Posts Tagged “feature”
F
rom Nogales to California, the Northwest and Colorado, here are some springtime loading opportunities with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Nogales Crossings
While springtime crossings of imported Mexican vegetables is past its peak, there are about 1500 truck loads of watermelons being loaded per week, with around 500 truck loads of vine ripe tomatoes available. There’s much less volume with squash, peppers and some other vegetables. Mexican grape loadings should be available in very light volume starting next week, with decent loading opportunities not coming until around the second week of May.
Mexican watermelon and tomato shipments – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
California Produce Shipments
With lettuce volume crashing in the Imperial Valley and the Yuma area, lettuce loadings have made the seasonal shift to the Huron district on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley. Huron is moving around 650 loads of head lettuce a week, accounting for nearly 87 percent of the state’s lettuce shipments right now. Huron will continue well into May before giving away to California coastal shipping areas.
In fact, Santa Maria Valley has very light loadings of lettuce, celery, cauliflower, broccoli and other vegetables. Heaviest Santa Maria volume is with strawberries, a little over 300 loads per week. Strawberry loadings in California are heaviest out of Ventura County, around 500 loads a week. Santa Maria could be a little frustrating this season. Although new crops are just starting, weather related shipping gaps are seen.
In Kern County around Bakersfield, about 375 truck load equivalents are being loaded weekly. The new crop of stone fruit should have its first pickings the week of April 24th.
Huron lettuce – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
Potato Shipments
As always, Idaho leads potato volume accounting for nearly 1900 truck load equivalents a week, although a substantial amount of this is moving by rail…..Colorado’s San Luis Valley come next in volume averaging around 750 loads a week. The Columbia Basin in southern Washington and adjacent Umatillin Basin in Northern Oregon are shipping about 60 percent of Colorado’s volume.
Twin Falls, ID area potatoes – grossing about $5100 to Atlanta.
By Farmer’s Best
Nogales, Ariz. – Farmer’s Best, a major produce grower in Mexico and distributor in the United States, is only one month into harvesting its summer squash crop and is producing a strong, consistent volume.
“We are very pleased with the quality and production of our gray, yellow and Italian squash this season,” says Leonardo Tarriba, Farmer’s Best general manager. “They have exceeded our standards and continue to grow to impressive, beautiful sizes.”
Farmer’s Best Italian, gray and yellow squash, more commonly referred to as “summer squash,” began their season in October. Squash plants started growing in greenhouses on the west coast of Mexico and were transferred in temperature-controlled trucks with GPS capabilities to fields where they continue growing.
Farmer’s Best incorporates sustainable practices throughout the growing, harvesting, packing and shipping operations re-using, re-purposing and recycling all possible materials. Solar panels are placed at facilities and on fields to offset emissions and energy use. Water is recycled and reused during the growing processes for all produce.
Farmer’s Best summer squash is all grown in Mexico and distributed from centers in Nogales, AZ and McAllen, TX to the contiguous U.S. and parts of Canada. Farmer’s Best grower, Agricola Don Roberto, and associate grower, Bay Brand, are producing a high volume that ensures plenty of supplies. The squash season ends in mid-June.
About Farmer’s Best
Farmer’s Best has been bringing the finest fresh fruits and vegetables to grocery stores, restaurants and family tables for more than 50 years. Founded in 1966, this multi-generational, quality-focused, family company knows that food is about family. Health, safety and satisfaction drive fresh produce choices year-round. Farmer’s Best grows produce in fully-certified fields using the most advanced technologies and environmentally sound, sustainable practices.
Best-known food retailers rely on award-winning Farmer’s Best for all the right reasons. Farmer’s Best packs and distributes its full line of fresh produce from Mexico with standards that meet and commonly exceed USDA requirements. With its trusted highest quality produce, consumers know and ask for the Farmer’s Best brand.
For more information on Farmer’s Best, visit www.farmersbest.com.mx.
by Full Tilt Marketing
Milwaukee, WI—Full Tilt Marketing asked 50 food bloggers to share their most popular fruit and vegetable posts for 2016 and the were gleaned for insights. The analysis found the key driving factors that made the recipes popular with consumers included; appearance, seasonality, flavor profiles and healthy substitutes.
