Posts Tagged “feature”
Henry Avocado has moved its headquarters, packing and distribution center in Escondido, CA, to a new building in a nearby industrial center.
The 50,000-square-foot two-story facility in Escondido is 20 percent larger than the previous site and features the latest processing, refrigeration and forced-air ripening elements in the industry.
The new Henry operation consolidates under one roof the administrative and processing machinery and personnel of several buildings at the old location, and provides space for 20 forced-air ripening rooms and five loading docks.
The company, which is a year-round grower-shipper, made the move to maximize efficiency of operation and now has the potential to custom-ripen over 2 million cartons annually. The fresh product is shipped to customers via two adjacent major highways. The I-15 services the north-south corridor while the I-78 services the east-west customer network.
Henry also opened a large distribution center in Charlotte, NC, in 2017, in order to deliver fresh shipments that meet custom-ripening orders as precisely as possible.
“We consider the supply chain as paramount to quality, which motivates our decisions to modernize and relocate as required,” Henry added. “Our seven centers are strategically located, designed and managed to ensure quality, food safety and fresh delivery to customers wherever they are.”
Headed by the new Escondido building, all seven of Henry’s Primus Labs-certified distribution centers meet or exceed the federal, state and industry Good Manufacturing Practices guidelines. Two are located in Escondido and there is one each in Phoenix; Milpitas, CA; San Antonio and Houston, TX; and Charlotte, NC. Together they total 100 ripening rooms with delivery by a modern fleet of refrigerated trucks.
A pioneer in the industry, Henry was founded in 1925 and was among the first to commit to growing and promoting the Hass variety of avocados. Subsequently, Henry developed the first forced-air ripening rooms in 1983. By adding import contacts and capabilities in Mexico, Chile and Peru, Henry Avocado became one of the early year-round suppliers of fresh avocados in 1990.
Decent strawberry shipments are finally taking place from the Plant City area of Florida after a slow start during the past month or so. However, it will be February 1st before volume hits a peak.
Although there is no official government acreage estimate for the 2018-19 season, some observers believe total acreage is around 10,000 to 11,000 acres. However, for the 2017-18 the USDA reported planted acres totaled 10,800, while harvested acreage was 10,700 acres.
The USDA said Florida strawberry growers had an average yield of 225 hundredweight per acre. Total production totaled 2.41 million cwt.
Hot weather last fall resulted in smaller strawberries and less volume although that situation started improving in mid December.
USDA shipment statistics show so far this season, conventional Florida strawberry shipments totaled 8.73 million pounds through December 8th, down 43 percent compared with the same time a year ago, when 15.1 million pounds had been shipped.
Total loadings of Florida conventional strawberries during the 2017-18 totaled 240.8 million pounds, according to the USDA.
Strawberry shipments were in a lull in mid-December and decent volume did not occur until after the New Year.
Wish Farms of Plant City, FL reports acreage in Florida could be off a little, perhaps 5 percent — compared with a year ago. Hillsborough County, FL has about 10,000 acres and Manatee County at about 1,000 acres.
While Florida strawberry volume is building, it is not expected to hit real good levels volume until the week of January 20th, which puts shippers in a good position for the important Valentine Day’s (February 14th) demand.
United States Cold Storage recently opened its third facility in Laredo, Texas.
The 232,366 square-foot-warehouse was built in eight months by engineering firm Stellar, and completed with a tight schedule driven by the timing of the Mexican strawberry season, according to a news release from Stellar, Jacksonville, Fla.
The $35 million facility distributes a variety of produce, including Mexican avocados.
U.S. Cold Storage, Camden, N.J., has operated in Laredo for more than 50 years, George Cruz, senior vice president of U.S. Cold Storage’s Southern Region, said in the press release.
“As food trade with Mexico continues to grow, we found ourselves in a position to respond to our customers’ growing needs with more space,” Cruz said in the release.
Cruz credited Stellar with building the facility in time for Mexican harvests.
The cold storage facility’s features include:
- Refrigerated loading dock with 21 truck doors;
- Separate cross-dock area with four truck doors for inspections/transloads;
- Refrigerated repacking room;
- 27,000 pallet positions; and
- Secure trailer yard for ease of importing and border crossings.
