Posts Tagged “Imperial Valley”
If you eat a salad, or haul vegetable items making up a salad in late fall or winter, you probably picked up that product in the Yuma, AZ vegetable district, or California’s Imperial Valley.
The Yuma vegetable district has 90,000 acres of winter veggies.
The website of the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association proclaims, “Yuma farmers produce enough Iceberg lettuce each year for every person in the United States, Canada and Mexico to have their very own head of lettuce — with enough lettuce left for every person in the United Kingdom to have one too.”
So far the Yuma vegetable season, which is now shipping in light volume, is felt by many to be a normal one from an acreage, production and shipping stand point. Some weather issues early in the planting and growing season is leading to lighter volume and some minor shipping gaps for the early period. It will probably be early December before good steady volume and shipments are available.
The primary vegetable items Iceberg lettuce, romaine, red leaf, green leaf and other mixed lettuce items.
Two of the main concerns are the possible effects of The El Nino, as well as a shortage of laborers for harvest.
Yuma lettuce and melons – grossing grossing about $5900 to New York City.
Between now and August produce truckers will have the upper hand when it comes to freight rates – assuming you don’t have contract rates (but that’s another story).
Not only are we nearing the peak shipping season from California, which accounts for about half of the nation’s fresh produce, but other areas, particularly in the upper mid-west and east are providing competition for trucks.
Caution Hauling Desert Items
Before I get into the Salinas and San Joaquin Valley shipments, use caution loading desert vegetables such as bell peppers and corn as temperatures well above 100 degrees have been occurring. It’s been really hot in the Coachella and Imperial valleys, as well as Arizona’s Yuma district. Little or no report of heat damage has yet been reported but keep your eyes peeled for scalding and other heat symptoms in the days ahead. Even watermelons can suffer if prolonged heat occurs.
Salinas Valley
Dozens of different kinds of vegetables are being shipped from the Salinas area. But the big volume items are various types of lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower. There also is decent volume with brussel sprouts and celery. Nearby Castroville is the artichoke capital of the world, while nearby Watsonville is ground zero for strawberry shipments.
San Joaquin Valley
This report will focus primarily on summer from from the SJV. We’ll soon cover the many vegetables coming into volume.
Stone fruit, led by peaches, plums and nectarines, are just getting underway from the southern part of the valley.
The consensus appear to be that around 40 to 43 million boxes of stone fruit will be shipped this year from the San Joaquin Valley, which would be pretty average when looking at the volume for the past five years.
California cherry shipments are building and hitting good volume just prior to the Memorial weekend (May 25-27). However, winds damaged 40 to 50% of the early variety Rainier cherries around Bakersfield on May 5th.
There also was some wind damage to almond trees in the Bakersfield area.
Last year, California shipped a record 101.5 milion boxes of grapes. The Coachella Valley, which is shipping now, accounts for 10 percent or less of this volume. The rest comes from the San Joaquin Valley, starting with the Arvin District in late June.
Apple shipments, which took at 30 percent hit last year, are expected to return to normal this year. Beginning in July, California apple shipments get underway, but this is minor (2 million boxes) compared to Washington state (129 million boxes predicted).
Kern District
Located near Bakersfield, Kern County ships a lot carrots and potatoes, althouigh this time of the year you will get a better freight rate hauling more perishable items ranging from lettuce to stone fruit, grapes and berries.
Kern County potatoes shipments started about a week ago. Due to so much over production of russet potatoes around the country, this variety has been reduced by up to 75 percent. Russets have been replaced primarily with red, yellow and white potatoes.
When Kern County growers are not planting carrots or potatoes in their fields, they use bell peppers as a rotation crop. Bell peppers loadings are just starting and building in volume, continuing until November.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $5200 to Chicago.
California desert vegetables – about $7300 to New York City.
