Posts Tagged “feature”
It should be a good summer for produce truckers who haul fruit out of the Northwest.
Cherry shipments are underway, while most other stone fruit crops will begin in mid-July, picking up speed as the calendar switches to August, and then going strong until the end of the month, with the late fruit still shipping out in early September. Northwest stone fruit shipments to Canada have been showing significant increases in recent years.
A little over one-third of American households purchase peaches, five times more than buy kale. Kale, of course, is the hot, trendy vegetable in America these days.
Apricot production ramped up in early June and was expected to continue through the month. Apricots are expected to be similar in size to last year’s large 7,500 ton crop. Organic apricots are making their mark. It may only be 2 percent of the U.S. category, but it’s growing at three times the rate of conventional.
Pear Shipments
The 2015 fresh pear shipments are forecast at nearly 20.4 million box equivalents, which equates to approximately 451,000 tons of fresh pears. The projection is 2 percent higher than the five-year average, and 2 percent lower than last year’s crop. The estimate was collected from fresh pear growers in Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford, OR, growing districts.
Northwest pear shipments start in late July with Starkrimson, followed by the Bartlett harvest in early August. Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, Forelle and Seckel will be picked from late August through September.
Apples, pears and cherries – grossing about $7300 to Orlando.
Michigan blueberry shipments will be down this season, but it’s a matter of how much. In New Jersey, blueberry shipments should be similar to a year ago.
Two bitterly cold winters back-to-back hit blueberry bushes in Michigan, causing “winter kill” that will reduce shipments for the 2015 season.
The severity of damage varies widely, though, with some growers saying the crop will be “slightly smaller” and others saying some varieties in some areas will be down 50 percent. Still, decent volume is being predicted for Michigan blueberries starting the second week of July with strong shipments through the end of August and possibly into September.
Michigan apples and vegetables – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
New Jersey Blueberry Shipments
New Jersey blueberry shipments got underway about a week ago and are now moving into good volumes. In 2014, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics service showed New Jersey growers produced more than 57.8 million pounds of blueberries on approximately 8,800 acres. New Jersey currently ranks fifth in national production. Early indications show that New Jersey is on track to match, if not exceed, 2014 totals.
Despite a mayoral pledge to revitalize operations, the nearly two-decade battle to modernize the Hunts Point Terminal Market’s distribution facilities appears no closer to completion.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in early March announced his administration plans to invest $150 million over 12 years to revitalize aging operations. However some Hunts Point wholesalers say the mayor wasn’t specifically talking about the Hunts Point Produce Terminal.
Instead, the mayor’s announcement was neighborhood-specific and was referring to all the food markets on the Hunts Point peninsula, which include the Fulton Fish Market and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, which is also known as the Hunts Point Meat Market. When one does the math, $150 million over 12 years doesn’t amount to much and isn’t considered remarkable.
The $150 million isn’t anywhere near the $800 million needed to modernize operations, although the city is spending money to improve the market. It is pointed out that a $21 million project constructing railroad sidings alongside the market’s buildings and constructing an open-air rail shed on the market’s east side for freight car unloading is underway.
At the 329-acre facility, 115 wholesalers that employ more than 8,000 workers distribute from the market’s four buildings that were constructed in the late 1960s. Talks to move distributors out of the aging 500,000-square-foot market began in 2000.
Washington produce rates on apples, cherries – grossing about $7400 to New York City.
California’s Westside District, known for its cantaloupe shipments, gets underway this week.
The area gets its name from being located on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Centered around the town of Huron, the melons are starting a week to 10 days earlier than normal.
A number of California produce shipments shipped earlier than ever in 2014 and then broke that record this year. Melons are in a similar situation. The first California melons were shipped out of Brawley in the California desert on April 27. Yuma melons were early as well.
Despite the California drought, melons are still be produced with a key factor being that growers a shifted the location of their acreage to areas that have more water. Some have moved north, while other growers moved west or east or found land with well water when surface water wasn’t going to be available.
Cantaloupes have a short season crop and are considered a low water use crop, plus do well on well water.
The highest volume for Westside District cantaloupes will be from the end of June through the middle of October, if the weather cooperates in September and October.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for fruits and vegetables – grossing about $4900 to Houston, $6100 to Atlanta.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
A key to success is the advancement and modernization of equipment, whether talking long haul trucking or in this case, the machines that ready pallets with trays of strawberries, protected by the Tectrol CO2 process.
Tectrol is a patented process held by TransFresh Corporation in Salinas, CA.
TransFresh has what it calls a modified squeeze which effectively allows the company to increase the productivity of its conveyor system at packing facilities. Now research is being conducted to use the squeeze system in the field, according to Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division, for TransFresh.
“An older model can produce 45 to 55 pallets per hour across that machine,” Macleod says. “With the double down version, we’ve significantly modified the squeeze portion. We’ve also added mechanisms that square the pallet. We’ve changed the conveyor roll on so they are able to produce 55 to 65 pallets per hour.”
Continuing, Macleod notes there also are programs allowing machine operators to stop and back up the pallets on the system when trouble shooting is needed. This allows the problem to be quickly addressed.
