Posts Tagged “Florida produce shipments”
Relief for spring produce loading opportunities is coming, but slowly, according to the website of Pro*Act of Monterey, CA.
Sonora is expected to start in late March with fewer acres planted, while the California desert may begin slightly earlier than normal due to warm weather.
Georgia remains several weeks out, expected in late May. Until
then, expect elevated pricing and continued tightness across the pepper category.
Tomatoes are following a similar pattern, with supply disruptions stacking
across regions.
Mexican production slowed following the mid-March national holiday and is now
further constrained by extreme heat in Sonora and Sinaloa. Harvest crews are
starting earlier in the day, but shortened picking windows are limiting overall output.
Quality remains mixed, with some growers pulling from older or previously
abandoned fields.
Florida continues to feel the impact of recent freezes, winds, and frost damage.
Volume is extremely limited across rounds, romas, and grape and cherry tomatoes,
and additional grading is required to meet specifications.
Rounds are seeing the most pressure on larger sizes, particularly 4×4 and 4×5. Romas
have slightly better availability on medium sizes but remain tight overall. Grape and
cherry tomatoes are also tightening as both domestic and Mexican supplies are
constrained at the same time.
Expect tomato markets to remain firm with upward pricing pressure and continued
volatility through mid- to late April, as new regions gradually come online.
Overall, the market is working through a difficult transition window. Florida is slow to
recover, Mexico is weather-constrained, and supply gaps are showing up across
multiple commodities. We’re expecting continued tight availability, elevated pricing,
and variability in quality and packouts.
Markon First Crop (MFC) Red and Yellow Potatoes are available in Idaho and North Dakota. Red potatoes are in good supply with larger sizes dominating packouts. Yellow potatoes are limited in multiple regions due to higher demand and lower yields. Increasing prices are expected over the next six to eight weeks, especially for yellow potatoes, according to Markon Cooperative of Salinas, CA.
Idaho, North Dakota, Colorado, Washington
- MFC Red and Yellow Potatoes are available
- Reds: Quality is very good, B size prices are rising
- Yellows: Yields are lower as growers are culling stocks with pressure bruising, air checks, greening and lenticles, and Markets are climbing for all sizes and grades
North Dakota
- MFC Red and Yellow Potatoes are available
- Reds: Quality is good; skins are dark, Prices are holding steady with a slight market increase in B size supplies
- Yellows: Quality is good, Strong demand is pushing up prices
Colorado and Washington
- Supplies are adequate in both regions but demand is shifting from East Coast
- Reds: Quality is good with light pink skin and occasional blemishes, Increasing demand is affect markets
- Yellows: Quality is good, Prices are inching up
Florida
- Availability across all colors and sizes is tight as growers navigate the impacts of the January freeze
- Reds and Yellows: Quality is very good, Expect elevated markets for all sizes, colors, and grades through April
*****
ALLEN LUND COMPANY, TRANSPORTATION BROKERS, LOOKING FOR REEFER CARRIERS: 1-800-404-5863.
Florida is the primary winter growing region for many fresh fruit and vegetable crops. The current forecast calls for abnormally low temperatures beginning Monday evening, January 26 and lasting through Saturday, January 31, according to Markhon Cooperative of Salinas, CA.
Central/Western Florida (Tampa region) is forecast to receive freezing temperatures as low as 31 degrees with daily high temperatures in the 50- to 60-degree range.
Crops growing in this part of the state include:
- Strawberries
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
Southern Florida (Immokalee, Ft Pierce, Belle Glade, LaBelle) is expected to fall into the low 30s with highs around 60 degrees.
Crops growing in this part of the state include:
- Bell Peppers
- Celery
- Corn
- Cucumber
- Lettuces (Iceberg, Romaine, Green Leaf)
- Radishes
- Squash
- Tomatoes
- Watermelon
- Citrus
These abnormally low temperatures will slow maturity and push prices higher.
*****
ALLEN LUND COMPANY, TRANSPORTATION BROKERS, LOOKING FOR REEFER CARRIERS: 1-800-404-5863.
Florida’s citrus, vegetable and melon production suffered the greatest financial losses in Hurricane Ian, according to Christa Court, director of the program and assistant professor in the UF/IFAS food and resource economics department. IFAS is the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida.
Court spoke recently on a virtual press conference. At the same time, IFAS released a new document, “Preliminary Assessment of Agricultural Losses and Damages resulting from Hurricane Ian,” from the UF/IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program. This summarizes losses from Ian, which struck Florida’s southwest coast on Sept. 29, then slowly crossed the peninsula, with winds as high category 4 and 20 or more inches of rainfall in some areas.
University of Florida economists predict the combination of seasonal crops, livestock, nursery and aquaculture products potentially lost as a result of category 4 Hurricane Ian will likely be valued between $787 million and $1.56 billion.
