Posts Tagged “Lettuce”
Produce shipments from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley, as well 
as loads out of the Salinas Valley have returned to normal following disruptions due to rain. The seasonal transition of the lettuce harvest and loadings out of Huron are quickly shifting from Huron to Salinas. Volume is building from the Salinas Valley, not only with lettuce, but other vegetables, and should become heavy in May.
Here’s an update on San Joaquin Valley stone fruit shipments that get underway soon. Both peaches and nectarines usally start by late April, with plums coming on in May. Expect peach and nectarine loading opportunities this season to be off 20 percent due to hail. There was a 20-mile-long swath of the storm cutting through from Southwest of Kingsburg going east to south of Dinuba and Reedly. Shippers with stone fruit orchards you may load with in this area were adversely affected the most.
Looking ahead to the Bakersfield, Kern County shipping area, potato shipping will get underway the second week of May with red, yellow and russet spuds. This will be followed by watermelon loads becoming available in early June, while table grape shipments get started in early July…..Meanwhile steady shipments of carrots are continuing from this area.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $7000 to New York City.
Southern California orange shipments have picked up as late season citrus 
quality has improved. Loading opportunities for navel oranges should continue through most of June…..Looking ahead to cherry shipments, loads will become available later this year than normal – with decent volume not occurring from the Southern San Joaquin Valley until the second or third week of May. Barring bad weather, California could ship 11 to 12 million cartons of cherries this year.
California is shipping about 1,000 truckloads of strawberries a week, with heaviest volume still coming out of Ventura County….Most lettuce loads are coming from of the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley….Salinas has light volume with broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and other items, but is increasing and should really get going as we enter of the month of May.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6600 to New York City.
California peach, plum and nectarine shipments, which were expected to start 
in a few weeks, will be reduced due to an April 11 hail storm. The affected area ranges from Hannaford to near Oros, with the Traver area hit hardest. Damage assessements and how much shipments will be affected are still being assessed…..Meanwhile, lettuce shipments continue from Huron in the San Joaquin Valley. Light to moderate vegetable loadings are taking place from Salinas.
In Florida, red potato loadings continue increasing from southern and central parts of the state. However, it is various spring vegetables still providing the most volume….The Sunshine state is still shipping citrus. Orange loadings should total 145 million boxes, up from 139 million a year ago. Florida grapefruit volume should hit 18.8 million boxes, up slightly from last year.
Steady shipments of Idaho potatoes continue, averaging about 1700 truckload equivalents per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4000 to Atlanta.
California Huron area lettuce – grossing about $7000 to Boston.
Central Florida vegetables – about $2600 to Philadelphia.
Volume and shipments continue to seasonally build in California, resulting in 
more demand for refrigerated equipment. This means rising freight rates, which have increased five to 10 percent and more recently.
There will be huge increase in avocado shipments this year — as much as 25 percent more out of Southern California. Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican festival widely celebrated in the U.S. May 5 will mean big shipments of the fruit. The amount of avocados shipped to U.S. markets with be split about evenly from those loaded in California, and with avocado border crossings from Mexico. Southern California also will be loading berries and citrus.
Various types of lettuce shipments are increasing from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. Broccoli and cauliflower loadings have started from the Salinas Valley. Light volume with strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower has got underway from Santa Maria.
There have actually been a few $7000 freight rates from California to the East Coast. It’s going to be interesting in another month of so to see how high freight rates have risen as produce volume and demand for refrigerated equipment builds.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6700 to Boston.
NOTE: Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a much smaller, less trained Mexican military unit that defeated the French in battle in 1862.
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.
Produce shipments out of Southern California are entering decent volume for 
strawberries, but avocado loadings will be limited for awhile. Better weather conditions compared to a year ago have strawberries loadings more than double over 2011 volume. About 25 to 30 percent of California’s total strawberry shipments come from Ventura County and south. Overall, California is forecast to ship 176 million trays of strawberries this year.
As for avocados, Californa expects to move nearly 400 million trays. Loading opportunities from California have been less than normal as many West Coast shippers are holding onto product waiting for big volumes from Mexico and Chile to subside. Expect significant increases in California avocado shipments come April.
From the Bakersfield area, there’s about 300 truckload equivalents of carrots being shipped weekly….There also is fair volume with items such as lettuce, celery, cauliflower and broccoli being loaded from the Coachella and Imperial valleys of the California desert.
Southern California berries, citrus is grossing about $5500 to New York City.
Imperial Valley veggies – about $3600 to Chicago.
There’s been some freeze damage to fresh produce in the West this month, but overall it should not have a big affect on your loading opportunities. The biggest event will be the cold of January 16-17 slowing the growth of some items, which in turn reduces volume for shipping.
There’s been pretty good movement of Iceberg lettuce and romaine out of the Yuma District, but expect reduced shipments beginning in early Februrary….In the nearby Brawley and El Centro areas of the Southern California desert broccoli escaped freeze damage, but again, shipments will eventually decline for a period while the product rebounds from the cold.
As for strawberries, it looks like Oxnard and Orange County in California dodged the freeze bullet, but product out of Santa Maria will have lighter than normal loadings through the middle of February.
Yuma lettuce – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
In the San Joaquin Valley, oranges apparently escaped freeze damage, while mandrains were not so lucky, especially from areas north of Fresno.