Posts Tagged “feature”
by Columbia Marketing International (CMI)
Wenatchee, WA – Despite some of the earliest shipments on record, a smaller Washington apple harvest is driving tighter supplies and higher prices—particularly on larger-sized fruit and managed varieties. The result has been slower sales on many traditional varieties as supermarkets look to fill shelves with high demand new crop apples like Honeycrisp and Ambrosia.
Washington State apple shipments through November 2nd are 19.3% below the same period in 2014, but nearly 9% higher than two years ago. Early season predictions of smaller-sized fruit and supply reductions, particularly in Gala, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious are proving to be accurate.
Apple category growth continues to be propelled by the newer managed varieties and brands. The overall decline in apple category performance was offset by double digit sales increases among many emerging varieties. Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Ambrosia™ Sweetango and KIKU® brand apples all posted strong sales increases over last year for the four-week September start-up period.
Some traditional popular apples showed significant sales declines. Gala (-8.0%), Red Delicious (-16.9%), Golden Delicious (-12.1%) and McIntosh (-9.9) all lost sales dollars in September compared to the same period last year.
Don Patella, Regional Marketing Director for CMI, noted that McIntosh sales dropped by nearly 10% year over year despite having one of the lower retail price points in the category. Conversely, Ambrosia had the largest sales increase in the category while selling at roughly $2.40 per pound, one of the higher retail prices of any apple in the month of September.
Fresh apples are the No. 1 fruit consumed by children.A new study, called Fruit Consumption by Youth in the United States, published in the online journal Pediatrics, surveyed more than 3,100 youth from ages two to 19 years, examining fruit consumption and differences by age, gender, race and poverty status.
The study found that nearly 90% of total fruit intake came from whole fruits (53%) and 100% fruit juice (34%), according to the study. Apples, apple juice, citrus juice and bananas make up about half of total fruit consumption, according to the study.
Fresh apples accounted for 18.9% of total fruit consumption among children, according to the study, and apple juice accounted for about 10%.
“This is fantastic news,” said Wendy Brannen. director of consumer health and education for the U.S. Apple Association, Vienna, Va. “The great thing about this study that has come out in Pediatrics magazine is that it has been repeated everywhere from CNN to U.S. News and World Report to local and regional morning shows from Chattanooga to New York City, and the exposure for us is priceless.”
Brannen said the study, which has been covered by dozens of media outlets since it recently came out, will encourage families to consume more apples.
The study said apple juice accounted for 16.8% of fruit consumption for children ages two to five years, but that fell to 8.8% for children six to 11 years old. On the other hand, fresh apples represented 22.4% of fruit consumption for children six to 11 years old, but just 8.8% of total fruit consumed for two- to five-year-olds.
While Maine cranberry shipments are not considered to be a major player among states that have cranberries, this season it did produce an estimated 2 million pounds of fruit.
Although this year’s cranberry harvest was good, prices were unusually low, making for a “depressing” market, according to a cranberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “The price was … horrendous for water-harvested berries,” said Charles Armstrong, of the extension.
About 84 percent of all cranberries in Maine are wet harvested, which involves flooding the bog and collecting the ripe berries when they float to the surface. According to Armstrong, the “break-even point” for wet harvesting requires getting about 35 to 40 cents per pound for the berries. For the 2015 season, however, the price dipped to between 12 and 20 cents a pound. In contrast, at $1.50 to $2.50 per pound, prices were good for dry harvested berries, which are picked by hand or raked mechanically.
But only about 16 percent of Maine’s crop is dry harvested because the market for fresh cranberries it is relatively small compared to the market for processed cranberries, which are wet harvested for making juice and cranberry sauce.
Some growers cut their losses and did not harvest this year because of the low prices. About five of the approximately 30 cranberry growers in Maine declined to harvest a total of about 25 acres. The biggest costs in cranberry farming are associated with trucking and processing the fruit . Fuel and manpower are other costs avoided by not harvesting.
Canned pumpkin has become scarce in supermarkets in Illinois. This is a huge concern for Thanksgiving.