Preliminary IFAS estimates are that losses to Florida citrus due to Ian will be in the range of $147- to $304 million. The variance depends on the level of fruit drop, damage to branches, and impacts due to heavy precipitation and flooding.
Vegetable and melon losses are estimated to sustain significant production total between $208- and $394 million. Vegetable and melon impacts are heavily dependent on the ability (or inability) to replant damaged or destroyed crops.
Horticultural crop losses may fall in the range of $154- to $297 million. Field and row crops face as much as $160 million in losses and animals and animal products losses could be as high as $222 million. The estimated top level of cumulative losses for these categories is $1.56 billion.
“Even though the coast – an area with comparatively less agricultural production than inland areas – bore some of the worst impacts of the storm, the strong winds and heavy rains battered a wide swath of the peninsula that includes over five million acres of agricultural land,” IFAS’ Court indicates. “This estimate only accounts for production losses, or changes in expected revenues for the current calendar or market year; citrus, for example, had not yet begun harvesting, and some fall vegetables, like tomatoes and peppers, were already planted.”
Some commodities were already looking at lower expected production due to a hard freeze event in January that affected much of the same acreage, she added.
“Southwest counties that got hit the hardest by Hurricane Ian have remained in rescue and recovery mode; we anticipate our assessments will not be complete for several weeks,” Court indicates in IFAS’ release. “Our preliminary estimate is a range, a wide range, to account for many of these unknowns. What isn’t destroyed might have diminished yield or quality, which will not be apparent for weeks or months, and then even more effects can appear in the long-term.”
Court said the survey will remain open for an undefined amount of time. The program will release a full report once analyses are completed.
It certainly isn’t that good, but here are your best bets for fresh produce loading opportunities in the Eastern Time Zone.
Florida
It is Florida hands down, but even here you are looking at multiple pickups and multiple drops in most cases.
Nearly 750 truckload equivalents of Florida tomatoes are being shipped weekly. This is mostly the mature greens, with much smaller volumes found with grape (cherry) and plum tomatoes.
Strawberries from the Plant City, FL area are averaging about 575 truckload equivalents a week. There are modest amounts of fresh grapefruit and oranges, with even smaller amounts of other citrus amounting to around 475 truckload equivalents weekly.
There also are lesser amounts of cabbage, sweet corn as well as a new crop of red potatoes just getting underway.
Florida produce shipments primarily from central and southern areas – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Port of Philadelphia
Chilean fruit arrivals by boat at Philadelphia are averaging around 750 truckloads a week. This consists mostly of table grapes although there are some peaches, plums and nectarines.
Michigan
Not much here except apples from the Grand Rapids area in the western part of the state, as well as some onions.
North Carolina
Sweet potatoes by shippers mostly in the Eastern part of the state are averaging over 200 truckloads a week.
Everyone is aware of the five-year drought in California. While the drought may not be officially over, those rains are reducing produce shipments on some items and will have an effect of loadings heading into spring.
California strawberry shipments have been hit hardest by the rains, while citrus loadings have also been affected, but not as much.
The rains post phoned the strawberry harvest along the Central and Southern Coast areas of Santa Maria and Oxnard, due to waterlogged fields A significant amount of strawberries were damaged and had to be dumped or sent to the processors.
The good news is more spring like weather is expected for the next 10 days or so.
There is a big bloom in California strawberries in Santa Maria and Oxnard, which should result in good shipments within a few weeks. At Watsonville, the heaviest production area for strawberries, the new season likely will be delayed to the end of March or early April, a couple of weeks later than last year.
Both Florida and Mexico are at the end of their strawberry season, but trying to extend shipments later than normal to help cover the losses in California volume. Caution is urged loading strawberries from any of these three areas as high market prices resulting from low volume sometimes tempt shippers to load product they normally would not otherwise send to the fresh market. Just make sure the receiver of this fruit knows what they are getting.
Ventura County strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $3300 to Dallas.
Florida Produce Shipments
The Plant City area of Florida is shipping over 600 truck loads of strawberries a week, but as mentioned in the previous paragraph, watch for late season quality issues….Likewise, the light Mexcian strawberry volume is mostly crossing the border in South Texas and averaging about 125 truck loads as its season in winding down.
Back in Florida, perhaps the heaviest shipments are occurring with tomatoes with over 600 truckloads being shipped weekly. Other leading items such as cabbage and grapefruit have much smaller volume. Florida vegetable shipments in general will be increasing as we get further into March.
Florida tomatoes, and vegetables – grossing about $2600 to New York City.
Produce trucking sweet potato loads could be affected significantly for the 2016-17 shipping season due to damage caused by Hurricane Matthew. Loading opportunities this fall for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina will be impacted much less, although volume from these three states is limited this time of year.
