Posts Tagged “feature”
West Texas watermelons are now being loaded, plus here’s an update on California Valencia orange shipments in the latter part of the season before navels get underway.
Texas Watermelon Shipments
Watermelon shipments are underway from West Texas, with good growing conditions and rainfall report to be producing one of the regions better crops. For example, loadings are now taking place with Warren Produce LLC, out of Brownfield, Tx. Acreage is up a little in West Texas this season, particularly on seeded watermelon varieties. Shipments are expected to continue through August and September.
West Texas watermelons – grossing about $2600 to Chicago.
California Orange Shipments
California valencia shippers are reporting brisk loadings of high-quality fruit after a lull the first half of August. Volume has picked back up, especially with the kids starting back to school. Meanwhile, the forecast for the upcoming navel shipments, initially is showing lower volume ahead due to water restrictions.
Valencia shipments have been a mixed bag this summer, as growers approach water restrictions in different ways. Some shippers pushed heavy at the front end of the season, while others took a break and are now increasing shipments heading into fall. Valencia shipments should be strong until early October, about two weeks before growers transition to navels.
The initial estimate of 20 million cartons of California valencias could wind up being slightly high.
Southern California citrus – grossing about $5600 to Atlanta.
Here’s an update on California fall produce shipments, plus a glimpse at the outlook for Oregon potato shipments.
Among the leading items for fall produce loadings out of California are grapes, apples and citrus.
Grape Shipments
California ships over 60 percent of its table grapes after September 1st. Total California grape shipments this season are estimated at 113.3 million 19-pound boxes. So far grape quality has generally been good. However, we need to keep an eye on hot, humid and occasional rainy weather that could adversely affect quality.
San Joaquin Valley grapes and other items – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
Apple Shipments
California gala apple shipments got off to a slow start in mid July mainly because of Washington state’s old crop still being shipped. Loadings have now picked up. Fujis and granny smith apples shipments get underway in September, followed by pink lady in mid October. Primavera Marketing Inc., of Stockton, CA is the state’s largest apple shipper, with about 1.1 million boxes. The state’s apple shipments have taken a hit, however, with Bidart Bros. of Bakersfield, CA, pulling out of the apple business following a listeria outbreak at its packing facility. The company, which packed about 400,000 boxes of apples, is now focusing on other crops.
Citrus Shipments
California navel shipments should start in mid-October, although volume will be down this season due to 20,000 to 25,000 acres of trees being dozed because of the drought. For easy-peel fruit, satsumas will starte ahead of navels, in late September or early October.v Clementine loadings start soon after navels. Volumes should be up as younger trees come into production.
Oregon Potato Shipments
Oregon fresh potato shipments are expected to be similar to the 2014-15 season.
However, excessive heat could change spuds as the harvest progresses, especially if vines start dying early.
The table stock harvest started in early August from the Columbia Basin, with harvest in the Klamath Basin following shortly thereafter.
Oregon fresh potato shipments are 17 percent of total state production, with fresh acreage being approximately 7,000 acres.
Oregon potatoes – grossing about $4300 to Chicago.
Ambrosia and KIKU brand apples continue to be bright spots in the apple category according to the latest retail scan data available from Nielsen Perishables Group.
Data released recently shows that for the four weeks ending May 23, 2015, total U.S. sales of Ambrosia had the strongest growth rate (up 157 percent) among the top 10 apple varieties. Ambrosia was one of only two apples — the other being Honeycrisp — in the top 10 to show an increase in dollar volume performance.
The larger Ambrosia crop has provided savvy retailers with an opportunity to continue to sell this great apple longer into the season, says Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing at CMI. “The story is, consumers continue to seek out and buy Ambrosia as long as retailers carry it,” said Lutz. “When you look at the entire apple category and see that only two apples in the top 10 are showing sales increases, it really shows the emerging following Ambrosia has with consumers. This is exactly the type of growth we saw with Honeycrisp a few years back.”
The May scan data also revealed a second consecutive record sales month for KIKU brand apples. Boosted by imports from New Zealand, KIKU jumped into the top 15 powered by a 305 percent increase in sales, with volume increasing by 420 percent.
