Posts Tagged “feature”
by Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. — Wisconsin’s cranberry industry is projected to produce more cranberries than any other state this fall, with a crop of 5 million barrels of fruit, according to crop projections announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistical Services (NASS). The projected bountiful crop, part of the more than 8.4 million barrels of cranberries expected in 2015 nationwide, would continue to challenge the industry with an oversupply of fruit.
“Our growers do a great job and we have much pride in our crop, but today’s news is bittersweet as our industry continues to work its way out of an oversupply,” said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association (WSCGA).
According to Lochner, the combined increase in supply and flat demand in the juice category is creating the market imbalance. He said the use of the latest science and technology by Wisconsin’s cranberry growers is resulting in stronger, healthier crops. That coupled with new U.S. and Canadian cranberry acreage that is now producing fruit and a very kind Mother Nature in recent years, has resulted in the large yields. He added that the industry’s focus now is to grow more and broader interest and demand from the international market.
In 2014, Wisconsin growers had a crop of 4.9 million barrels. The NASS projections, if realized, would result in the 2015 cranberry crop being 2 percent larger than last year’s crop. That projection is dependent on continued good growing weather, no damaging hail storms or major temperature drops leading up to the fall harvest, added Lochner.
Wisconsin will begin harvesting its cranberry crop in late September and continue through much of October to support fresh fruit needs for the early Canadian Thanksgiving (October 12th) and the U.S. holiday season. Other cranberries are frozen and stored for longer-term sales as frozen berries, sweetened dried and dried cranberries, juices, sauces and more. The U.S. Thanksgiving is November 26th.
“The oversupply is quite a challenge for all states that grow cranberries but especially here in Wisconsin where more than half of the world’s supply is grown,” said Lochner.
NASS, which bases its crop estimates on grower surveys nationwide, also made crop projections for other top cranberry producing states. Those projections are: Massachusetts at 2.1 million barrels, New Jersey at 585,000 barrels, Oregon at 504,000 barrels and Washington at 181,000 barrels. The nationwide forecast is expected to be nearly identical to 2014’s production.
Taking a look at Salinas Valley vegetable shipments this summer and you get a good hint at one reason why California produce have been less than stellar.
California’s coastal valleys near Santa Maria and Salinas have experienced unusually warm nights all summer long, which has resulted in some hollow hearts and other issues that basically reduced Iceberg and other varieties of lettuce volume and the weight of each head. Less tonnage per acre has resulted in a demand-exceeds-supply situation, with Iceberg lettuce prices topping $20 per carton.
The lack of lettuce quality is closer to what you normally find in late September or October. The lighter amount of lettuce shipments could continue until the end of the coastal valley deals in mid- to late October. In fact, improvements may not come until the transition to Huron in the San Joaquin Valley in the fall. However, many grower-shippers won’t be planting lettuce in Huron this fall because of the California drought.
The shortage appears to be mostly with various types of lettuce category, while supplies of broccoli, cauliflower and most of the other staple vegetable volumes are adequate.
Something else to consider is El Niño. Meteorologists studying the Pacific Ocean say the warm water patterns are surfacing from the equator to much farther north off the California coast which may mean very heavy fall and winter rains. If this weather pattern becomes a reality many low lying produce fields could become flooded, cutting into acreage and shipments.
Most are predicting that if the El Niño conditions that currently exist do bring huge amounts of rain, they will probably start in late September, with the brunt of the storms hitting from December through February. If that occurs, produce shipments could get cut short, and next season growers would have to delay planting in many fields. Enough speculation. We’ll have to wait and see.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $4600 to Chicago; $6700 to New York City.
Here’s the outlook for Michigan apple shipments, as well imports for sweet onions from Peru.
Michigan has had three straight strong apple shipping seasons after having three very difficult seasons in a short period. In 2012 devastating freezes wiped out almost all of the state’s apples. In 2010 there was hail damage and a short crop. In 2007,T every district in the state had hail damage.
Michigan apple shipments are expected to be down only slightly last year.
Harvest of Paula Reds started about Aug. 15th, while Honeycrisp and Galas should get underway the second week of September.
Picking of Honeycrisp harvest should begin around Sept. 12-15 , while the Gala harvest will commence about August 30th. Red and Golden Delicious gets underway about September 29th and Fujis should start about October 25th.
Michigan vegetables and apples – grossing about $2600 to Dallas.
Peruvian Sweet Onion Imports
Peruvian Sweet Onion Imports will be down substantially this season from the 135,000 tons shipped during the 2014-15 season. Peruvian sweet onion hectares are down this season by 30 percent due to overproduction and very poor prices last season (1 hectare = 2.471 acres). About half of Peru’s onion supplies last season were available for export. The other half of the crop was left in fields unharvested.
Peru has planted about 3,500 hectares of sweet onions this season, down from normal plantings of 2,500 and 3,000 hectares. The United States is the main market for Peruvian sweet onions, receiving approximately 80 percent of the volume.
by United Fresh Produce Association
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United Fresh Produce Association announces the release of the Broker/Shipper Transportation Agreement template. Crafted by members of the United Fresh Supply Chain Logistics Council in partnership with the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), the template is designed for members’ use when entering into the specific business relationship between shipping companies and third party transportation providers.
“This broker:shipper contract is the first of its kind to serve the produce industry,” said Ken Lund, Vice President, Support Operations, Allen Lund Company, Inc., “This template will save those Association members who use it many hours. It was put together by experts who worked hard to create a fair document to allow the parties to do more business together. I am very proud of the United Fresh Produce Association as they continue to provide tools for membership to help them be more effective and profitable.”