Southeast produce growers are estimating damage from Hurricane Matthew which hugged coastal Florida and Georgia before slamming into South Carolina and North Carolina, where it flooded fields and caused evacuations
North Carolina Sweet Potato Shipments
Around 40 to 45 percent of the sweet potato harvest had been dug when the storm dumped up to 18 inches of rain October 6 – 9 during the middle of the North Carolina harvest.
There is little doubt North Carolina sweet potato shipments were hit pretty hard, and significant losses will occur, but the bottom line is it will take days, if not week to assess the damage. Earlier this week many roads remained impassible with a lot of farmland remaining underwater as river levels were still rising in some areas.
Besides sweet potatoes, the Tar Heel state also grows and ships cabbage, greens and a variety of fall vegetables including bell peppers, cucumbers and squash.
South Carolina Vegetable Shipments
The South Carolina received 8-18 inches of rain and growers and state officials are assessing damages. However, South Carolina isn’t a significant player in vegetable shipments this time of the year, although it does have leafy greens are grown in small acreage in the flooded areas east of Columbia. There also are crops grown in sandy soils of the interior growing regions that should fair okay.
South Carolina’s peach shipments were completed in September, but there are cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and watermelons grown closer to the Atlantic Coast. There are expected to have damage.
Georgia Vegetable Shipments
Most of Georgia’s southern vegetables are grown in the south-central part of the state, but are believe to have escaped serious damage. As for the 2017 Vidalia onion crop that starting shipping in April, the area had up to six inches of rain resulting in minor damage to Vidalia onion seed beds, which are planted for the spring harvest.
Some Vidalia onion shippers lost power for about 10 hours. The electricity runs coolers for their imported Peruvian onions but no damage was reported.
Florida Produce Shipments
Little or no damage was reported with Florida vegetables or citrus.
A
re Florida spring produce shipments finally getting back on track? It’s been a lousy year for Florida growers and shippers, not to mention produce truckers.
After an unseasonably warm fall, the region was hit by severe storms and record-breaking rains. Rainfall was 139 percent above average in November, 199 percent above average in December, and nearly 350 percent above average for the month of January. Planting, spraying and harvesting schedules were delay for many of the area’s signature crops, including sweet corn, green beans, lettuce and leafy greens, parsley, radishes and sugar cane.
While produce shipments are late for some crops because of some delays in planting, loadings should become more steady heading on into spring.
Over the next couple of months, there should be good volume with items ranging from tomatoes, to green beans, blueberries, cabbage, celery, sweet corn, melons, lettuce, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, radishes and squash. However, the strawberry season is drawing to a close.
Florida produce shipments ranks number one in the U.S. with a number of fresh fruits and vegetables including grapefruit, snap beans, squash, sugar cane, cucumbers, oranges, tomatoes and watermelons.
By mid-April, new-crop shipments of tomatoes and other items should start coming out of the Palmetto/Ruskin area of Florida.
Florida vegetables – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.
Record heat and above-normal rainfall have played havoc with Florida produce shipments, making tighter supplies likely for at least the next couple of months.
Florida cabbage shipments are particularly lacking, with some of the vegetables growing to the size of footballs, while other heads are maturing too slowly, risking they won’t be ready by the prime shipping time leading up to St. Patrick’s Day – March 17th.
The situation is really serious in South Florida, which was deluged by nearly eight inches of rain in four days in early December. Afterward, shipments of cucumbers, endive, escarole, radishes, squash, grape and Roma tomatoes plummeted.
At the end of January, 14 of 15 shipments of different Florida vegetable crops were running behind, with celery, squash, cabbage, broccoli, strawberries, sweet corn and avocados among the hardest hit.
The Florida Department of Agriculture predicts shortages will continue through late March or early April.
April and May are typically the months for heaviest Florida produce shipments during the year. How long the peak shipping season lasts usually depends upon when summer heat starts taking its toll.
Florida produce shipments – grossing about $2100 to New York City.
Normally light Florida produce shipments are much lighter this season due to excessive rains. If the weather trend continues it soon will be threatening the Florida spring shipping season that typically peaks in April and May.
Up to 8 inches of rain last week soaked fields of sweet corn, green beans, celery, radishes, leafy greens and other vegetables and flooded some areas, leaving crops underwater. Damage to crops is estimated to be 25 to 50 percent. Losses of crops and even lighter than normal shipments is a given. Now it’s a wait to see how bad the situation is.
The heavy rains mean vegetable shipments in general will probably be much lighter than usual through February and March. Belle Glade is the hub of Florida sweet corn and green bean shipments.
It’s been a crazy winter for produce shipments, not only in Florida, but elsewhere.
Mexican volume of bell peppers, strawberries and other items have been lowered by cold weather. California strawberry volume is down due to weather factors.
Meanwhile, Florida strawberry volume have suffered from heat; Florida avocado loadings are down due to a fruit fly quarantine; Florida tomatoes are off due to rains; Florida cabbage shipments are down as much as 40 percent from weather; Florida citrus volume is drastically off due to citrus greening disease.