“Imported KIKU are clearly generating fresh sales for the apple category,” said Robb Myers, Director of Sales at CMI. “Of the top 15 apples nationally, KIKU’s performance increase was far and away the strongest in the category,” said Myers. He added, “This is great news because it shows how branded apples like KIKU can generate incremental sales for retailers even during the heart of the summer fruit season.”
Myers added that supplies of New Zealand KIKU will be available through the summer months into August. “We anticipated that the strong sales success of KIKU would continue, and we’ve been regularly receiving fresh imports to supply our customers in the U.S. market.” Total apple category volume moved up slightly by 2.3 percent during the month of May. However, declining retail prices offset the volume increase leading to an overall decline in apple category dollars of 6 percent.
By Larry Oscar
Just as you think the news about our government couldn’t get any worse, it inevitably does. It seems that every week we get some new revelation about how more corrupt or incompetent one of our government agencies has become.
If you recall about seven years ago the incompetent politicians in Washington were saying the banks were corrupt and too big to manage. If anything is “too big to manage” it is our government. The politicians were scrambling trying to pin the blame for the housing collapse on the banks making those “risky loans”. The very loans than the US Attorney General, Janet Reno in 1995, had forced the banks to make or face a federal lawsuit under the Community Reinvestment Act.
Now we have that filthy rich socialist Elizabeth Warren from the left wing state of Massachusetts crying out again that the banks are too big to manage and should be broken up. Oh that’s a great idea. Nothing like letting China have the only large bank in the global market place. I’m sure that will be good for all of the rest of the free world. Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m getting old, but it sure appears to me that the decline of the United States is accelerating at an ever increasing pace.
I’m afraid the corruption and incompetence goes all the way to the top. Unfortunately, when you look at downsizing it always comes down to government jobs. We can’t simplify the tax system with a flat tax or a national sales tax. Why just think of all those 115,000 IRS workers who would be out of a job. Not to mention all those tax attorneys or the workers at tax preparation companies. So we have a corrupt IRS that just keeps getting bigger and more evil every day.
We can’t have simple efficient airport security like Israel does. Oh no, we have to have a bloated 35,000 government worker TSA that is riddled with thieves and has a 95% failure rate on security tests. It was two years ago that “Mr. Potato Head” in the White House said he was appalled at the Veterans Administration behavior and their miserable performance at the VA Hospitals. He appointed a new head of the VA and assured us that things were going to get straighten out. Guess what? They have actually gotten worse. And no one can be fired at the VA for their poor performance and incompetence . After all, the VA has over 300,000 full time government employees and we can’t afford to upset that rotten apple cart can we?
If we gave all the veterans a health card and let them go to the private sector, like the rest of us, it would eliminate those 300,000 VA government workers. And everybody has forgotten about the good old Post Office. Those bozos are so incompetent that the Post Office has lost over $47 billion dollars over the past decade, and still counting, with no profitable year in sight. Now do you see a trend here? I sure do.
We can’t “right size” our government because we have too many government workers who are dependant on the government for their jobs. And guess what? We have 47% of the American voters now getting a handout from one of these government agencies. Which brings us to the big picture… Greece.
You have been hearing a lot about this socialist nation. They are in debt about $350 billion. They only have about 11 million people, so that’s about $32,000 dollars of debt per citizen. How does that relate to us you may ask? Well, we are over $18 trillion dollars in debt. That is about $60,000 per US citizen. Yes folks we are just about in twice as much debt per citizen as Greece. Which is why “Mr. Potato Head” is carping on “climate change”, and a new tax scheme called “cap and trade” that will get his grubby little hands on even more of our money to grow the government to an even bigger size. And that will overwhelm our capitalist system of free enterprise. Check your history.
Go back to the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and you will find a gentleman from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics named Nikita Khrushchev who said they would not have to fire a shot to defeat the United States. He said that they would defeat us from within. Maybe it is just me, but I bet this country will continue to decline at an ever accelerated pace while the future generation we have spawned keeps playing games and texting ho ho’s on their cell phone.
