Posts Tagged “feature”
By Organics Unlimited
SAN DIEGO – Organics Unlimited is launching GROW organic bananas on the east coast, it was announced today by company president Mayra Velazquez de Leon. All distribution will be handled by Four Season Produce in Lancaster County, Pa. who receives and ripens the bananas for markets in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern parts of the country.
“We want to be involved in supporting the communities in our banana growing regions,” said Four Seasons General Manager Jason Hollinger. “Our company is a major supporter of Fair Trade, but we realize that there are different ways to support the workers and their families. We’ve added GROW to give our customers another option for buying good, quality organic bananas that also have a way to give back to others.”
Started in 2005, the GROW program has now provided over $1 million of support for programs in Mexico and Ecuador that promote education, dental, vision care and safe water. “We’re excited with the growth we’ve seen in the program and to have the GROW organic bananas available in the east,” said Mayra Velazquez de Leon, president of Organics Unlimited. “In the past few years, we’ve seen a major increase in interest from our customers, which has allowed us to expand funding to additional programs and promising young people.”
From 2012 to 2013, GROW support increased by almost 150 percent. This year, GROW has raised over $200,000 in funds to help continue efforts in social responsibility. All funds come from the purchase of GROW bananas in the US. Each box of fruit has a surcharge of $.60 that goes directly to the fund. Proceeds from the funds go to Children International in Ecuador and Project Amigo in Mexico to help build opportunities for workers, their families and communities.
GROW retailers also benefit from the merchandising support available through the Organics Unlimited website. While materials are available year round, the celebration of GROW Month in September provides a special consumer focus that expands shoppers awareness of the added benefits of buying the GROW label. Of interest to consumers this year will be an increased selection of personalized stories about the impact that GROW has made on their lives.
About Organics Unlimited
Organics Unlimited is a San Diego-based distributor of organic tropical fruit from Mexico and South America, providing its traditional label as well as the GROW label. The company is USDA certified organic for the U.S. and Canada through Organic Certifiers. For more information on Organics Unlimited and GROW visit OrganicsUnlimited.com, GrowBananas.org, or call 619.710.0658. Check out the latest blog post from Organics Unlimited at OrganicOdes.com or find Organics Unlimited on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
About Four Seasons Produce
Four Seasons Produce, Inc. is a full-service wholesaler supplying organic, local and conventional fresh produce to organic markets, food co-ops, independent retailers, chain stores, juice bars and other produce buyers in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. For more information, visit FSProduce.com or call 800-422-8384.
The nation’s two largest apple shipping states, Washington and New York, are gearing up with excellent, if not record breaking apple loads this season.
Washington Apple Shipments
There’s little doubt Washington state will break all records for apple shipments during the 2014-15 season. An estimated 140 million cartons of fruit will be shipped, with the majority being by truck. This volume will easily break the record loadings of the 2012-13 crop, which totaled 128 million cartons. This will be 22 percent more than the 115 million cartons shipped during the 2013-14 season.
The new records reflect higher density plantings in orchards over the past 10 years. The old orchards had about 300 apple trees per acre. In recent years 1,000 to 1,500 trees are being planted per acre. Red Delicious still remains the top variety to be shipped, estimated at 38 million cartons this season. This is followed by the Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. About 72 percent of Washington apples are shipped for the fresh market, with the balance for processing.
Washington apples from the Yakima and Wenatchee Valleys – grossing about $8200 to New York City.
New York Apple Shipments
Truck loadings for apples during the 2014-15 season will be less than last season, but more than the average shipments for the past five years. The state expects to ship over 30 million bushels this season.
New York apple shipments should rank second to Washington state in total volume this season. The state moved into volume in September, and loadings will be heaviest from now through the first quarter of 2015.
The leading varieties volume are: McIntosh, Empire, Red Delicious, Cortland, Crispin and Golden Delicious.
Hudson Valley apples – grossing about $2200 to Atlanta.
The Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota already has a serious truck shortage , and the season hasn’t even really got going. Here’s an update on potato shipments out the valley.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
Not even one-third of the potato shippers in North Dakota and Minnesota are loading potatoes yet, but the few who are tell of difficulties finding trucks. For example, last Friday, Associated Potato Growers in Grand Forks was 7 trucks short of what was needed to fill orders from customers. APG hasn’t really got into volume shipments yet and has opened up only one of it three plants. Other valley shippers are reporting similar problems.
Last season the Red River Valley shipped about 4 million hundredweight (cwt.) of mostly red potatoes and totals this season (2014-15) should be similar, if not a little more. Once the harvest is completed within the next week or two, a better idea of the exact numbers should become available.
The Red River Valley’s red potato acreage is expected to be up one or two percent this year. In 2013, the valley produced 23,000 acres of red potatoes. North Dakota produces a total of about 90,000 acres of potatoes. Beyond red potatoes, these are mostly russets that are virtually dedicated to the processing market. In addition to red potato shipments, there are yellow potatoes, which will represent about 8 percent of the fresh shipments.
Overall, it is expected there will be about 4.2 million and 4.5 million cwt shipped for the fresh market; over 90 percent would be reds, the remainder yellows.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $2800 to Dallas.
