Posts Tagged “feature”
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.
Polk remained Florida’s top citrus county in the 2014-15 season, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It led Florida citrus production with more than 16.8 million boxes, or 15 percent of the state total.
Polk ranked second in production of oranges with more than 15.2 million boxes – 16 percent of total state production of 96.8 million boxes – and just 19,000 boxes behind top-ranked Hendry County. It led in “specialty citrus” production, tangerines and tangelos, at 915,000 boxes, or 31 percent of percent of Florida production.
Polk’s 2014-15 grapefruit harvest was 670,000 boxes, third highest in the state behind Indian River and St. Lucie counties, each with nearly 5 million grapefruit boxes.
Still Polk County citrus production fell compared to the past several seasons, as it has across the state. In 2013-14, Polk growers harvested 19.9 million boxes of citrus, including 17.5 million orange boxes, 1.2 million grapefruit boxes and nearly 1.2 million tangerine and tangelo boxes.
Polk had the most citrus grove land in Florida with 80,488 acres, the USDA reported. That was down 1.6 percent from 81,810, half the statewide loss of 3 percent.
Trailing Polk were DeSoto County citrus with 66,302 acres, Hendry County with 64,063 acres, Highlands County with 58,287 acres and Hardee County with 58,287 acres. None of the remaining 23 major citrus-producing counties has more than 30,000.
Polk also ranks No. 1 in the citrus tree count with 9.9 million trees, the USDA reported. Following are Hendry with 9.7 million trees, DeSoto with 8.9 million trees, Highlands with 7.7 million trees and Hardee with 6 million commercial citrus trees.
Christmas tree shipments started a couple of weeks ago, and in some areas this puts a crunch on truck available for hauling fresh produce.
While fresh fruits and vegetables typically pay better than dry freight, the annual shipments of Christmas trees means even higher paying rates – sometimes 10 to 20 percent more. The downside is some trucker don’t like hauling the trees because they can damage in the inside walls of the trailer. Still produce shippers say it’s more difficult finding enough trucks for fresh produce hauls, especially if you are located in one of the leading states for Christmas tree production.
Christmas tree shipments are rapidly increasing in volume and will actually continue until two or three days before the December 25th observance of the birth of Christ.
Here’s the leading Christmas tree shipping states, based on 2012 USDA numbers: 1 – Oregon, 6.4 million; 2 – North Carolina, 4.2 million, 3 – Michigan, 1.7 million; 4 – Pennsylvania, 1 million; 5 – Wisconsin, 611,000; 6 – Washington, 587,000; 7 – Virginia, 478,000; 8 – New York, 274,000; 9 – Maine, 195,000; and 10 – Connecticut, 159,000.
Christmas trees are grown for sale in 45 U.S states on 174,000 acres of land in the United States.
About 24.5 million live Christmas trees were purchased in 2012, down from 30.8 million in 2011, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Of those, 85 percent were pre-cut and 14 percent were harvested at cut-your-own enterprises. In the same year, 24 percent of Christmas trees were sold from cut-your-own tree farms and another 24 percent from chain stores. Significant percentages of Christmas trees were also sold from retail lots (15 percent), nonprofit groups (15 percent) and nursery/garden centers (11 percent).
Bustard’s Christmas Trees in Lehighton, PA. has been selected to provide the national Christmas tree this year. The tree chosen is a Fraser fir to be used in the White House Blue Room this coming holiday season. The tree stands 19 feet tall and measures about 11 feet wide. The Bustard family has been in the Christmas tree business over 85 years.
The continued decline of Florida’s commercial citrus industry, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently, surprised nobody.
Total citrus acreage continued its 19-year decline with another 3 percent fall in grove land to 501,396 acres compared to 515,147 acres last year. Those groves also had 2 percent fewer trees since 2014 with a total of 66.9 million trees, down from 68.1 million trees a year ago.
“These are the lowest numbers in the series across the board,” said Candi Erick, administrator at the USDA’s Florida Field Office in Maitland, which oversees the annual citrus census.
Erick was referring to the 49-year census series back to 1966, when the USDA began its current aerial survey method. USDA officials met with a growers’ advisory board at the Florida’s Natural Growers Grove House.
The new survey showed 12,343 acres of new citrus groves planted over the year, the highest total since 2009, but the increase was not enough to overcome the loss of 26,094 grove acres since 2014, she said. On the bright side, Erick said, most of the acreage removed was probably abandoned or marginally productive groves.
Of greater concern to growers is the decline in the value of the citrus crop.
The USDA reported the preliminary on-tree value of the 2014-15 Florida citrus crop at $1 billion, a 12 percent decline from a revised value of nearly $1.2 billion in the 2013-14 crop. A year ago, USDA had valued the 2013-14 crop at $946.5 million.
Because of rising costs and declining value, the 2014-15 season was a tough one economically for most growers, said Larry Black, a Fort Meade-based grower and president of Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest growers’ trade group. Grove caretaking costs have risen to about $2,200 per acre, triple the costs just 15 years ago.