Posts Tagged “Mexican grape shipments”
A 20 percent crash in Mexican grape shipments are predicted this season.
The 2020 estimate for Mexican grapes is 19.7 million 19-pound boxes, about 3.9 million boxes down (20 percent) from a year ago of 23.6 million boxes. That crop, however, was significantly higher than the 2018 production of 16.37 million boxes, so forecasters are saying there will still be good volume.
Mexican grape shipments to the U.S. will start in mid-May, lasting into early July. The season is expected to start earlier than in 2019, with the red Flame seedless being in good volume from late May to late June. Mid-season green grapes loadings will be in good volume from early June to early July, while black seedless best movement is expected from late May to late June.
Green perlette grape volume is hit hard by a freeze and 2020 volume is predicted at 800,000 boxes, less than half of the 1.7 million box output last season.
Early-season Mexican grape volume is expected to be about 2.8 million boxes, up slightly from 2.6 million boxes a year ago.
Red seedless loadings for 2020 is forecast at 8.65 million boxes, off 19 percent from last year’s total of 10.7 million boxes;
Mid-season green variety output is estimated at 4.15 million boxes, down 18 percent from 5.08 million boxes a year ago;
Red globe production is 300,000 boxes, down from 306,000 boxes last year;
Black seedless is forecast at 1.5 million boxes, down 22 percent from 1.92 million boxes in 2019; and
Other grape varieties are forecast at 1.5 million boxes, up slightly from 1.2 million boxes last year.
Mexican grape shipments will account for nearly two-thirds of the product trucked to destinations across America during May and June.
Most Mexican grapes cross the border into the U.S. at Nogales, AZ and Pharr, TX.
About 22 million, 19-pound boxes are forecast to be exported, a whopping increase over the 16.37 million boxes last season.
Pandol Bros. Inc. of Delano, CA, which ships both domestic and Mexican grapes says Mexico will provide 65 percent of the table grapes shipped in the U.S. during May and June.
California and Chile each will account for 15 percent of grapes distributed in the U.S.
Mexico will ship 4 million boxes of grapes to North American customers starting the week of Memorial Day, and continuing for the next month. Overall May volume will be relative light.
Grapeman Farms of Bakersfield, CA starts shipping Mexican grapes around May 7th this year, and is reporting great quality. The company expects to ship 15 percent more grapes this season.
MAS Melons & Grapes of Rio Rico, AZ expects higher volume this season after inclement weather factors reduced last year’s shipments, which would be similar to its output in 2017.
Both Sun World International of Bakersfield, CA and The Giumarra Cos. of Los Angeles are expressing optimism for increased shipments this season with better quality.
The Mexican grape harvest gets underway in early May.
Mexican grape growers expect to ship 22 million cartons of grapes this spring — up 25.6 percent from 2018.
Around 4 million cartons of grapes are expected to be shipped to the domestic Mexican market, which is in addition to the 22 million counted for export.
The total for Mexician grape shipments in 2018 was 16.4 million boxes. In 2017 that total was 21 million.
In 2018, there was unusual weather, and cold in March particularly playe havoc with the crop, which resulted in an irregular harvest schedule in 2018, depending on the weather impact on different Sonoran growing zones.
Heaviest early green grape and red Flame loadings should occur the last half of May to the first half of June.
Mid-season green seedless peak volume will occur during most of June.
Flames account for nearly 50 percent of all Mexican fresh grape shipments, with 10.6 million cartons forecast this year. This is up almost 33 percent from 7.1 million cases in 2018. In 2017, 10.1 million boxes of Flames were shipped.
Sugraone this season moves ahead of green grapes to have a projected 4.3 million cartons. This number was 4.4 million in 2017 and down to 3.1 million last year.
For the 2019 crop, green grape production is estimated to be 4 million cases. This is up 16.5 percent from a total 2018 pack out of 3.3 million. In 2017, green grape shipments from Mexico was 3.6 million.
Black grape loadings from Mexico has fallen for the third straight year. The 2019 estimate anticipates 1 million boxes. Black grape shipments in 2018 was 1.2 million, down from 1.3 million in 2017.
Red Globe volume also is predicted to be down for the third straight year, with 600,000 boxes forecast. Red Globes loadings this year are forecast to be off 3.1 percent from 2018 and well below the 688,000 boxes shipped in 2017.
