Posts Tagged “feature”
Excellent loading opportunities for California grapes are continuing into the fall shipping season, while strawberries also are moving in good volume. Meanwhile, here’s an update on Georgia fall vegetable shipments.
California Grape Shipments
California grape shipments are above of those of a year ago. About 82.9 million million of grapes were loaded in the San Joaquin Valley in the week ending September 26, up from 70.7 million pounds in the same week last year. However, this was down from 88.1 million pounds the previous week.
Season-to-date, about 2.1 billion pounds of grapes had shipped in the U.S., down from 2.2 billion pounds last year at the same time.
San Joaquin Valley grapes and melons – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
California Strawberry Shipments
California strawberry volumes should continue heavy as fall loadings increase. Weekly volumes shipping in September were at record levels for that time of year, with the trade shipping over 5.5 million trays a week during the month.
During the second half of September, there were volumes from both the Salinas/Watsonville area and the Santa Maria growing district. Higher-yielding varieties were coming into production in from both areas, with being a factor behind the shipping surge. The week of September 19 some Oxnard growers were already shipping some fall strawberries.
By the first or second week of October, loadings from Oxnard should be going good, although fall acreage is down slightly from last year.
Salinas Valley vegetables and Watsonville strawberries – grossing about $6600 to New York City,
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
Late-summer growing conditions have been good for production of southern Georgia cabbage, cucumbers and greens. There will be very light loadings of cabbage in late October. However, volume will pick up significantly in early to mid-November. Good loading opportunities are seen for the holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
Cucumber shipments started in south Georgia a couple of weeks ago, with loadings expected to continue into the first half of November.
In mid-September, Georgia growers typically begin harvesting leafy greens, including kale, collard greens, turnip roots and mustard greens. and ramp up larger volume in mid-October.
Affiliated Foods Midwest Cooperative Inc. members have voted 410-2 to combine their cooperative with the Kansas City, Kan.-based cooperative Associated Whole Grocers Inc. of Kansas City, KS.
Approval from the members of AFM based in Norfolk, NE was the last hurdle for the unification of the two groups. A vote on the issue took place at AFM’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, NE.
“While we were anticipating tremendous support for the unification by AFM’s members, I was humbled by the virtually unanimous vote in favor and by the enthusiasm and standing ovation the members demonstrated at AFM’s shareholders meeting,” David Smith, president and CEO of AWG, said in the release. “AWG will indeed be stronger together by joining forces with this amazing group of like-minded retailers.”
AFM president and CEO Martin Arter will move into the role of senior vice president and manager of the northern region of AWG under the new structure. He will oversee operations for the Nebraska and Great Lakes divisions.
Arter indicated the combination of the cooperatives should be beneficial for both.
“Before our members voted to unify, they learned how they would benefit from a lower cost of goods and an expanded array of services,” Arter said in the release. “Our boards knew that unifying the cooperatives would produce substantial financial rewards for the retailer-members and would produce long-term growth.”
The unification is set to take effect in October.
The expanded AWG will serve more than 3,500 member stores in 35 states from nine wholesale divisions.
Affiliated Foods Midwest is a retailers’ co-op serving the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan. Affiliated Foods Midwest has announced construction has begun on a new distribution center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to be complete in early 2009.
It distributes Shurfine products, and is affiliated with IGA (supermarkets).
It was founded in 1931 in Plainview, Nebraska, it took the name General Wholesale in 1936, and the name Affiliated Foods in 1977.
It is a member of Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates and a member-owner of Topco.
by National Watermelon Promotion Board
Nearly 1,000 consumers voted for their favorite entry in this year’s Watermelon Carving Contest, hosted by National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB). The annual contest, which takes place every July to honor National Watermelon Month, encourages watermelon fans everywhere to create and carve watermelon works of art.
Each carving submitted in the contest could be viewed at an online gallery at watermelon.org. NWPB encouraged fans to vote for their favorite overall carving from one of five categories.
“The Pop Culture category, which was new for 2016, included entries of watermelons used as serving bowls, beverage kegs, a wedding cake, and even two different Prince portraits!” said Stephanie Barlow, NWPB Senior Director of Communications. “The submissions really highlighted watermelon’s uniqueness in its versatility.”