U.S. Cold Storage, a subsidiary of John Swire & Sons Ltd. in the United Kingdom, has 40 facilities in 13 states.
LGS Specialty Sales of New Rochelle, N.Y., is importing more Spanish fruit including lemons, clementines and Vanilla Persimmons, also known as rojo brillante.
LGS also imports and distributes citrus, grapes and avocados. The Spanish fruit is grown in the Valencia and Murcia regions. The company imports lemons from Spain year-round.
“Spain’s Mediterranean climate consistently grows exceptional fruit and we are excited to export more of their products to provide the U.S. market with top-quality produce year-round,” Rebekah McMurrain, persimmons category manager at LGS, said in a news release. “Both Spanish lemons and ready-to-eat Vanilla Persimmons are favorite varieties in Europe and we are pleased to offer them to U.S shoppers.”
The Vanilla Persimmon, a hybrid of the hachiya and fuyu varieties, is available now through February, according to the release. Like the fuyu, it is ready to eat.
California Avocados
California avocado shipments for the 2018-19 season are expected to plunge by nearly 50 percent compared to the 2017-18 season.
The California Avocado Commission 2018-19 preseason crop estimate for all varieties is 175 million pounds, with 167 million pounds of the hass variety.
The lower volume is due to various weather factors including a severe heat wave in July 2018.
Because of the expected drop in shipments, most avocado loads will be destined to California and other western markets.
Shipments will be building into March with peak availability from April through August.
La Cañada Flintridge Calif. – Concluding its 15th year in participation, Allen Lund Company announces record produce donations for the 2018 Navidad en el Barrio event. Navidad en el Barrio, which was established in 1972 by Danny Villanueva, former NFL kicker, continues their mission to provide a healthy Christmas dinner to the most underserved families in Southern California.
“2018 was a remarkable year for Navidad en el Barrio,” states Nora Trueblood, MarCom Director for ALC, “we had growers from Texas, Idaho, Washington, and California participate this year, which translated to four full truckloads of fresh produce. We were able to provide an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables to every family, which does not happen every year.”
“What made this year especially wonderful was the new growers, many of whom we met at PMA Fresh Summit, that were first-time donors to this program,” continued Trueblood. “From potatoes, and carrots to citrus, apples, pumpkins, mixed greens, and avocados, every family had fresh items in their dinner baskets.” The fresh items are added to a basket which includes staples featuring rice, tortillas, water, pasta, tomato sauce, beans, and fresh chicken.
ALC provided the coordination of donated product as well as the logistical support of moving produce from Texas, Idaho, Washington, and in-state California to the warehouse for distribution on December 15, 2018. ALC contract carriers, Wanship and Chevez Express stepped in and donated their time and equipment to assist in this year’s Navidad en el Barrio event.
2018 donors included: Rainer Fruit, Bonipak Produce, Wada Farms, Grimmway, Cacique, Inc., Coca-Cola Refreshments, Faribault Foods, Mother’s Nutritional Center, Northgate Supermarkets, Wonderful Citrus, Mission Produce, Garofalo Pasta/Advantage Solutions, El Dorado Growers, Naturipe, J & D Produce, Gem-Pack Berries, Sage Fruit Company, Novamex, and American Fresh Produce.
About Allen Lund Company:
Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices and over 500 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 Logistics Tech Outlook for our software division ALC Logistics as a 2018 Top 10 Freight Management Solution Providers, 2018 Food Logistics’ Top 3PL & Cold Storage Providers list, 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 www.allenlund.com.
U.S. citrus shipments crashed big time in the 2017-18 season.
American citrus loads plunged to 6.13 million tons last season, down 20 percent compared with 2016-17 season, and a whopping 66 percent less than the record high production of 17.8 million tons in 1997-98, according to the USDA.
Total fresh U.S. citrus shipments in 2017-18 were 3.308 million tons, off 7 percent from 2016-17 and 13 percent below 2015-16.
California represented 87 percent of all U.S. fresh citrus shipments in 2017-18, compared with 7 percent from Florida, 5 percent from Texas and 1 percent from Arizona.