Plentiful grape shipments crossing the border from Mexico will be starting in a few weeks, plus here’s a shipping update on sweet potatoes.
Mexican Grapes
Mexican grape shipments will get underway in late April, with peak loadings occurring between the last week of May and the third week of June. A majority of the Mexican grapes will be crossing the border at Nogales, AZ.
The Mexican state of Caborca will come into its major production in early June, after shipping its first box in late May. The first crop estimate is expected about April 19-20, but good volume is predicted.
This 2018 crop is expected to be similar to 2016, which yielded a normal volume of about 16 million boxes. In Mexico in 2017, there was a record-breaking fresh grape crop of 21 million boxes exported to the U.S. An additional 4 million boxes were sold in the domestic (Mexican) market.
Nearly all of Mexico’s table grape vineyards are in the state of Sonora. Sonora’s three basic grape-growing regions are Hermosillo, Caborca and Guaymas. Guaymas is the farthest south and ships the earliest Sonoran grapes. The Hermosillo growing district has production to the west of town, in the La Costa area — near the relatively warm waters of the Sea of Cortez — and to the north in Pesqueria. Generally speaking, Caborca supplies the end of Mexico’s fast and short May-June deal.
Sweet Potato Shipments
American sweet potato growers harvested 159,300 acres in 2017, down from 163,300 acres the previous year. From 2010-14, that number had remained between 115,000 and 130,000 acres. As acreage and yields have increased, farmers have seen lower markets, leading one to wonder if supply isn’t finally exceeding demand. Meanwhile, moderate volume of sweets potatoes are being shipping from North Carolina, with much lighter volume from other areas.
Louisiana Sweet Potatoes
Louisiana will continue shipping sweet potatoes into June, ranking a distant fourth in volume nationwide behind North Carolina, California and Mississippi. Cajun country is shipping about 25 truck loads of sweet potatoes a week. Loads are grossing about $1800 to Chicago.
Here is the outlook for loadings of Florida blueberries, peaches and Valencia oranges.
Florida blueberry shipments are now moving in decent volume and will continue until the middle of May.
Wish Farms of Plant City, FL should have about 250,000 pounds of organic fruit from Florida this year, compared to 100,000 pounds a year ago. Strawberries are Wish Farms’ largest crop, accounting for about 60percent of its volume, compared to 30 percent for blueberries. The company will wind up its strawberry season any day now.
In all, Florida blueberry production consists of about 7,000 acres and 1,000 growers. Florida shipped about 20 million pounds of blueberries in 2017, and a similar volume is expected this year.
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New Florida Blueberry Shipper
MIAMI, FLA. – Crystal Valley Foods (Crystal Valley) has announced that it will begin shipping conventional and organic Florida blueberries under the Crystal Valley label this season. The first shipments will begin at the end of March and they will be available through the end of May.
The company has an exclusive partnership with a grower/packer in Hawthorne, Fla. and they expect a good Florida season as weather in the region has been conducive to good volume and quality.
With the acquisition of Team Produce last year, Crystal Valley has been able to successfully enter into the berry category, supplying imported blueberries from September through April. The transition into Florida is the first step in offering their customers year-round blueberries.
About Crystal Valley Foods
Founded in 1994, Crystal Valley Foods is a leading grower and importer of produce from Central and South America. With offices and facilities in Miami and Los Angeles, the company is one of the largest importers and distributors of asparagus in the USA. Its extensive product line also includes baby vegetables, peas, beans, berries, baby lettuces, peppers and other specialty crops.
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Florida Citrus
The Dundee (FL) Citrus Growers Association reports Florida grapefruit shipments are winding down, but valencia oranges will continue through April. with storage crop available into June.
Florida Peaches
Florida peach shipments are just getting started will continue until the middle of May. with peak loadings mostly occurring during April. Traditionally, Florida peaches start as Chile exits the marketplace and before California, South Carolina or Georgia being shipments of new season fruit.
Big volume Mexican grape shipments are underway and volume and is more than double that of California’s Coachella Valley, which also has is shipping. Meanwhile, here’s a peak at Hood River pear shipments coming this summer.
Mexican grape shipments should hit nearly 20 million cases this year, exceeding 2016 volume by 3.3 million cases.
Nearly all Mexican grapes are grown in the state of Sonora.
Export volume this season is estimated at 19.4 million cartons compared to last year’s total exports of 16.1 million.