After two consecutive years of lower-than-normal sweet potato shipments, North Carolina appears to back on track this season.
Weather factors cut into acreage and ultimately shipments, but the Tarheel state is forecast to have 66,000 acres for the 2014-15 season. Of these total plantings, it is predicted 65,000 of those acres will be harvested, equal to almost half of the nation’s crop.
For the 2013-14 season there were only 54,000 acres of sweet potatoes planted.
The short crop last year resulted in some growers halting shipments in late August after running out of supplies of stored sweet potatoes, before they could harvest and cure their 2014-15 crop. Curing takes five to 10 days, and then they are stored at 55-60 degrees for up to a year.
On September 14 about 27 percent of the sweet potato crop in North Carolina had been harvested. Plantings hit a high for the 2011-12 season in the United States with 134,000 acres planted. Of that total 65,000 acres were in the Tarheel state.
Acreage planted dropped for the 2012-13 season to 130,500 acres nationwide, with 63,000 acres planted in North Carolina.
Among the major sweet potato shipping areas in North Carolina, are such rural towns as Chabourn, Faison, Sims, Snow Hill and Wilson.
North Carolina sweet potato shipments – grossing about $2250 to Miami.
Mississippi sweet potato shipments – grossing about $1100 to Atlanta.
Louisiana sweet potato shipments – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
Cold Train Express Intermodal Service suspended service this summer due to rail congestion, while two new refrigerated rail services were just getting started.
McKay TransCold based in Minneapolis began last June offering a refrigerated, dedicated boxcar unit train known as Transcold Express, which runs each week between Selma, CA and Wilmington, IL. Meanwhile, Tiger Cool Express LLC, Overland Park, KS launched intermodal services from multiple locations in southern California to destinations in the Midwest and East Coast in February. In a press release Cold Train reported that on-time deliveries for shipments on BNSF’s Northern Corridor fell from more than 90% in November to less than 5% in April due to surging more oil and coal shipments.
Meanwhile, the problems on BNSF’s northern lines reportedly has had little effect on the southern BNSF and Union Pacific rail routes.
Tiger Cool Express, reported rail shipments of oil from North Dakota on BNSF’s Northern Corridor have increased from 20,000 tank cars three years ago to more than 400,000 this year. And unlike major southern rail routes in the U.S., that northern route doesn’t have two different tracks.
Produce is viewed by some in the rail industry as the last long-haul, $100 billion market that intermodal has yet to penetrate. Still, over 95 percent of fresh produce is delivered by truck in the U.S.. Rail officials are counting on trucks supplies tightening, with the driver shortage continue to worsen.
The United States just may be the most tolerant nation that has ever existed. As such we deserve quality leadership. Our leaders should be working together to get our fiscal house in order.
People do not have a right to what other people have earned. Our leaders should be instilling the values and work ethics that the founding patriots of this nation built their lives and this nation upon. We have become a nation of welfare handout beggars and moochers. The United States needs a revival. A revival lead by someone who can smile, understand, and respect dissenting views.
We need the warm smile and soft wit of Ronald Regan or John Kennedy. We need a person that can work with all sides of the issues to come to unique solutions. The kind of solutions that Americans are noted for. We need a person that stresses the individuality of the states and of our people. Someone who understands that efficient government should not be a centralized bloated bemoth, but that by moving government closer to the people, you get a better government and better solutions.
We should all be thinking about our country and our place in the future of the world as we approach this election season. It is time we voted with our heads and not our hearts. That is, unless some absolutely hot babe runs for office. …Then all bets are off!
California strawberries shipments are shifting to Ventura County, while the state’s citrus volume is predicted to be down this season.
While California strawberry shipments got off to a roaring and early start at the beginning of they year, the late season shipments are well below normal as a result. Now the situation finally moving back to increased volume as the season shifts from the Watsonville area in the north to Ventura County in Southern California.
California Citrus Shipments
The estimates for the 2014-15 California citrus shipping season stands at 78 million 40-pound cartons, which would make it the smallest crop since the freeze year of 2008-09. However, California Citrus Mutual thinks the crop is even smaller than the USDA’s estimate, since it does not take into account losses due to the current drought conditions.
“After canvassing a significant number of producers and shippers, CCM believes the crop estimate is high,” CCM President Joel Nelsen said in a recent statement. “We know acreage has been removed from production” due to the drought, but getting figures for a range has been difficult. We know the lack of water has affected fruit size during the growths stages, but surveying 126,000 acres is almost impossible. We also agree there is more fruit on the tree as compared to last year” in terms of the number of pieces of fruit. “However fruit size is a concern. All of this affects the number of cartons ultimately packed.”
Unlike Navels, Mandarins should be up in volume this year because of more acreage in production.
California supplies 85 percent of the nation’s fresh citrus,
Southern California Citrus – grossing $5600 to Atlanta.
