Posts Tagged “Florida watermelon shipments”
April and May tend to be the peak shipping months for Florida spring vegetables and favorable growing conditions are expected to provide a good shipping season.
For example, West Coast Tomato LLC of Palmetto is expressing optimism as its volume has been ahead of last year. It has about 3,000 acres in the Immokalee and Palmetto areas and has been shipping tomatoes since October and will complete shipments in early June.
Florida Vegetable Shipments
Duda Fresh Foods Inc. of Oviedo, which grows vegetables on 6,000 acres in the Belle Glade area, reports good weather and plenty of water supplies and has been shipping celery since December and will continue through April.
Scotlynn Sweet Pac Growers LLC of Belle Glade grows and ships corn and other vegetables reports similar good growing conditions. It began shipping in early March and reached good volume in early April that should continue through May. The company ships primarily sweet corn to start, but later in the season has radishes, beans and cabbage, among other items.
At Weis-Buy Farms Inc. of Fort Myers, ships tomatoes and peppers, with a season starting in early October and continuing until June 1st.
Overall Florida vegetable volume is ahead of last year, in part because of favorable weather without hurricanes, unlike a year ago.
L&M Cos is based in Raleigh, NC, but has offices in Palatka, FL. The company reports Northern Florida has had some weather issues causing some vegetable crop to be running late, particularly with cabbage, broccoli and greens.
Mack Farms Inc. of Lake Wales began digging potatoes in early February from about 1,600 acres and has had good volume.
Jones Potato Farm of Parrish reports good shipments of potatoes, and green beans after starting in late March.
Utopia Packing LLC of Myakka City has good volume with bell peppers and cucumbers.
Florida Specialties Inc. of Immokalee shipping
green beans, eggplant, bell peppers, squash and specialty peppers through May.
Florida Fruit Shipments
Wish Farms of Plant City plans to be shipping blueberries until Memorial Day, with Florida growers expecting to pack nearly 4 million pounds of “blues” this season. This would be an increase from 3.4 million pounds a year ago.
Florida Classic Growers, which markets product for the Dundee (FL) Citrus Growers Association is planning to ship valences through May.
Florida Watermelon Shipments
Southern Corporate Packers Inc. of Immokalee is shipping watermelons from Southern Florida through May, with loadings coming out of Northern Florida from late May though June.
The company also grows watermelon in Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and Delaware, which enables the company to have melons available through December.
McMelon Inc., a subsidiary of Mack Farms Inc., both of Lake Wales will start shipping watermelons in early May.
Florida vegetables, watermelons and potatoes – grossing about $2700 to New York City.
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Florida watermelon shipments are gaining in volume, while California’s Salinas Valley is still struggling to get consist, good quality and decent volume vegetable shipments.
Florida watermelon shipments got off to a slow start at best in April, but decent volume is expected by mid May leading up to the important Memorial Day weekend, May 27-30. Some shippers are reporting supplies are off as much as 20 percent due to weather conditions. While initial shipments start out of southern Florida, central Florida watermelon shipments should get underway around May 10-15.
Demand for trucks have recently increased significantly in Florida, although no serious shortages of equipment has been reported. Rates also have increased by 10 to 15 percent to New York and Boston on mixed loads.
Southern Florida watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Georgia watermelon shipments typically start as Florida begins winding down. Georgia loadings should get underway around June 10th.
Southern Georgia greens, cabbage, carrots and squash – grossing about $2200 to New York City.
California Vegetable Shipments
The coastal district of Santa Maria is shipping about 450 truck loads of strawberries a week, but Watsonville strawberry shipments are increasing and will surpass Santa Maria any day now. Mother’s Day (May 8) is one of the biggest times for strawberry shipments. After a shaky first quarter of the year weather wise, Mother Nature is showing more cooperation and berries of all types are showing better quality, and volume.
Salinas Valley broccoli and cauliflower shipments got off to an early start, but there have been peaks and valleys regarding volumes. The roller coaster ride could continue for several more weeks. When produce loadings here start a week or two ahead of schedule, as it did this year, it is often followed by periods of heavy and light volumes.
Shipments for both broccoli and cauliflower had been decent, but another dip in loadings started in late April and continues into May. Most crops are experiencing issues with yields and volume is very uneven compared to “normal” shipping conditions.
Quality issues due to the weather has resulted in problems for drivers and shippers, upon delivery to the East Coast.
Salinas Valley lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
From Santa Mara, CA vegetables, to Mexican imports and a USDA update on melon availablity, here are some shipping opportunities for produce haulers.