While several of the entries were submitted by professional fruit carvers, the Judge’s Choice Award and First Place Award in the Basket Category was given to a beginner carver, showing that creativity and ingenuity is just as important as technical skill. Staging and category fit were also carefully considered by judges of the contest.
In addition to Pop Culture and Basket, other categories for this year’s carving contest included Elegant, Etched and Event/Occasion. Two entrants were also honored for “Judge’s Choice” and “People’s Choice” carvings. Winners from the five different categories received more than $1,000 in Amazon gift cards. Additionally, four carvers were awarded “Honorable Mention” prizes, also Amazon gift cards.
View the complete list of entries, as well as the winning carvings at http://www.watermelon.org/TheSlice/2016-Watermelon-Carving-Contest-Winners. For more watermelon carving inspiration, tips and tricks, visit Watermelon Board’s Pinterest Board or the “Carvings” page on watermelon.org where new carvings are regularly added.
About National Watermelon Promotion Board
The National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), based in Winter Springs, Florida, was established in 1989 as an agricultural promotion group to promote watermelon in the United States and in various markets abroad. Funded through a self-mandated industry assessment paid by more than 1,500 watermelon producers, handlers and importers, NWPB mission is to increase consumer demand for watermelon through promotion, research and education programs.
Watermelon, the produce leader in lycopene, is a multivitamin unto itself, with each serving providing an excellent source of Vitamins A and C and a good source of Vitamin B6 with only 80 calories. Watermelon consumption per capita in the United States was an estimated 14.8 pounds in 2015. Watermelon volume in the United States was approximately 4.7 billion pounds in 2015. For additional information, visit www.watermelon.org.
Washington state apple shipments are expected to be down a little this season. Meanwhile, Mexican avocado loadings to the U.S. are increasing.
A forecast of 132.9 million boxes of fresh apples has been made for the for 2016-17 shipping season, up 15 percent from last year’s 115 million box crop. However, this is down 6 percent from 2014’s record 141.8 million boxes.
Reflecting a smaller crop, overall exports for the 2015-16 crop year were off about 30 percent from the record 2014-15 season. Current season to date shipments through mid July were about 29.7 million cartons, down from 44.3 million cartons the same time in 2015.
Exports for both Canada and Mexico totaled 52 percent of all exports. The top three U.S. apple export markets for 2015-16 were Mexico, Canada and India. With the bigger 2016 Washington crop, this year should be a bounce-back season for Washington exports.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $5200 to Atlanta.
Avocado Shipments
Untimely rains in California resulted in avocado shipments being down on the summer crop. Meanwhile, the primary Mexican avocado shipments are yet to ramp up.
Through June, yearly volumes were running well ahead of last year’s pace, with 660 million pounds shipping during the three months of April, May and June alone, up from 549 million pounds in the same period the previous year.
However, in July and August, volumes fell 15 percent, from 378 million pounds in 2015 to 320 million pounds this year. Shipments are expected to be approaching normal by November.
As of Sept. 14, primary Mexican avocado shipments were running two or three weeks behind last year’s crop, though volumes were ramping up in the first half of the month. It is projected about 81.5 million pounds would ship in the first two weeks of September, down just slightly from the same period last year.
The summer California avocado shipments will likely wind up being just two-thirds the size of the preseason estimates, due to rains starting in mid-June, more than a month later than normal.
It still is likely be the first week of October before Mexican imports by the U.S. begin ramping up, with loadings moving into the 40 million to 45 million pound-per-week range.
The last imports of South African citrus coming into the United States should be arriving this week. Meanwhile, here is an update on Louisiana sweet potato shipments where product still not harvested got pounded by rains last month.
South Africa Citrus
The last boat of the season from South Africa with citrus is scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia the week of Sept. 26th. Steady volumes of navel and midknight oranges from South Africa have been arriving in the U.S.
South Africa ships navels, midknights, mandarins, star ruby grapefruit and cara cara oranges.
Louisiana Sweet Potato Shipments
The nation’s fourth leading sweet potato shipper – Louisiana – was hit hard by heavy rains several weeks ago and we’re now starting to get a clearer picture of how much damage was done.
Torrential rains in southern Louisiana in mid-August caused major damage to the state’s agricultural producers, but the full extent of sweet potato losses remains to be seen. More than 30 inches of rain fell in a 48-hour period in many parts of southern Louisiana in mid-August, and more rain followed.