Nestlé, whose Libby brand of pumpkin filling is the largest in Illinois, has said their yields of sugar pumpkins have declined as much as a third this year, due to the amount of rain in the summer. Pumpkins require 90 to 120 frost-free days and, since they are a warm-season annual, are harvested from September through October.
Once Nestlé ships all their canned pumpkin, used specifically for pies, they will not have any to distribute until the new year. However, there is concern that the issue may be more long-term and there may also be a shortage in 2016.
Illinois is, by far, the top sugar pumpkin producing state in the nation, with more than 19,800 acres harvested in 2014.
Canadian Cranberry Shipments
Amid a record season for Canadian cranberry shipments, most of Canada’s cranberry production is exported to the United States. In recent years, Quebec surpassed British Columbia as Canada’s biggest cranberry producer. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. account for a much smaller share. While the vast amount of fresh cranberries are shipped for the U.S. Thanksgiving, a relatively small amount will be for Christmas.
An unprecedented reduction in the projected Florida citrus crop just a month after its initial forecast has been issued by the USDA.
Florida is predicted to produce only 74 million boxes of oranges, the lowest harvest in 52 years. That is 6 million fewer boxes of oranges than its Oct. 9 projection, an 8 percent decline, and 24 percent below the 2014-15 orange crop of 96.8 million boxes.
The Florida grapefruit shipments have been cut by 100,000 boxes to 12.2 million boxes, but left the projected tangerine crop at 1.75 million boxes. The expected tangelo harvest plummeted by 11 percent over the month to just 400,000 boxes, the lowest total in 59 years.
The increasingly damaging effects of the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening, which has spread to virtually all of Florida’s 501,396 grove acres, led to the reductions. Greening’s most significant effects on the crop are smaller fruit sizes and an increase in the amount of mature fruit that drops to the ground before it can be harvested.
Chilean Cherry Imports
As of mid November, Chile has exported 32,661 boxes of cherries vs. 992,334 boxes (156 tons vs. 4,392 tons) compared to the same time last year. This is a reflection of a delay in harvest dates caused in part by an unusually cold spring, as well as a drop in production due to other weather conditions.
The committee has released a revised estimate of 88,500 tons (17.7 million cases), a reduction of 31,500 tons from its original projection in September and a decrease of 14,500 tons from last season.
Potato shipments from the Red River Valley of North Dakota, the nation’s largest red potato growing area, should be the largest in more than decade.The North Dakota potato shipments are forecast at 27.2 million hundredweight (cwt.), or 3.3 million cwt. more than 2014, a 14 percent increase. It is the largest North Dakota potato crop since 2003.
More planted acres and higher yields are being attributed to the big crop. 82,000 acres were planted to potatoes in 2015, 3,000 more than in 2014. The average yield in the state, a combination of irrigated and dryland crops, was 340 cwt. per acre smashing the old record by 25 cwt./acre set just last year.
Minnesota Potato Shipments
The November estimate has the Minnesota potato crop at 18.48 million cwt., up just over 2 million cwt. from last year or a 12.7 percent increase. The average yield in Minnesota was also up sharply from last year at 420 cwt. per acre, compared to 400 last year. Red River Valley potato shipments typically have tight truck supplies every season.
U.S. Potato Shipments
The estimates for the U.S. 2015-16 season is at 408.6 million cwt., up nearly 5 million cwt. compared to last year. Unusually high yields in many states contributed to the increase. Record yields were reported in North Dakota, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin, and near record yields in several other states. On the flip side, summer heat took the top off yields in the Northwest, particularly in Idaho, the nation’s biggest potato shipper by far.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1700 to Chicago.
There have been nearly 19.6 million boxes of the 2015-16 crop of Washington apples shipped as of November 1st. This represents 16.5 percent of the projected 118.4 million boxes of fruit harvested. Meanwhile, Chilean citrus imports continue to grow.
The amount shipped thus far at this time a year ago is more than the 15.5 percent shipped at this point on the 2013 crop, which was of a similar size of 115 million boxes. The harvest of the 2015-16 apple crop began earlier this year and progressed quickly. The Washington apple shipping estimate is likely to change as growers get a firmer handle on the total crop size.