Vegetable shippers in California’s Santa Maria district see stable shipments this spring, even though the region didn’t get as thorough a winter soaking from El Niño as forecasts suggested. The California drought persists. Santa Maria started loading mixed leaf lettuce in early March, nearly two weeks earlier than usual. Salinas started at the end of the month.
Broccoli and cauliflower shipments are underway in Santa Maria, while celery has in light volume, but should be increasing this week. Santa Maria produce shipments also now include strawberries, celery, romaine, romaine hearts, Tuscan kale, red kale, green kale, cilantro and parsley.
Santa Maria vegetable shipments – grossing about $6500 to New York City.
Mexican Produce Imports
At Nogales, border crossing include Mexican vine-ripes, romas, grapes and cherries, which continue through April. With the finish of tomatoes, the new Mexican table grape season launches with crossings at Nogales and McAllen, Tx. Vine ripe tomato shipments from Baja California also begin crossing near San Diego.
Carrot shipments from the Bakersfield, CA area have shifted to the Imperial Valley.
Mexican vegetable shipments through Nogales – grossing about $2000 to Dallas.
Melon Shipments
The USDA’ Market News Service reported as of April 5th the “difference in pounds from average” as follows: Mexico/5.3 million pounds, up 11 percent; Honduras/1.8 million pounds, up 105 percent; Costa Rica/780,000 pounds, up 166 percent; Nicaragua/-468,000 pounds, down 100 percent; Florida/-680,000 pounds, down 100 percent; and Guatemala/-1.25 million pounds, down 21 percent.
Florida watermelon shipments are increasing, along with numerous vegetables.
South Florida watermelon shipments, vegetables – grossing about $1000 to Atlanta.
Florida spring produce shipments overall have been pretty good. However, as we get closer to June volume typically declines on most items and just how long good loading opportunities continue depends in large part on when it becomes too hot for vegetables to grow.
In south Florida, watermelon shippers are finishing their season, which is overlapping the early- to mid-May start of central Florida watermelon shipments. Overall, Florida is shipping high volumes of watermelons and as we near the Memorial holiday weekend (May 23-25), approaching 1500 truck loads per week.
Central Florida should be loading large supplies through late May, while northern Florida shipments will soon start in light volume. North Florida typically overlaps Georgia’s typical early- to mid-June start with watermelons.
Georgia watermelon shipments should hit good volume around June 10-15, though southern Georgia regions near Adel, Ga., and Tifton, Ga., frequently start a week earlier.
Florida/Georgia Pepper Shipments
Florida pepper volume began improving in early May, while Georgia shippers were gearing up for a mid-May start.
South Florida peppers had some quality problems, primarily from colder weather, but those issues have mostly been resolved with the seasonal transfer of shipments originating out of Central Florida. Depending upon when summer heat starts taking its toll, Florida could be shipping peppers into mid June. Currently about 250 truck loads of peppers are being shipped out of Florida, which is relatively small compared to the 850 truck loads per week of sweet corn.
Meanwhile, Georgia pepper shipments should be hitting stride as we enter June.
Central Florida watermelons and vegetables – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
With Mexican watermelon shipments coming across the border ending soon, here’s three states looking to take up the slack. There also are a couple of shipping areas becoming active with other items in the west.
Mexican watermelon volume is rapidly coming to a close, but it is a slow start for the new watermelon season in Florida and Texas.
Immokalee watermelon shipments started in early May, with decent volume finally arriving this week – just in time for Memorial Day arrivals. Mexico had some late season disease problems with watermelons and you need to use caution loading Florida melons, as similar problems are being reported.
Texas Watermelon Shipments
Texas watermelon shipments are running a little late and good volume is not expected before May 2oth, meaning for the most part shipments will come after Memorial Day. Again, we on the look out for what you put in the truck as quality problems may exist due to high winds and other factors. Another concern is if hot weather arrives, the melons could suffer from being on the plants too long. This will not be one of the larger volume crops Texas has had.
Arizona Watermelon Shipments
Yuma watermelons should be getting underway in light volume this week. Average yield and good quality are being reported.
Arizona Potato Shipments
Red and yellow potato loadings from the Elroy, AZ , just southeast of Phoenix, have started and should conintue until about July 4. Mini reds, mini yellows and purple varieties of spuds should ship through August.
Walla Walla Onion Shipments
Walla Walla sweet onions are expected to begin shipments up to 10 days behind typical starts. The onions are grown on 600 acres. Volume should be normal, which would amount to around 600,000 40-pound cartons for the season. Shipments should ramp up towards the end of June and run through mid-August.
Florida watermelons, veggies and other items – grossing about $3600 to Chicago; $4800 to New York City.