Here’s a round up of loading opportunities from three leading potato shipping states — Idaho, Colorado and Wisconsin.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Most of Idaho’s potatoes are grown and shipped from the eastern part of the state. Loadings got off to a slower start than hoped for this season, but are now picking up. Acreage is believed to be up about 8,000 acres and that has a lot of shippers in other areas of the country gnashing their teeth because prices are in the tank. So there will be no shortage of spuds for hauling this season out of Idaho — unless something major like the late blight virus hits. Idaho, easily is the nation’s largest potato shipper. It is currently moving about 1,700 truckload equivalents per week – and would be shipping even more product, if there was not a shortage of trucks.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5800 to New York City; $3200 to Chicago.
Colorado Potato Shipments
In the San Luis Valley of Colorado, there has been an eight percent increase in acreage this season, or about 5,000 acres more by some estimates. The state as a whole has about 60,200 acres of spuds in the ground, of which about 54,200 acres is in the San Luis Valley. Shipments of mostly russets are underway. Colorado is averaging about 300 truckloads of potatoes being shipped a week, but volume is expected to increase.
Colorado potatoes – grossing about $2300 to San Antonio.
Wisconsin Potato Shipments
About 500 truckload equivalents of potatoes are being shipped from Central Wisconsin each week.
Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3150 to Atlanta.
As North American shipments of fruit ranging from mangoes to avocados and blueberries come to a seasonal end, the slack is picked up with similar importedfruit arrivals at various U.S. ports.
South American Mango Imports
The first Brazilian mangos arrived at the Port of Miami September 5, three weeks later than normal to due weather factors during the growing season. Volume should peak in October with decent supplies in November. Ecuador is also late. Initial shipments by boat have just started with the Ataulfos (yellow-skinned mangos). The red fruit will begin shipping around October 15. Following Ecuador, Peru should enter the U.S. market with fruit by early January. Peru should have a good supply of mangos throughout January and well into February.
Chilean Avocado Imports
U.S. importers are estimating about 60 million pounds of avocados will arrive by boat at American ports during the 2014-15 season. Limited amounts of the imported fruit have already arrived as seasons have just wrapped up for California and Peru. The Chilean avocados are joining Mexican product, which is now cranking up. About 70 percent of the Chilean avocados arrive by boat at ports on the West Coast. East Coast ports accept about 25 percent of the fruit, while around five percent comes into the Gulf of Mexico headed to ports in Texas.
Port of Long Beach imported fruit – grossing $5500 to Chicago.
South American Blueberry Imports
Blueberries from Argentina and Peru have recently started arriving at American ports and should continue into January.
About 9,000 tons of “blues” from Argentina came to the United States last season, up from about 7,700 tons a year earlier.
Last season was the first time Peruvian blueberries had been imported to the U.S. The country expects to have about 12,000 acres of blues by 2020, and imports by the U.S. are expected to increase each year for the foreseeable future.
With the entire world falling apart and America’s global leadership at an all time low, I get a lot of disgusted looks by my friends these days. They just shake their heads as if to say “How did we get into this mess”?
The fact is problems in life don’t just happen all at once. They are consequences of the wrong actions, or the lack thereof over a long period of time. Failure to take proactive actions is an overwhelming cause of many of life’s problems. People find themselves in financial troubles, more often than not, because they ignore the need to live below or within their means over a period of time.
Too often people yield to the emotional temptation of our “Buy now and pay later” society. Our country will soon be facing a financial mountain of debt that no country in history has ever faced and survived. This huge mountain of trillions of dollars will have to be dealt with sooner or later. And dealing with it will send shock waves not only throughout our country, but throughout the world.
Take note, you can already see the subtle signs of problems this debt causes. The huge suffocating tax burdens on the American people will only worsen as the government looks for any way possible to get more money due to the ever increasing interest payments on our national debt. Our country already has the highest corporate tax rates of any country in the world. This is driving businesses to look at relocating outside our nation’s boarders. Recently the “Clown and Chief” said it was ‘unpatriotic” for corporations to relocate to a more business friendly country. I guess he flunked his history courses like he almost flunked out of Harvard.
As I recall, the Patriots were for low taxes and less government involvement in their lives. Didn’t the patriots write the Constitution to limit the powers of the government? When this clown was running for office he said that letting the national debt get so large was “unpatriotic.”
You know, “It’s all that evil George Bush’s fault.” I guess he forgot what he said now that he is the one doing the spending. As a world’s superpower, the United States is obviously in decline. We are viewed today by nations as a paper tiger.
As a result, the old tensions between nations are surfacing. What has made The United States an exceptional nation on the world stage has been missed by the Washington elite. We are not an exceptional nation because we have been the world’s only superpower for the last third of a century. No, we are exceptional because we seldom agree with each other and yet we live together in peace.
Think about it. We have every national, ethnic culture, religious beliefs, racial mix, and economic diversity that exists in the world within our boarders. We have Muslim mosques, Jewish synagogues, Buddhist temples, Christian churches, Hindu shrines, Satanic churches, even atheists, and all within our boarders. Some of them are even across the street from each other. And guess what? We all tolerate and respect each others beliefs.
We all work, live, play ball, and even argue among ourselves. We all disagree, and we all have a constitutional right to disagree. We are, and we will always be a polarized country. But that doesn’t mean that we have to kill each other. It doesn’t mean we can’t learn to respect the other person’s opinions and beliefs.