Florida accounted for 36 percent of total U.S. citrus loadings, compared with 59 percent for California. Texas and Arizona shipped the remaining 5 percent.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Thanks to citrus greening disease and Hurricane Irma in 2017, Florida’s citrus volume continued to plunge in the 2017-18 season.
Florida’s orange shipments stood at 45 million boxes last season, which was down 35 percent from the previous season. Grapefruit volume in Florida, at 3.88 million boxes in 2017-18, crashed by 50 percent from the previous season. Florida’s total citrus shipments decreased 37 percent from the previous season, the USDA said.
Fresh shipments of Florida citrus were rated at 221,000 tons, down 30 percent from 317,000 tons in 2016-17 and off 50 percent from 2015-16.
Bearing citrus acreage in Florida, at 400,900 acres in 2017-18, was 9,800 acres below the 2016-17 season.
In California, the USDA reported citrus loadings dropped 7 percent from the 2016-17 season. California’s total orange shipments, at 45.4 million boxes, was 6 percent lower than the previous season. The state’s grapefruit volume was down 9 percent from the 2016-17; tangerine and mandarin loadings were off 19 percent.
California’s fresh citrus shipments was 2.88 million tons in 2017-18, down 5 percent from 2016-17 and down 9 percent from 2015-16.
In Texas, loadings of citrus was up 9 percent from the 2016-17 season. Orange volume is up 37 percent from the previous season, but grapefruit volume was unchanged.
Texas citrus shipments was 175,000 tons in 2017-18, up 8 percent from 2016-17 and 11 percent higher than 2015-16.
Arizona lemon loadings in 2017-18 was down 35 percent from last season. Arizona fresh citrus shipments was 32,000 tons in 2017-18, down 29 percent 2016-17 and down 32 percent from 2015-16.
Gloucester Marine Terminal LLC based in Gloucester City, NJ received its first arrival of fresh Chilean fruit three weeks ago when the M/V Baltic Jasmine unloaded nearly 2,500 tons of Chilean grapes, plums, nectarines and other products.
Weekly service for Chilean winter fruit will continue through April.
“Having the first vessel is a responsibility that we take seriously,” Peter Inskeep, of the Gloucester Marine Terminal, said in a press release. “We have placed a huge emphasis on the culture of food safety, and once again our terminal has been awarded the highest SQF Level II certification. This means that the delicious products that pass through our hands from Chile, Peru, Brazil, Spain, Morocco, Central America and South Africa are guaranteed safe handling.”
The M/V Baltic Jasmine is part of the fleet owned and managed by Baltic Shipping, a long-time customer of the Gloucester Terminal.
“The 2018/2019 fruit season promises to be a good one, and this means increased consumer access to lots of fresh and healthy products from our partners around the world,” Eric Holt, with Holt Logistics Corp., said in the release.
Mexican avocado imports by U.S. importers will remain strong in 2018-19. A new report from the USDA notes Mexican hass avocado production is forecast at 1.9 million metric tons or more for marketing year 2018-19.
By way of comparison, production estimates for the 2017-18 season are about 2 million metric tons, according to industry estimates.
Mexico’s Michoacán region is the world leader in avocado production and accounts for 80 percent of total Mexican avocado volume.
Total area planted for Mexican avocados for 2017-18 is about 571,000 acres, up a little more than 5 percent from about 540,000 acres in 2016-17.
Export outlook
Mexico’s avocado exports for 2018-19 are forecast to be close to 1 million metric tons, according to the report. That is similar to 2017-18, according to the USDA report.
Exports have been increasing over the past few years, and the depreciation of the peso against the dollar has helped international sales in general.
The USDA report said the U.S. is the top importer from Mexico, consuming between 74 and 79 percent of total Mexican exports. About 6 percent of exports are sent to Japan and 7 percent to Canada.
About 45 packers in Michoacán are eligible to export avocados to the U.S., according to the report, while other producing states have concentrated on exporting to Japan, Canada, France and Spain.
While Mexican hass exports to the U.S. have increased with year-round access to all 50 states, the USDA report said exports to Canada, Japan and Europe have also risen.
The USDA report said a price dispute between producers in Michoacán and packing companies caused growers to cease harvesting activities Oct. 29 for approximately two weeks.