Larry Oscar is a graduate from the University of Tulsa and holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is retired and lives with his wife on a lake in Oklahoma where he brews his own beer, sails, and is a member of numerous clubs and organizations.
Here’s an update on imported items arriving at ports on both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States.
Chilean avocado production this season is expected to increase a whopping 45 percent, estimated at 390 million pounds. Of this total, it’s estimate 100 million pounds will be exported to the United States, a significant increase over a year ago. For the 2014-15 marketing season, Chile had a total volume of 260 million pounds. Chilean avocados should start arriving at U.S. ports by September, with the best volume coming in by early October and continuing through March.
Chilean avocado imports have always had a strong following on the West Coast so volumes to this region are typically higher, although arrivals will occur at ports on both coasts.
Port of Long Beach imports, plus Southern California citrus, avocados, tomatoes – grossing about $4600 to Chicago.
South African Imports
Citrus imports from South Africa, as well as from Peru, are arriving in light to moderate volume, primarily at the Port of Philadelphia. Items range from clementines to oranges, tangelos and tangerines.
Avocado Imports
There is good volume with Chilean avocado imports arriving on both coasts, such as the Port of Long Beach and Port of Philadelphia.
South Florida Imports
There’s a lot of different imported produce items arriving at South Florida ports. However it is pretty light with commodities ranging from ginger to chayote, malanga blanca (yam) and clabaza (a large winter squash), among others.
The third largest apple shipping season on record is forecast for the 2015-16 out of Washington state.
Virtually all shipments, which will originate out of the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys, are pegged at 125.2 million cartons, compared to the record 140-million-carton 2014-15 fresh crop. The new season forecast for shipments, if holds true, would be just below the 128.3 million cartons shipped in 2012-13.
The harvest this season, due to hot weather, got underway a week or more early with galas, which started August 6th. Apple haulers will be loading a rising amount of gala and Honeycrisp, but will see declines in red and golden delicious compared with the past three seasons. 10 million fewer cartons of red delicious are expected to be shipped this season, compared to a year ago.
Some Washington state growers have removed red and golden delicious trees and planted Honeycrisp and other varieties.
Red delicious apples now account for 25 percent of the crop, followed by gala with 23 percent, fuji at 13.7 percent, granny smith at 13 percent and 7 percent for Honeycrisp.
Honeycrisp has passed golden delicious in expected fresh shipments. Observers expect Honeycrisp production — near 9 million fresh cartons now — to continue to climb.
Yakima Valley apple shipments – grossing about $4700 to Dallas; $6500 to New York City.
From New Jersey, to Mexican imports in South Texas to the arrivals of Peruvian asparagus, here are some possible loading opportunities.
New Jersey Produce Shipments
New Jersey peach shipments are now moving in good volume. There are nearly 5,000 acres of red and white peach tree orchards in New Jersey.
The Garden state also is shipping cucumbers, squash, peppers and beans, among other veggies. Jersey planted 6,300 acres of sweet corn last year and similar acreage and volume is expected this year.
Peruvian Asparagus
As Peruvian asparagus growers move into their peak season, exporters are already ahead of the projected volumes for 2015. Peru produces asparagus throughout the year thanks to a favorable climate. Production areas are situated both in north and south of Peru, allowing exports to the United States after domestic shipments have finished. Peru exported nearly 220 million pounds of fresh asparagus in 2014, which represented an increase of 6.84 percent over export volume in 2013. The U.S. was the chief destination for fresh Peruvian asparagus, accounting for 60 percent of total volume. “Grass” arrivals are primarily at ports on both U.S. coasts.
Mexican Lemon Shipments
Beginning in mid-August, imports of Mexican lemons will start with product crossing the border at McAllen, Tx, which is during the seasonal gap between the California coastal and desert growing regions. Shipments through McAllen also offers a substantial savings on transportation for shipments to the Midwest and East Coast, compared to California. Product will be available through mid-October, leading into the start of California desert shipments.