While head lettuce shipments continue from the Salinas Valley and the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley, volume is rapidly decreasing as the seasonal shift if well underway and volume increases from the desert areas of the Imperial Valley in Southern California and in the nearby Yuma district of Arizona.
Normal shipments are expected from the desert areas through the end of the year. Loadings for romaine from the Imperial Valley should start the week after Thanksgiving.
Lettuce loads from the Salinas Vallely are expected to overlap the Imperial Valley season by a week or two.
Record shipments of tables grapes continues from the San Joaquin Valley spanning the Kern District to the northern part of the valley is averaging over 1,600 truckloads per week…..Also from the Kern District is shipments of carrots, averaging about 350 truckload equivalents per week.
Strawberry shipments from the Watsonville District are in a seasonal decline, while volume is picking up from Ventura County. Moderate volume continues from the Santa Maria District. As with many vegetables in California, berry volume is much lower than only a few weeks ago.
There’s a number of produce items in California providing light volume, but at this point may be helping to fill out the truck. Those items may range from oranges to lemons, kiwi, various veggies and even holiday product such as pomegrantes.
San Joaquin Valley produce – grossing about $4400 to Chicago.
Whether talking the desert areas of the Imperial or Coachella Valleys, or 
Southern California to Ventura County, Bakersfield, and on to Santa Maria and Salinas, produce is being shipped. Granted, not all the areas are in full harvest, but shipping areas are abundant. It will only get better for produce haulers in the weeks ahead as demand for refrigerated equipment increases and rates climb accordingly.
In the desert, you’ll find bell peppers, beans and sweet corn in both the Imperial Valley and the Coachella Valley. Cantaloupe loadings begin in a couple of weeks or so. Also, the Coachella Valley ships the first domestic grapes in the U.S. each year. Coachella grape loadings will begin a week to 10 days earlier than normal this year — around the first week of May. Loadings should continue through June, with about 9 million cartons forecast.
California cherry shipments begin from the central and south areas of the San Joaquin Valley the first half of May, but expect shipments to be lighter than normal. Heaviest cherry loading opportunities come with the later bing cherry variety from the Stockton-Linden-Lodi area. Overall, unless Mother Nature does a whack job on these perishable beauties, California should ship 8.5 to 9 million boxes of cherries, the most in a decade!
California desert vegetables – grossing about $7200 to New York City.
Very light shipments of California lettuce got underway last week from the 
Huron District of the San Joaquin Valley. Shipments are increasing this week, but full volume isn’t expected until around Easter (April 8). Lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower shipments from the Imperial Valley and Yuma District are finished.
Broccoli and cauliflower shipments have now seasonally transitioned from the California and Arizona deserts to the Salinas Valley. Lettuce loadings should start from Salinas in late April.
Salinas vegetables – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Overall, there should be excellent quality vegetables coming out of the Salinas Valley this spring due to excellent growing conditions. This should translate into a huge demand for trucks, especially as we enter May and the big volumes of veggies start coming out of the fields.
The seasonal change in California shipping areas for vegetables will be here sooner than you think. In March shipments will start winding down from the desert areas such as the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley, as well as the Yuma district in Arizona. This can be a tricky time of the year, which can either result in shipping gaps as one area may finish before the other start. However, unless adverse weather changes things it should be a fairly smooth transition this spring.
As produce shipments move from the desert up north, there is actually a limited amount of broccoli being loaded from Salinas, CA. Broccoli volume is expected to be limited until the third or fourth week of March…..Head lettuce and leaf lettuce should start loadings in late March from Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. These shipments will last a month or so before transitioning to the Salinas Valley around the third week of April.
The Santa Maria District typically starts lettuce shipments ahead of Salinas and Huron. Look for loadings of leaf, romaine and butter lettuce from Santa Maria to get underway in Mid March.
An exception to all this are carrots. This veggie is typically shipped from the Bakersfield area from Thanksgiving to mid-March. Then shipments will transistion southward to the desert areas of the Coachella and Imperial valleys.