There’s no question the deluge will reduce the number of sweet potatoes shipped from Louisiana this year, but it is still too early to put a number on it. Sweet potato shipments undoubtedly will be be less because the fields were saturated for days. By mid-September growers had either just started to dig or hadn’t started at all, making it difficult to come up with a good damage estimate.
Louisiana sweet potato growers south of Alexandria appeared to suffer the heaviest losses, but none of the state’s growers totally escaped the storm’s wrath. Luckily, the majority of sweet potato production in the state is found north of Alexandria.
Louisiana shipped about 1.7 million boxes of sweet potatoes last season, fourth behind North Carolina, California and Mississippi. Overall, sweet potato shipments on a national basis probably won’t be down, because North Carolina ships the majority of sweet potatoes, with California a distance second.
Lyons, GA – L.G. Herndon, Jr. Farms, Inc. is announcing the release of its newest line of packaged greens, SuperFit Greens. The launch of SuperFit Greens introduces an innovative concept for Herndon, offering healthy traditional greens in a convenient new package.
Herndon Farms has been the leader in produce categories including Vidalia onions, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, and bunch leafy greens for more than 30 years. As owner Bo Herndon has watched the leafy greens category change recently, he has envisioned creating a line of packaged greens that would engage consumers. “Since we started the farm in the late 70s, we’ve always grown southern, cooking greens. With the rise of items like kale and with consumers looking for more convenience with their greens, we knew it was time to create the right brand for today’s consumers.
The name SuperFit Greens was born out of a passion to inspire consumers to think healthy when deciding what to eat. “‘Eat your greens’ isn’t a passing fad,” remarks John Williams, Sales and Marketing Director for Herndon Farms, “Consumers are more health conscious and we want to support that with our products, to support Americans who are returning to a more nutrient-rich diet.”
The company recently expanded their operation with the construction on a state-of-the-art 44,000 square foot processing plant on their farm in southeast Georgia, to accommodate SuperFit Greens packaging. Williams states that freshness and shelf life were at the forefront of their decision to pack on-site. “The entire process from harvest to packaging will occur at the farm. We’re very confident the quality of our product will stand out because of this,” confirms Williams.
All of Herndon’s items are Primus GFS certified and the new facility will follow these same guidelines. Herndon added, “food safety is an extremely important part of what we do every day and our plans for our company’s future. We have a food safety team in place to help handle all the requirements an operation like ours requires.”
Williams is also confident that their innovative packaging, the SuperFit Greens website, social media channels, and direct marketing efforts will appeal to consumers. “We are focused on inspiring consumers through engagement, education and with the high quality of greens they will see offered under the SuperFit Greens brand,” adds Williams.
The company will begin shipping SuperFit Greens this October from their farm in Lyons, Ga.
About L.G. Herndon Farms, Inc.:
L. G. Herndon Jr. Farms is a family owned and operated business with over 30 years of experience growing Vidalia® sweet onions, Peruvian and Mexican sweet onions, Lil’ Bo’s Petite sweet Vidalia onions, sweet corn, green leafy vegetables, and most recently, sweet potatoes. Herndon Farms strives to maintain a reputation of high-quality and consistency that has come to define the Herndon name. For more information, visit vidaliasfinest.com.
Imports of Argentina blueberries and Mangoes from South America should be very good this season.
Argentina growers should export about 17,500 tons of fresh blueberries this season, of which two-thirds likely will be arrive in the U.S. and Canada. A year ago, the U.S. and Canada received only 10,280 tons of blueberries from Argentina, due to adverse growing conditions. The weather seems to have improved a lot this year.
Light exports were under way to the U.S. Brazil, and Europe in late August, with the first U.S. arrivals taking place in early September. Peak season arrivals will happen in late October, before the season concludes by the end of November.
Mango Imports
A late surge of mango imports from Mexico and an early start in Ecuador should mean a lot of mango imports this fall. Mexico should ship about 74 million boxes of mangoes this season, up from 64 million boxes a year ago.
Peak Brazilian imports have been in September. However, with the heavy volume of Mexican fruit being imported, most Brazilian fruit imports were arriving at ports and being hauled by truck to markets in the eastern half of the country. Meanwhile Mexican mangos are being delivered to in heavy volume to the West Coast.