Washington apple shipments – grossing about $6800 to New York City.
Chilean Citrus Imports
Chile shipped nearly 204,000 tons of Navels, lemons and easy peelers (clementines and Mandarins) globally, with 165,000 tons, or 81 percent, coming to the United States and Canada between May and October 2015.
Total citrus exports from Chile climbed 30 percent over the previous season. Concerning global Chilean citrus exports, easy peelers represented 37 percent, oranges 33 percent and lemons 30 percent. The largest increase in terms of shipping volumes vs. last season corresponded to late Mandarins (57 percent), followed by lemons (43 percent), oranges (18 percent) and then clementines (11 percent).
The most impressive growth was with Mandarins, as North America volume skyrocketed to 42,124 tons from 27,354 tons — an increase of 54 percent.
Observers foresee 20 percent annual growth in combined volume of clementines and Mandarins for at least the next three years, so total volume will soon exceed 100,000 tons.
Cranberries are the largest agricultural food product in the state, with an annual crop value of $99.8 million. The industry provides 6,900 jobs and total economic benefit of more than $1.4 billion, according to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association’s 2015 report.With the climate expected to warm in the decades to come, farmers can expect more insects and more fungal and other plant diseases. The cranberry grows best in temperate climes, DeMoranville said, and long, hot sunny days produce smaller berries that don’t get top prices.
Studies have shown that Cape Cod cranberry growers can expect conditions similar to those now experienced in New Jersey, at the southernmost range of the plant. That area has the highest level of rotted berries, Wick said. The winters also have to be cold enough for ice to form over the flooded bogs so farmers can apply sand that seeps down in the spring and forms a new bed for the plants.
“Eventually, if it got hot enough, you would come to a time when you couldn’t grow cranberries, what may happen is that the entire industry just shifts north,” DeMoranville said.
In essence, that has already happened, as newcomer Quebec overtook Massachusetts in 2013 as the No. 2 cranberry growing region.
Maybe Popeye had it right: Spinach makes you stronger. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found the high nitrate content in the leafy greens like spinach, as well as beets, improves muscle performance.
In a new study, published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, investigators found drinking concentrated vegetable juice – in this case made from beets – increased muscle power in nine patients with heart failure.
“It’s a small study, but we see robust changes in muscle power about two hours after patients drink the beet juice,” said Linda R. Peterson, M.D., associate professor of medicine. “A lot of the activities of daily living are power-based – getting out of a chair, lifting groceries, climbing stairs. And they have a major impact on quality of life.
Nitrates in beet juice, spinach, and other leafy green vegetables such as arugula and celery are processed by the body into nitric oxide, which is known to relax blood vessels and have other beneficial effects on metabolism.
The results of the study found that two hours after the treatment, patients demonstrated a 13 percent increase in power in muscles that extend the knee. The researchers also pointed out that participants experienced no major side effects from the beet juice, including no increase in heart rates or drops in blood pressure, which is important in patients with heart failure.
If you eat a salad, or haul vegetable items making up a salad in late fall or winter, you probably picked up that product in the Yuma, AZ vegetable district, or California’s Imperial Valley.
The Yuma vegetable district has 90,000 acres of winter veggies.
The website of the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association proclaims, “Yuma farmers produce enough Iceberg lettuce each year for every person in the United States, Canada and Mexico to have their very own head of lettuce — with enough lettuce left for every person in the United Kingdom to have one too.”
So far the Yuma vegetable season, which is now shipping in light volume, is felt by many to be a normal one from an acreage, production and shipping stand point. Some weather issues early in the planting and growing season is leading to lighter volume and some minor shipping gaps for the early period. It will probably be early December before good steady volume and shipments are available.
The primary vegetable items Iceberg lettuce, romaine, red leaf, green leaf and other mixed lettuce items.
Two of the main concerns are the possible effects of The El Nino, as well as a shortage of laborers for harvest.
Yuma lettuce and melons – grossing grossing about $5900 to New York City.