The report said an agreement was reached to end the strike on November 14,th when the parties along with the Mexican government agreed to have public reports of market information including:
- Product exported;
- Product sent to domestic market;
- Volumes sold; and
- Destination
Growers in Michoacán generally sell their fruit on the spot to a packer in terms of pesos per kilo.
“The intention is to have transparent commercial value information of the avocado trade,” the USDA report said. “Parties agreed that market prices will be adjusted according to the supply/demand principle.”
Mexican producers said the strike caused a deficit of 38,000 metric tons in the U.S. market, but that resumption of packing was expected to erase that shortage within a few weeks, according to the USDA report.
Electronic logging device regulations have resulted in truckers being more selective with which shippers and receivers they work.
For example, Zipline Logistics of Columbus, OH has surveyed over 150 trucking companies asking how their business has changed following the ELD mandate. A significant 54 percent report they no longer spend as much time waiting to load or unload their truck, while 80 percent note there are shippers or receivers they refuse to go to because wait times are too long.
The Zipline report stated one respondent commented, “Locations that are known to have little to no regard for a driver’s (hours of service) are no longer serviceable.”
Another company reported it monitors load and unload times so it can avoid going to places with unreasonably long loading and unloading delays.
“Anyone that can’t unload or load on time, why go to them and waste hours?” one respondent wrote. “Time is money now.”
Over 90 percent of the companies with which Zipline works service grocery and retail facilities, and some of them named major retailers and wholesalers among the worst offenders.
“A select population of drivers are now unwilling to go into locations such as Kroger, C&S Wholesale and (United Natural Foods) because of debilitating wait times,” Zipline wrote in its report. “If this issue is to be solved, shippers and retailers will need to improve their speed of operations and better cater to the needs of truckers.”
Walmart, Supervalu, Dollar General, Aldi, Wakefern Corp., Safeway and Meijer were also mentioned in comments by survey respondents.
The Zipline report stated trucking companies were divided 60-40 on whether the ELD mandate improved safety.
Some reported that it forced drivers to stop, rest and follow hours-of-service requirements, but other companies reported drivers were speeding more, driving in inclement weather, and driving while tired to maximize their hours.
Companies pointed to the driver shortage, rather than the mandate itself, as the main cause of rising rates. However, there were a few comments about drivers leaving the industry so as not to have to deal with the new regulations. Still, most companies pegged the mandate as a contributor to higher rates rather than the main cause of them.
There were 16 percent fewer U.S. fresh apples remaining to be shipped as of December 1st compared to a year ago, according to a new report from the U.S. Apple Association.
Total fresh apples in storage totalled 103.3 million 42-pound cartons, down from 122.9 million cartons last year and 11 percent less than the five-year average holdings of 116.7 million cartons.
Apples in storage for processing were off even more sharply, with 25.5 million cartons down 44 percent from a year ago and off 42 percent from the five-year average.
Red River Valley Potatoes
By Ted Kreis, NPPGA Communications
As we near the halfway point of the Red River Valley fresh potato crop shipping season, marketers are pleased, especially when comparing this year to last year.
The good fortune started early in the season when a heavy snow cover protected about 4,000 acres of unharvested potatoes from the very cold temperatures that settled in for a few days after the snowstorm.
The color and quality of this year’s crop is excellent and supplies are much more manageable after a nearly 10 percent cut in fresh acres in the Red River Valley.
Demand is strong. Big potato crop losses in Wisconsin and Canada has pushed more business to the Red River Valley.
Last year’s biggest problem, without the doubt, was the truck shortage. It was responsible for lost sales, higher freight rates, backed-up inventory which in turned caused falling prices and higher shrink later in the season. This year trucks have been much more available and nobody knows exactly why, but we are all hoping it continues through the second half of the season.
The Star Group Tomatoes
The Star Group of Voorhees Township, is producing tomatoes in a new greenhouse facility in Culiacan, Mexico.
The Big Taste brand roma tomatoes are entering the market the U.S. market through McAllen, Texas, and Nogales, Ariz., according to a news release.
The company will be shipping the romas, beefsteaks, grape tomatoes and slicer cucumbers through the winter from the new Culiacan facility.
Other Big Taste branded products from The Star Group in Mexico are tomatoes on-the-vine, grape tomatoes and Big Taste berries.