In fact, 74% of the bloggers’ recipes included descriptive comments such beautiful, stunning, looks so good, and amazing. Melinda Goodman, Managing Partner at FullTilt Marketing commented, “It’s no surprise that appearance drove overall popularity of posts with likes, shares and comments highest on attractive images. We’ve always heard that a picture’s worth a thousand words and your image is your first impression.”
This visual likability drove millions of impressions, with over 20% of the posts generating 20,000 or more pins. One of the top recipe posts, Sweet Potato Round with Goat Cheese and Cranberries from Ciao Florentina, generated 189,000 shares and touched on a combination of winning factors including visual appeal, wow flavors, seasonal interest and healthy ingredients.
Cynthia Rusincovitch, blogger from My Nourished Home remarked, “The most popular recipe on my blog continues to be sautéed kale and this has been the case for two years.” Rusincovitch continued, “I find my audience, mostly moms of busy families, want healthier choices that are simple and taste great so they don’t need to fight with their kids to eat them, but they also want dishes that are inspired by what they are seeing in magazines and eating in restaurants.”
The more subtle and less than obvious results that didn’t address appearance were around content related to seasonality, health, a twist on the classics and global flavors…all ideas popular in current trends today.
Of the all blog posts analyzed, a third of the recipes highlighted a healthy twist on a traditional classic. In many cases centering on healthier substitutions with zucchini, cauliflower and spaghetti squash, or modifying a recipe to reduce sugar, make it gluten free or even paleo as the recipe anchor. Top recipes featuring healthier substitutions included Healthified Sweet Potato Casserole, Creamy Cauliflower Broccoli Cheese Soup, and Thyme Mashed Cauliflower with Roasted Garlic.
Several of the recipes replaced traditional staples with ingredients such as zucchini or spaghetti squash instead of pasta and cauliflower replacing risotto rice or potatoes. And as the pictures below prove, the new dishes look exactly like their pasta and potato counterparts.
The importance of seasonal ingredients in this review did not go unnoticed. 34% of the top recipes were presented as seasonal dishes and included an emphasis on rising ingredients such as those featured in Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade, Grilled Watermelon Margaritas, Autumn Root Vegetable Salad, Spring Brussel Sprout Salad and Summer Berry Fruit Salad with Lime Glaze to name just a few.
In closing, Heidi McIntyre, Managing Partner of FullTilt commented, “From drinks to desserts, breads, salads and side dishes the bloggers proved that what’s popular isn’t one type of food, preparation or trend, but an overall interest in utilizing more fruits and vegetables as part of a healthier diet.”
And if you’re wondering why it matters what food bloggers write about, you only need to consult the research on the power of purchase influence that bloggers wield. In a recent study from Research Now, 2/3 of all consumers read blogs weekly and nearly 9 in 10 consumers make purchases after reading about a product or service on a blog. “Not only are blogs the new trusted media, they are also a key source of peer-to-peer word of mouth advertising that supports all steps of the purchase decision process from discovery to research to price comparison and sometimes direct purchase,” commented Goodman.
For more information, or to discuss marketing and PR programs, including influencer marketing visit www.fulltiltmarketing.net or email Melinda@fulltiltmarketing.net.
Full Tilt Marketing is a consulting firm with offices in the Southeast and Midwest. The firm specializes in produce and food marketing. Working with commodity boards and grower/shippers, Full Tilt assists clients with new product development, brand management, retail promotions, online marketing, social media and marketing communications.
The forecast for all Florida orange shipments in April hasn’t changed from the March outlook, at 67 million boxes; but grapefruit shipping volume has been reduced.
Growers are battling citrus greening in the groves, resulting in the smaller crop. Following the revised USDA forecast shows the total orange volume includes 33 million boxes of the non-valencia oranges (early, midseason, and navels) and 34 million boxes of valencia oranges. Florida is the top orange-producing state in the U.S., with California second, at a projected 51 million boxes for 2016-17.
The final numbers for Florida citrus won’t be known until the end of July.
For the previous 10 seasons used in the regressions, the April all-orange forecast has deviated from final production by an average of 3 percent, with five seasons above and five below, and differences ranging from 7 percent below to 5 percent above, USDA reported.
The forecast of non-valencia production was unchanged, at 33 million boxes. The survey, conducted March 29-30, showed 99 percent of the early-midseason rows were harvested. Non-valencia estimated utilization to April 1, with an allocation for non-certified fruit, was 32.9 million boxes.