As usual, 2017’s biggest increase will come from the red Flame variety, which is up 1.3 million cases over a year ago. Flames this year should total of 10.5 million cases from Sonora. A year ago, that production was 9.2 million, or an increase of 12.5 percent.
With 3.9 million cases, Sugraone again exceeds the green grape category with the Sugraone volume up by 22.9 percent. This is 892,000 cases more thane 2016, totaling 3 million cases. The third-largest Sonoran grape category this year are green grapes, which includes Perlettes, Primes and early green varieties. T hat total volume is expected to be up 17.2 percent this year to 3 million cases, up 515,000 from last year.
The biggest increase for 2017, is the black grape volume at 35.3 percent. Black grapes this year should total 900,000 cartons compared to 582,000 in 2016.
Red Globe production in 2017 is up 26.1 percent to 700,000 and other varieties are up 25.6 percent to 400,000 this season.
Sonoran volume was building in early May, and peaked in mid-May with heavy shipments seen forfor Memorial Day (May 29) and well into June. Mexican grape shipments continue until late June.
Oregon Pear Shipments
Oregon’s Hood River pear shipments will start later this season due to winter growing conditions. A year ago, the regional harvest and packing got under way the last week of July The 2017 season is running seven to 10 days later than normal, and three weeks behind a year ago. This means shipments of bartletts and starkrimson won’t start until later in August. Pear loading will continue through October. Green anjou, red anjou, bosc, comice, forelle and seckel are usually about three weeks behind bartletts and should start shipping by mid-September.
California citrus shipments are getting back on track after days of rains. Meanwhile, weather is expected to have a significant impact of Salinas vegetable shipments, but not affect California almonds, nearly as much.
The effects of the rain in citrus groves about a week ago, which hinders harvest and shipments when the ground is too muddy, could have been worse. It helps we are talking citrus and not something more perishable like strawberries (See March 1st report). Of note as we’ve previously reported, orange shippers had a bigger-than-normal pre-Christmas loadings, shipping about 30 percent of crop before the holiday, compared to a normal 20-25 percent. This is expected to result in season ending shipments occurring earlier than usual.
While harvest and shipments have been significantly slowed down, with it being too muddy for heavy equipment, the citrus industry is estatic over the great improvements in the water supply. Even better, the excess rain has not created any quality-related issues – thus far.
Southern California oranges and specialty citrus – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
Vegetable Shipments
Vegetable growers love the big rains that have recently occurred, but the trade off is plantings have been delayed in the Salinas Valley. This will be some shipping gaps, which will be felt even more because vegetable shipments from the California and Arizona deserts are going to end early than usual.
Not only are Salinas Valley spring vegetable shipments to be later this year, but there’s an excellent chance yields will be off due to wet-weather planting and generally adverse conditions. This of course, will translate into fewer vegetable shipments.
Imperial Valley and Yuma vegetables – grossing about $4600 to Atlanta.
Almond Shipments
Because of recent rains and storms in the San Joaquin Valley, some almond trees were blown down by strong winds recently. However, tree losses aren’t as bad as initially feared and optimism continues for good shipments when the season starts the latter part of August.
Mexican Grape Shipments
It’s a bit early, but initial estimates for the Mexican grape shipments are expected to be pretty much on time, which should mean fruit starting to cross the border at Nogales in late April.
California table grape shipments could be on track to match the record volume of 2013.
Loadings are currently forecast to hit 117.4 million 19-pound box equivalents. This would equal the amount shipped three years ago and outstrip last year’s 109.6 million. A final estimate is due in late July,
Many of the newer grape varieties are yielding anywhere from 1,400 to 2,200 boxes more per acre or better. Couple that with a lot of new plantings and there will be increasing shipments out of California for the next three or four years. A lot of it has been transitioned out of older varieties like crimsons. Growers pulled them out and replanted.
Grape shipments will get underway this coming week from the southern San Joaquin Valley and continue into November.
The Coachella Valley always kicks off California Grape shipments around May 1st. Early reports of reduced volumes in the desert may have been exaggerated. Coachella is now winding down grape shipments as the San Joaquin Valley is getting started.
Meanwhile Mexican grape shipments are also declining. Red grapes have finished and white grapes (Sugraones) are on their final leg.
In essence all San Joaquin Valley districts will be picking within about 10 days of each other. This includes McFarland and Delano coming on July 1st.