Mexican fruits, vegetables crossing into the Lower Rio Grande Valley – grossing about $4500 to New York City.
by Columbia Marketing International
Demand is hot for Ambrosia™ apples this summer, as they continue to be one of the brightest items in supermarket produce departments. Recently released scan data from Nielsen Perishables Group revealed that for the most recent four week period through June 27, Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp were the only two apples in the top 10 varieties that generated an increase in sales dollars. All other top 10 varieties declined.
According to Robb Myers, Vice President of Sales for CMI, the data shows that consumers continue to look for highly flavored apples like Ambrosia™. “It’s pretty impressive when you consider that in the top 10 selling apple varieties nationally, only Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp generated dollar increases. Ambrosia™ and Honeycrisp–that’s pretty good company.”
Myers said a big part of the sales increase is a result of a longer Ambrosia™ domestic season for CMI as well as a strong import season for Chilean grown Ambrosia™ He added, “Our goal was to align sales of our stronger late-storage Ambrosia™ with imported products to ensure continuity of supply right through the new crop out of Washington in early September.”
There is still room for incremental Ambrosia™ growth according to Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI. “The Nielsen data shows that during the most recent four weeks, only about 50% of supermarkets carried Ambrosia™,” said Lutz.
“It’s quite remarkable that only half the retailers in the country are carrying one of the hottest selling apples in the category. In a year where cherry sales are down, generating incremental apple category dollars with Ambrosia is an easy win.”
Lutz says that supplies are excellent and CMI will be running Ambrosia™ promotions with retailers through the month of August rolling into new crop at the beginning of September.
Nearly all vendors for Wal-Mart Stores will begin facing fees for stocking their items in new stores and for warehousing inventory. This is seen as raising pressure on suppliers as the world’s largest retailer battles higher costs from wage hikes to it one-half million employees.
Wal-Mart began informing suppliers about the fees and other changes to supplier agreements recently, and the changes, which also include amended payment terms, will affect 10,000 suppliers to its U.S. stores.
In the past, Wal-Mart has imposed such fees, but did not apply fees uniformly. Some but not all suppliers were charged
The new agreements mean a larger number of vendors will likely start paying fees, passing some of the retailer’s costs onto suppliers,
As an example, Wal-Mart is seeking to charge a food supplier 10 percent of the value of inventory shipped to new stores and to new warehouses, both one-time charges, and 1 percent to hold inventory in existing warehouses, according to a copy of amended terms seen by Reuters.
It is not clear from the document whether the one-time charges apply only to the initial shipment or cover a certain period of time. Currently, the supplier is not charged anything, the document shows.
It is not the way Wal-Mart has done business in the past, and this approach suggests that they are seeking areas to offset their increased investment in wages, as well as offset their lack of organic revenue growth.
Pacific Northwest Produce Shipments
Here’s an outlook for the new crop of pear shipments gearing up in a few weeks from the Pacific Northwest, plus an update on what’s happening in California.
The fourth largest volume of pear shipments out of the Pacific Northwest is seen for the 2015-16 season, with an estimated 20 million-plus boxes. While this is 2 percent below last year, it is 2 percent above a five-year average. Pear shipments last season was the second highest on record. The total Northwest summer-fall pear volume is anticipated to be approximately 4.8 million boxes, down 6 percent from 2014. The total Northwest winter pear volume is expected to be about 15.6 million boxes, unchanged from 2014.
Meanwhile, the old apple and pear crop continues to be shipped, while cherry loadings are virtually finished. Still, 2000 truck load equivalents of apples continue to be loaded weekly.
Yakima and Wenatchee Valley apple and pear shipments – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
California Produce Shipments
San Joaquin Valley table grapes continue to be shipped in steady volume, averaging nearly 1500 truck loads per week….Northern California and the San Joaquin Valley may have modest pear shipments to the Northwest, the new crop is averaging around 175 truck loads per week…..The San Joaquin Valley continues to ship a wide variety of product ranging from cantaloupe, honeydew and other melons from the Westside district, plus the valley has a host of vegetables and tomatoes being loaded. Still, mostly adequate truck supplies are being reported to handle the demand.
San Joaquin Valley produce – grossing about $7100 to New York City.