The navel forecast was lowered by 50,000 boxes at 800,000 boxes, 2 percent of the non-valencia total.
The forecast of valencia production remained at 34 million boxes. Final fruit size was close to the minimum, requiring 242 pieces to fill a 90-pound box. The survey indicated final droppage at 30 percent, slightly below the maximum. A survey showed 28 percent of the valencia rows were harvested.
The forecast of all grapefruit production was lowered 800,000 boxes to 8.10 million, with changes made in both the white and red grapefruit forecasts. The white grapefruit forecast was lowered 200,000 boxes, to 1.5 million, and the red grapefruit forecast was lowered 600,000 boxes, to 6.6 million.
Estimated utilization to April 1, with an allocation for non-certified use, of white grapefruit was 1.42 million boxes and red grapefruit, 6.24 million. Florida leads the U.S. in grapefruit production, with Texas’ projected 4.7 million boxes second.
The forecast of early tangerine varieties — fallglo and sunburst — was finalized, at 600,000 boxes with 225,000 boxes of fallglo and 375,000 boxes of sunburst. Harvest is complete for these varieties this season. The royal tangerine forecast was raised 20,000 boxes to 240,000. The later-maturing honey tangerine forecast was raised 130,000 boxes, to 520,000. California’s projected 22 million boxes of tangerines and tangelos leads the U.S., with Florida second, at 1.64 million.
The tangelo portion of the all tangerine forecast remained at 280,000 boxes. Estimated utilization to April 1 is 277,000 boxes, which included an allocation for non-certified fruit.
Florida spring vegetable shipments appear to be building, and they should be, considering it’s mid-April. With the increasing volume, demand for trucks is picking up, resulting in some modest rate increases.
Now through May should be the best time for obtaining loads out of the Sunshine state. For the immediate future most loads are available out of the Central and Southern portions of the state. Northern Florida has a few blueberries available, but it’s early in the season and volume is increasing. Still, Northern Florida is going to be pretty scarce overall for produce loads until the seasonal migration of watermelons and a few other items start there, which is several weeks away.
South and central Florida mature green tomatoes, along with much smaller volumes of roma (plum), grape and cherry tomatoes are averaging around 950 truck loads per week. However, the single biggest volume item right now is sweet corn, with around 785 truck loads per week. There is still good volume with potatoes (mostly red and other colors) with about 385 truck loads per week.
After this, you’ll find good volume with items ranging from green beans, to cucumbers and bell peppers, each averaging roughly 225 truck loads a week. Aside from the aforementioned items, there’s much lesser volume with such vegetables as eggplant, escarole-endive, radish, spinach, etc.
South Florida watermelons have recently started, but this week accounted for less than 200 truck loads. However, volume will be quickly increasing prior to the harvest gradually moving to central and northern Florida, before migrating up the East Coast. In fact, after the Florida heat ends vegetable shipments, probably sometime in June, watermelons will easily have the biggest volume in Florida.
Currently Florida is the number one destination for volume loads (but that don’t mean you will avoid multiple pick ups). Enjoy it while you can, because it may be “slim pickins” down the road apiece with Georgia vegetables and especially blueberries, that got hit by a March freeze.
South Florida vegetables – grossing about $2400 to Cincinnati; $3000-plus to Brooklyn, NY.
by Jennifer Bond, USDA Economic Research Service
Chances are that if you order a side of fries at a restaurant, you need to specify whether you’re asking for white potatoes or sweet potatoes. Food trends that support the consumption of more healthful, colorful and unique foods have helped to encourage sales of sweet potatoes in the form of fries, chips, ready-to-cook and heat-and-eat preparations, expanding consumption of the orange tuber well beyond the holiday table.
Domestic consumption of sweet potatoes has grown considerably since 2000 with annual per capita availability (a proxy for consumption) rising from 4.2 pounds to reach a record-high 7.5 pounds in 2015. The marked rise in domestic demand has been encouraged by promotion of the health benefits of sweet potatoes – rich in vitamins A and C, high in fiber. Expanded demand has also been supported by the increasing variety of sweet potato products available in restaurants and for home preparation.
To meet rising demand, sweet potato production has increased substantially in recent years, achieving a record-high production of 3.1 billion pounds in 2015. The 2015 harvest was a high-water mark in a 15-year trend of expansion that began in 2000 when U.S. production was just 1.3 billion pounds. In 2014 and 2015, sweet potato production increased by an average of about six percent per year.