Even with the record late-season volumes out of Mexico this season, and record volume crops are also possible from Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. In addition to the glut, appearance issues were hurting demand for late-season Mexican fruit, although eating quality has been excellent.
Mexican volumes are now finally starting to wind. Brazilian import volumes are expected to start peaking around the second week of October. Brazil is expected to ship about 8 million boxes this year, similar to a year ago. Ecuador should produce about 10.8 million boxes, up slightly from last year.
Peru mango imports to the U.S. should get underway in November, with imported expected to be up about 10 percent from last year’s 9.3 million boxes.
South Texas crossings with Mexican mangoes, other tropical fruit, tomatoes and vegetables – grossing about $2000 to Chicago.
by Biing-Hwan Lin and Rosanna Mentzer Morrison
Despite Federal nutrition guidance, food industry promotional campaigns, and encouragement from parents to “Eat your vegetables,” Americans’ consumption of fruits and, especially, vegetables has declined.
Over the last decade, loss-adjusted supplies of total fruits and vegetables available to consume in the United States have fallen from 299 pounds per person in 2003 to 272 pounds per person in 2013. Not the direction that nutritionists and others interested in the public’s health had hoped for.
However, a deeper look into the overall numbers reveals that three fruits and vegetables—orange juice, potatoes, and head lettuce—account for 22 pounds of this 27-pound decline. And, despite the decline in consumption of some fruits and vegetables, Americans are consuming more of other types of these nutrient-packed foods.
The loss-adjusted food availability data serve as a proxy for consumption by the nation as a whole but do not reveal who eats what foods and how much is eaten by particular demographic groups. A more nuanced analysis of consumption trends—by product and by demographic groups—would identify shortfalls for particular groups and help in targeting nutrition outreach efforts.
In a recent report, Economic Research Service (USDA) researchers linked ERS’s food availability data and food intake survey data, using a USDA database that translates foods into their commodity components. This linkage enabled them to break down ERS’s national consumption estimates by household and personal characteristics, helping to answer the questions: How widespread is the decline in fruit and vegetable consumption? And, is it steeper for some groups than others?
Potatoes Driving Declining Vegetable Consumption
National food intake surveys provide demographic breakdowns of who is eating what foods and how much. However, survey respondents report foods as eaten—such as a slice of apple pie, a cup of applesauce, or a glass of apple juice. A database providing the amount of apple in each food is needed to derive the total amount of apples, or other food commodities, consumed by an individual.
ERS researchers used FICRCDs to disaggregate the thousands of mixed foods recorded in the intake surveys—from apple pie to zucchini lasagna—into 63 foods and beverages, including 11 fruits or fruit groups and 15 vegetables or vegetable groups. Per capita measures of foods and beverages eaten by people in different demographic groups were estimated by taking average consumption patterns from the surveys for different subgroups of the U.S. population and applying these patterns to the loss-adjusted food availability data for the corresponding year.
Consumption of total vegetables fell across the four age and gender groups between 1994-98 and 2007-08. Much of this decline was driven by reduced consumption of potatoes, which includes baked, mashed, french fries, chips, and other forms expressed in fresh-weight equivalents. Boys (age 2 to 19) had the largest drop; their potato consumption fell from 63.7 pounds per person per year in 1994-98 to 45.2 pounds in 2007-08. Potato consumption by non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics, and other races fell over the period from 63.8 to 55.4, from 52.4 to 38.2, and from 50.5 to 37.1 pounds per person per year, respectively. Throughout the period, non-Hispanic Blacks consumed about 58.1 pounds of potatoes per person per year.
Intake of tomatoes—the second most consumed vegetable—held fairly steady between 1994-98 and 2007-08 for all age groups. When consumption of potatoes and tomatoes is subtracted from the mix, consumption of other vegetables by girls, boys, and men fell, too, but not as sharply as that of potatoes. For women, annual consumption of nonpotato and nontomato vegetables increased slightly (2.2 pounds per person). Some vegetables posting gains in consumption over this period in all age groups include peppers, leafy greens, and broccoli and cauliflower.