“In today’s age, transportation contracts are a necessity,” said James Lee, Vice President, Legal Affairs, Chop Tank Transport. “As produce is an exempt commodity, and produce transportation is unregulated per se, the importance of United Fresh Produce Association and TIA coming together to create a fair and ethical model contract to be used by both shippers and logistics providers cannot be stressed enough. I am proud to be even a small part of the membership from both organizations who contributed their time, energy, and expertise in order to make this happen.”
The Broker/Shipper Transportation Agreement template is a free resource for United Fresh members and can be downloaded at http://www.unitedfresh.org/resources. For more information or questions about the template, contact Dan Vaché, Vice President, Supply Chain Management and staff liaison to the United Fresh Supply Chain Logistics Council at dvache@unitedfresh.org or 425.629.6271.
by Northwest Cherry Growers
With the season drawing practically to a close, the Northwest Cherry Growers are reporting a preliminary count of cherry shipments totalling 20.52 million boxes (20-pound equivalent). That’s less than 00.25% variance from the NWCG round 3 crop estimate published on May 29th, though lower in May and higher in June volume than the curve projection anticipated. Not only was it the earliest crop in at least 20 years, but it was also bigger than all but two of them (2012, 2014) and over in 81 days.
June saw a record 12.6 million boxes, which included accelerated volume by growers working to stay ahead of the heat waves. The Northwest has seen high temperatures over the past few years, but the record-shattering heat was an entirely different event. Statistically speaking, a 1-in-400 years event. Early season weather challenges also reduced the northwest crop, including an estimated 300,000 boxes of Rainier cherries.
July was the smaller of the two months this season – something we haven’t seen since 2005 (7m June, 4.5m July) – but still delivered 7.4 million boxes. May shipped just over 380,000 boxes and August saw just over 70,000 boxes. An August total that low hasn’t been recorded since the 2000 season. Exports were strong this year, coming in just over 30% of the shipped crop.
Yakima Valley apples and stone fruit – grossing about $6500 to Boston.
Produce shipments are big business out of the Salinas Valley, according to a new report.
Agriculture pumped $8.1 billion into the economy of California’s Monterey County in 2014. The report, Economic Contributions of Monterey County Agriculture was prepared by Agricultural Impact Associates for Eric Lauritzen, the county’s agricultural commissioner. The last such analysis was for 2011.
California’s drought is now in its fourth year, but has had little effect thus far on total production in the county, compared to the Central San Joaquin Valley and its dependence on federal and state water projects. Agriculture’s share of Monterey’s direct economic output was unchanged from 2011 at 18.5 percent, but rose from $5.1 billion to $5.7 billion.
The $8.1 billion in 2014 impacts amounts to nearly $1 million every hour – $926,757, to be exact – according to the report. Farm production totaled about $7 billion; value-added food processing, $1.1 billion. Wineries accounted for nearly half of value-added.
Crop diversity has slowly declined since 2005, the report finds, making the region more vulnerable to fluctuations in the strawberry market, for one. That’s so even though as many crop types are grown in the area as ever.
“It means that a small number of crops have grown to represent larger pieces of the economic pie,” the report says. “Strawberry shipments for example, accounted for 10.7 percent of the county’s overall production value in 2004, but expanded to 19.9 percent a decade later.”
Nevertheless, Monterey’s diversity was rated higher than three other coastal counties: Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.
The agriculture industry employed 55,702 in 2014, or 23.7 percent of all local jobs, up from 45,140 and 20 percent.
Salinas Valley vegetables and strawberries – grossing about $5500 to Atlanta.
Citrus shipments have declined 13 percent between 2007 and 2012, mostly from Florida.The USDA’s Census of Agriculture shows that citrus acreage declined to 877,701 acres in 2012 due to primarily citrus greening in Florida. The disease affected nearly all citrus crops except tangerines.
What’s more, at just over 13,000 farms in 2012, the number of U.S. citrus orchards dropped a whopping 17% from 2007. As a percent of total fruit and tree nut acreage, citrus in 2012 accounted for 17 percent of total U.S. orchard acreage, down from 20 percent in 2007 and 24 percent in 2002.
U.S. grapefruit production tumbled from 156,869 acres in 2002 to 88,393 acres in 2012, while orange acreage slid from 987,743 in 2012 to 670,386 acres in 2012.
Headed the other way, U.S. citrus imports have increased over the last decade, rising from 419,053 metric tons in 2002 to 840,103 metric tons in 2014.
An exception in U.S. citrus acreage shows tangerines have experienced remarkable strength. The USDA reports tangerine acreage in the U.S. rose from 31,419 acres in 2002 to 36,965 acres in 2007 and 42,289 acres in 2012. In a 10-year period where total citrus acreage sank by 32 percent, tangerine acreage shot up 34 percent.
Most tangerine acreage increases have come from California, with a fourfold increase in acreage (8,058 acres in 2002 to 33,465 acres in 2012). The state now accounts for 80 percent of all mandarin acreage in the U.S. Slumping like other varieties, Florida’s tangerine acreage dropped 60 percent from 2002 and 2012.
Like Florida, will California eventually have to deal with the ravages of HLB? California continues to expand the quarantine for the citrus greening (Huanglongbing or HLB) carrying vector, the Asian Citrus Pysllid (ACP). The California Department of Food and Agriculture says ACP county-wide quarantines are now in place in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties, with portions of Fresno, Kern Madera, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Clara counties are also under quarantine.
Despite much research money devoted to the quest, there is no cure for citrus greening yet. Thankfully, the CDFA notes that “HLB has been detected just once in California – in 2012 on a single residential property in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County.”
Southern California citrus – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
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.