In general, it (the system) is faster. So all of this is good for the produce haulers. The boxes on the pallets are more squared than ever and this reduces chances of shifting (of the load) even more. It also protects the strawberries, providing a better seal. Perhaps most important is it helps to speed loading onto the truck, reducing the wait times at the dock by the drivers,” Macleod says.
It’s looking like another banner year for California grape shipments as the desert winds down and the San Joaquin Valley cranks up.
With the end of May, Coachella volume appeared down 20% from 2014. Early starts can make for early finishes. Some Coachella shippers are just finishing their desert grape season, about a week early. However, a few shipments will occur in the last week of June….Mexican grape shipments face a similar situation. Some loadings will end the around June 20th, when July 4th is typical.
While Coachella and Mexico are finishing up early, shipping gaps are not seen because the San Joaquin Valley grape shipments are ahead of schedule. Initial light harvests are expected by June 20-22. Shipments should be moving into good volume by the second week of July.
Preliminary estimates for California grape shipments out of the San Joaquin Valley are pegged at 113.3 million 19-pound boxes for 2015. This is up from 110.9 million last year. The state’s record, set in 2013, was 116.3 million. Loadings of California grapes should be available through November.
California Tomato Shipments
California shipped its first load of mature green tomatoes on June 2. Several more loads were shipped during the week of June 8th, putting the crop about a week ahead of schedule. If all goes as expected, California will have mature greens through about mid-November. The mature green tomato is popular with foodservice companies and also is used by repackers across the country. Acreage is down about 10 percent this year due to the California drought.
While the California season gets under way, there are also tomatoes from several other locations including crossings from Mexico into California, Arizona and Texas.
San Joaquin Valley tomatoes, stone fruit and vegetables – grossing about $5000 to Chicago; $7400 to New York City.
New Jersey blueberry shipments are underway, plus the Garden State’s peach season is coming soon. Additionally, in Idaho, fruit shipments take a big hit for this season.
New Jersey weather warmed up in mid May and helped bring on blueberries. New Jersey blueberry shipments get underway any day now with the Duke variety. Blues should be in good volume heading in the Fourth of July holiday. Shipments should continue through late July.
New Jersey Peach Shipments
It will be the middle of July before New Jersey peach shipments hit good volumes. Meanwhile peak loadings will arrive later in July and continue through the end of September.
Idaho Fruit Shipments
An Idaho freeze last November in Treasure Valley with temperatures plunging below zero for four straight days resulted in major damage to some fruit trees that had not had a chance to go into dormancy. Many trees have long cracks that occurred when sap and water had not had a chance to move down to the root system. This caused the wood to split open.
In general, apples appear to have weathered the freeze better than other fruit such as prune trees and peach trees. Some fruit trees probably lost two years of their production capability as a result of the November cold. A record warm February and near-record warm March that caused trees to bloom much earlier than normal was followed by an April 3 freeze that damaged blooms.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4900 to Philadelphia.
Nathel & Nathel Inc. has expanded operations on the Hunts Point Terminal Market located in the South Bronx of New York City.
The New York-based wholesaler has added refrigeration capacity, reconfigured its fruit and vegetable divisions and improved its docks for truck loading and unloading. Following the closure of Krisp-Pak Sales Corp. in 2012, Nathel & Nathel took over its units and was working on closing on the purchase of units from the defunct Korean Farm, which went out of business in 2014.
Nathel & Nathel now distributes produce from to 23 units.
The distributor also upgraded the warehouse to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point standards.
Better refrigeration control in different zones will result from the improvements, according to company vice president Sheldon Nathel said. It also should result in better temperature control for fruits and vegetables as well as better organize the operation, making it more efficient.
Nathel & Nathel sells a full line of fruits and vegetables, including tropicals and specialties, to customers throughout the Tri-State region.
The Hunts Point Terminal Market occupies 329 acres and supports 115 private wholesalers that employ over 8,000 people.
Hunts Point wholesalers are paying a freight rate of about $5000 from the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas for fruits and vegetables, and about $4800 for Idaho potatoes.
Ohio has more than the Bengals, Browns and Buckeyes. This time of year it becomes an important player in shipping vegetables.
Ohio Vegetable Shipments
The state got underway with radishes mid-May, and dill, cilantro and turnip and mustard greens by the end of the month. Following shortly after that were beets, lettuces, parsley, sweet corn, green onions and celery.
Ohio radish shipments continue from mid-May to mid-November, with other commodities starting in June and winding down in October.
Then you have sweet corn, celery and peppers, which should get underway in mid- to late July and last until the first frost.
Ohio experienced its hottest May since 1988 — which was a drought year. Some daytime highs were in the 90s, although the 80s were more typical. The heat helped bring the vegetable crops on earlier and grow faster.
Here are a few of the major shippers of Ohio vegetables:
Bettinger Farms Inc., Swanton, OH
Wiers Farm Inc. and Dutch Maid Produce, Willard, OH.
Holthouse Farms, Willard, OH.
Buurma Farms, Willard, OH