One major grape shipper, Crown Jewels Produce, say it will upwards of 1 million boxes out of the valley from Bakersfield to Madera this season.
The company started with a few flames out of Arvin around June 21. Then it will have grapes out of Fresno County just south of Fresno, June 28.
Crown Jewels then will have some summer royal black grapes in the first week of July. These will be followed by Thompson green grapes, as well as some princess grapes in mid- to late-July. August, September and October should be big months for California grape shipments.
Coachella Valley grapes – grossing about $4900 to Chicago.
Kern County carrots, potatoes, – grossing about $3800 to Dallas.
Quality issues are being reported with late season Chilean imported grapes as Mexico’s table grape exports are arriving in the U.S. in light volume. Mexican grape shipments are expected to be down 18 percent this season from 2015.
In 2015, Sonora, Mexico exported 17.22 million cases of table grapes. This year loadings are expected to hit 14.17 million, a drop of 3.05 million boxes, or 18 percent.
Early green seedless grapes are the only Sonora category of grapes expected to increase in volume this season. These are estimated at 871,000 cases, up 15 percent from 2015.
Here are the estimates for shipments of other Mexican grape varieties:
Flames: This red seedless grape may be down over 1 million cases from a year ago. In 2015, Sonora exported 8.6 million cases; the estimate for this year is 7.6 million boxes, which is a drop of 12 percent.
Sugraone: This green seedless variety is expected to drop 26 percent, to a total of 3.1 million boxes. This is down almost 1.1 million boxes from 2015, when 4.17 million were exported.
Perlettes: This white seedless grape is expected to be down 21 percent in 2016. There is a drop of 314,222 in the estimate from the 2015 export crop of 1.464 million. It is estimated that 1.15 million cases of Perlettes will be exported in 2016.
Red Globes: This variety faces the largest percentage of volume drop of all Mexican grape varieties in 2016. The Red Globe export estimate for 2016 is 400,000 boxes — a sharp decrease from the 825,848 boxes of Red Globes exported from Mexico last year.
Black grapes: The volume from Sonora is expected to be 650,000 cases, down 26 percent from 877,872 in 2015.
Other grape varieties will cumulatively be down 14 percent to 400,000 cases in 2016. This is a drop of 67,000 boxes from a year ago.
There should be good volume with grapes at Nogales the week prior to the Memorial Day weekend.
There is light volume with vegetables and mangoes, with rising grape volume crossing the border at Nogales – grossing about $3200 to Chicago.
California produce shipments have been disappointing so far this spring when it comes to total volume and freight rates, loadings are on the rise. Here’s a look at several different areas from the Golden State.
Kern Co. Produce Shipments
Currently there is light to moderate volume coming out of the Bakersfield area (Kern County) on items ranging from carrots to turnips, beets, rutabagas and navel oranges….(Carrots, along with sweet corn are available in the Imperial Valley). Carrot volume is light in Kern County, but will have a significant increase in May…..Around May 1st, Kern County green bell peppers get started.
There should be more info on Coachella Valley grape shipments soon when the first domestic grapes get underway in early May. This will occur within a few days after the start of Mexican grape shipments. (Look for a more detailed shipping outlook on Mexican grapes, Friday, April 22nd.) Coachella table grapes, similar to Mexico, are expected to finish shipments a little early this year – late June. About this time table grapes from the Bakersfield area will get underway with both red and green varieties, followed by black seedless grapes in mid July.
Kern Co. vegetable shipments – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.
Strawberry Shipments
California strawberry shipments have been a big disappointment this year. As of April 9th about 27.3 million trays had been shipped, far less than the 43.3 million trays at the same time a year ago. Lack of labor and weather have been cited as primary factors. California has 32,515 acres planted this year, a drop of 5,585 acres from 2015.
Ventura County strawberries and vegetables – grossing about $5100 to Atlanta.
Salinas Valley Vegetable Shipments
About 500 truck loads of head lettuce are being shipped weekly from Salinas, with volume expected to increase on it and other types of lettuce. Overall, Salinas is still leaving a lot to be desired in total vegetable shipments, but the month of May should be much better. Lettuce shipments from the Huron area in the San Joaquin Valley are in a seasonal decline. There’s several other veggies in very light volume also coming out of the Central San Joaquin Valley.
(Another California shipping update will be coming next week.)
Salinas Valley vegetable shipments – grossing about $6800 to Boston.