Total vegetable consumption declined between 1994 and 2008 across four race/ethnic background groups—non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, and others. The decline was smallest among non-Hispanic Whites (5.5 pounds per person per year), followed by non-Hispanic Blacks (11.9 pounds), Hispanics, (23.0 pounds), and others (27.2 pounds).
Blueberry shipments have definitely hit the big time with increases in plantings on both a domestic and imported basis. Shipments also remain strong for strawberries and raspberries. Here’s a closer look at shipments for domestic and imported berries.
Fresh blueberry loadings are now occurring virtually the year around whether it is from domestic production or from imports involving other countries.
Native to North America, blueberries are in good volume here from April through October. Likewise, with farmers in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasonal swap brings blueberries from South America from November through March.
The U.S. is the world’s largest grower and shipper of berries. In 2014, 667.6 million pounds of blueberries were shipped.
However, the U.S. is also a net importer of fresh and frozen blueberries. Canada supplies nearly 20 percent of fresh product into the U.S., but South America has a very strong U.S. import program.
In 2014, the U.S. imported 234.7 million pounds of fresh blueberries valued at nearly $530.5 million. Over 60 percent of this product came from Chile, which supplies the U.S. market from mid-November through January.
In 2014 the U.S. imported 124.7 million pounds of fresh blackberries.
Mexico supplied nearly all U.S. imported fresh blackberry volumes, representing a four-year annual average market share of 96 percent from 2011 to 2014.
Strawberry Shipments
While the U.S. is the world’s largest strawberry grower and shipper, it is also a big importer. In 2014, the nation imported 355.9 million pounds of fresh strawberries. The majority of all U.S. strawberry imports come from Mexico, with Canada supplying less than one percent.
Mexican strawberries have overlapping shipping seasons with Florida, but typically fresh strawberries from Mexico are only a supplement to the U.S. domestic supply. Most Mexican strawberries being produced and imported to the U.S. are shipped during the winter.
Raspberry Shipments
The U.S. also imports raspberries from October through May, with most imports originating from Mexico, which ships about 96 percent of the total imports.
In 2014, the U.S. imported a total of almost 96.8 million pounds of fresh raspberries from Mexico, Canada and Chile.
Florida tomato shipments look to be similar to last season, while a big plunge is seen with Florida citrus.
During the 2015-16 season, which ended in June, tomato growers packed 28.2 million 25-pound equivalent cartons of mature greens and vine-ripe tomatoes, down from 36.5 million from the previous season. The decline is attributed primarily to excessive rains during the growing season. Torrential spring rains reduced yields that caused the 8 million carton shortage,
Last year, Mexican tomato imports increased 18 percent from the prior year from October to mid-June. Imported Mexican tomatoes are primarily vine ripes, while Florida’s tomatoes are mostly mature greens.
Fall plantings for this season are expected to be similar to a year ago. Florida tomato shipments will get underway in October. In fact Florida typically is shipping tomatoes most of the year, with the exception being July, August and September.
Florida Citrus Shipments
Florida citrus acreage has declined to its lowest level in nearly three generations.
On September 12th, the USDA reported the Sunshine State’s citrus acreage declined to 480,121 acres for 2015-16, the lowest since the agency began surveying acreage in 1966.
Oranges, which constitute 89 percent of the state’s citrus acreage, is the lowest since that period as are grapefruit and tangerines. In 1970, Florida growers planted 715,806 acres of oranges, 124,050 acres of grapefruit and 101,615 acres of specialty fruit or tangerines and tangelos.
Currently, oranges make up 425,728 acres, grapefruit, 40,316 acres and specialty fruit, 14,077.
Orange production is down 3.7 percent from the 2014-15 season while white grapefruit sustained the biggest loss at 17 percent for the period. Red seedless grapefruit experienced only a 4 percent decline.
Tangerine and tangelo acreage declined 17 percent respectively from the previous year.
Of the 27 citrus-producing counties, 24 recorded acreage declines.
The Indian River region produces the most grapefruit acreage while the central region leads in the production of oranges and specialty fruit.
In terms of total citrus production, the central, southern and western regions represent the biggest acreage.
Florida will have light overall shipments of produce until March or April when spring vegetables get underway. In fact the whole Southeast is pretty “dead” this time of year.
Southern Georgia vegetable shipments – grossing about $800 to Atlanta.