, U.S. imports of Canadian tomatoes declined 7 percent in value and 9 percent in volume in 2018. Canada is the number two supplier of imported tomatoes, accounting for 9 percent of imported tomato value and 8 percent of tomato volume.
The Dominican Republic and Guatemala are number three and four ranked tomato suppliers, but both represent less than 1 percent of value.