Beyond U.S. borders, consumers are increasingly enjoying sweet potatoes and, like North Carolina, several of the other key growing States enjoy access to southern ports that provide a locational advantage for meeting export demand. With expanded sales to markets that include Canada and the United Kingdom, aggregate U.S. exports have steadily risen in recent years in parallel with climbing domestic demand.
In 2015, U.S. sweet potato exports reached a record-high 409 million pounds and exports for 2016 are poised to reach approximately the same level. Both internationally and here in the U.S., sweet potatoes are increasingly becoming a colorful addition to holiday-and everyday-dining tables.
Imported Chilean grapes enter their traditional seasonal decline this month. Entering April, red grapes and green Thompson grapes were dominating Chilean shipments to the United States, although many black grapes seemed to have better quality. Meanwhile, come this fall a big diesel tax increase is coming from California.
California’s Coachella Valley red grapes should get underway about May 10th, two weeks later than a year ago. Imported Mexican grapes typically start several days before Coachella, but Mexico also is behind last year and is not expected to have any shipments until the first week of May.
High prices on Chilean grapes due to light supplies may encourage some growers to “clean up their vineyards” and put everything in the box that they can get their hands on. In other words, if you’re planning to haul late season imported Chilean grapes, use caution when loading and make sure your receiver knows what kind of quality is being put in the truck.
Onion Shipments
Vidalia onions shippers have been loading trucks for weeks, but under Georgia regulations they cannot legally pack and ship those onions as Vidalia onions. This is an attempt to protect the Vidalia name as a sweet onion and early shipments have bigger chances of having onions with high pungency levels – in other words – hot onions. That changed today because April 12th is the official start of the Vidalia sweet onion shipping season……Meanwhile, Texas sweet onions apparently are having some quality issues due to rain. An already short crop is expected to end shipments early, probably by the end of April.
California Passes Fuel Tax Hike
California just gave truckers another reason not to truck there. The California legislature passed a bill last week increasing the excise tax on diesel fuel by 20 cents per gallon to help fund a $52 billion infrastructure plan. Gov. Jerry Brown s expected to sign it into law this week. which becomes effective November 1st.
The increase in the tax rate will bring the state’s excise tax on diesel fuel from 16 cents to 36 cents per gallon over 10 years. It also increases the state sales tax on diesel from 9 percent to 13 percent. The state’s gasoline tax will also increase from 28 cents to 40 cents per gallon during the same time period…..Several other state also are considering increase taxes on fuel.
While U.S. exports were flat in 2016, U.S. imports of fresh fruits and vegetables growth hit double-digit rates.
Imports of fresh fruits were up 10 percent, amounting to $12.4 billion in 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, while the value of imports of fresh vegetables rose 14 percent to $8 billion. Last year, Mexico supplied 70 percent of the total U.S. vegetable imports and 31 percent of all U.S. fruit imports, according to the USDA. Chile supplied 17 percent of U.S. fruit imports in 2016. Canada was a major supplier of fresh vegetables, with 16 percent of all U.S. fresh vegetable imports in 2016.
In 2016, U.S. exports of fresh fruits were unchanged from 2015 at $4.5 billion, according to the USDA. U.S. exports of fresh vegetables rose 2percent to $2.4 billion in 2016. Canada purchased 75 percent of U.S. vegetable exports and 36 percent of U.S. fruit exports in 2016; Mexico purchased 11 percent of U.S. fruit exports and 4 percent of U.S. vegetable exports, according to USDA statistics.
Top Banana
The USDA reported the top U.S. imported fresh produce item for 2016 was bananas, at a value of $2.67 billion, up 1 percent from 2015. Ranking second, were fresh tomato imports that totaled $2.26 billion in 2016, up 17 percent from the previous year.
Berry imports in 2016 (excluding strawberries) hit $2.05 billion, up 11 percent from 2015.
U.S. avocado imports also rose sharply in 2016, totaling $1.91 billion, up 18 percent from 2015.
Other leading produce imported commodities for 2016 were:
- grapes: $1.5 billion, up 12 percent;
- peppers: $1.46 billion, up 20 percent;
- citrus: $937 million, up 9 percent;
- fresh/frozen strawberries: $745 million, up 22 percent;
- melons: $710 million, up 16 percent;
- cucumbers: $690 million, up 12 percent:
- fresh/frozen pineapples: $668 million, up 3 percent; and
- asparagus: $630 million, up 12 percent.
Apples Fade
The top U.S. export commodity for 2016 was apples, according to the USDA. Exports of fresh apples totaled $921 million in 2016, off 10 percent compared with the previous year.
The number two export item was grapes, with 2016 value of $785 million, up 5percent compared with 2015.
Other top U.S. fresh produce exports in 2016 were:
- oranges and tangerines: $700 million, up 13 percent;
- berries: $686 million, unchanged;
- cherries: $476 million, up 11 percent;
- lettuce: $465 million, down 10 percent;
- potatoes: $203 million, up 11 percent; and
- onions: $192 million, up 17 percent.
Northwest cherry shipments should kick off in early June, with peak loading taking place in July, although there should be significant supply in August. This means a more traditional shipping season.An official forecast has yet to be issued but a quality full crop of about 20 million boxes is expected by some observers. In 2016 NW cherry shipments totaled 21 million boxes, and a record volume of 23 million boxes were loaded in 2014.
The Northwest had one of the coldest winters in nearly a quarter of a century and this will lead to a later start to the season than a year ago. Cherry picking should start the first week of June, compared with a May 15 start date in 2016. The 2016 season was the earliest ever for Northwest cherries.
The 2017 shipping season should have peak cherry shipments during July, although good volume of fruit is expected in August. The past two season there has been about 200,000 to 500,000 boxes shipped in August. This season around 2 million or more boxes should be shipped in August.
By comparison, California cherry shipments should be around 7 million to 8 million boxes (see last week’s report), meaning little overlap with Northwest cherry shipments.
Most Northwest cherries originate out of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana. However, 95 percent of the production comes from Washington and Oregon.
The later start date means there will be more fruit in July this season, along with good volumes in August. While there will a good amount of fruit available for the Fourth of July holidays, volumes would undoubtedly be lower than last year due to the later season. Last year there were 12 million boxes shipped in June, but this year there will probably be 7 or 8 million boxes shipped during June.
About 30 percent of the NW cherry crop will be exported this season, with a majority of the fruit destined for Canada.
Apricot Shipments
Good, fairly normal apricot shipments are expected this season, getting underway around the third week of June out of Washington.
Washington apples and pears – grossing about $4000 to Dallas.
Here’s a shipping forecast for California cherries, and an update on California avocado shipments. At the same, you won’t believe the whopping diesel fuel tax increase being produced in that state.
California cherry shipments are predicted to get an early start this season with initial loadings getting underway the last week of April. The season should run through June. Peak shipments are expected to occur the second, third and last week of May. Assuming favorable weather holds, there should be strong volume leading up to Mother’s Day (May 14th) and Memorial Day (May 29th). While good quality and volume are being forecast, no firm estimates have been released. While California has the nation’s first domestic cherries each year, its total shipments are relatively small compared to Northwest cherry volume, which we’ll report on next week.
Avocado Shipments
Imported shipments of Mexican avocados have declined for the first time in possibly 10 years as the season comes to an end. Mexico shipped 2 billion pounds of avocados to the U.S. in 2016 and is projected to send 1.7 billion by the end of its season in June. Volume from Mexico has been increasing 12 to 15 percent a year while avocado consumption has been following a similar increase.
Now, the California avocado shipping season is well underway. However, projected volume from the West Coast is only at about 200 million pounds — about half of the 2016 volume. One of the biggest shipping season for avocados lies just ahead as Cinco de Mayo falls on a Friday, May 5.
California Fuel Tax
Asking state lawmakers for a more efficient plan, Western Growers is opposing California’s proposed transportation infrastructure funding package.
The funding package (Senate Bill 1) was announced in late March by California Gov. Jerry Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, according to a news release.
“The staggering regulatory burdens and costs placed on California farmers have already placed our industry at a competitive disadvantage relative to other states and foreign countries,” Western Growers president and CEO Tom Nassif said in a news release. “These proposed fuel tax increases, including a 500% increase in the diesel sales tax, will disproportionately hit agriculture and communities dependent on our California farm economy.”
California’s current diesel fuel tax is 33 cents per gallon.