Posts Tagged “New York vegetable shipments”
Shipments are expected to be good for apples, sweet corn, squash, onions, snap beans and many other items from New York state this summer, according to grower-shippers.
The New York State Vegetables Growers Association reports has production for the fresh market and the processors. Vegetables for processing are grown by operations with thousands of acres , but also includes small organic, niche growers, plus everything in between.
Most of the state’s farms are within four hours of many major metropolitan areas and distribute produce to a number of East Coast cities.
Eden Valley Growers Inc., Eden, N.Y., began harvesting green squash, cabbage and cucumbers in June, and corn by the second week of July. It had variety peppers by the end of July.
Reeves Farms of Baldwinville, NY reports good quality on its conventional sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, winter squashes, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, cabbage, pumpkins, peas and eggplant.
About 15% of the company’s production is organic grape tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, blueberries, zucchini, yellow squash and winter squash.
When it comes to fruit, the New York Apple Association notes apple harvesting typically begins in mid-August with Paula Red and ginger gold apple varieties. The Paula Red is a tart tasting apple and is one of the earliest varieties to be harvested.
The fresh-picked ginger gold is considered a great snacking apple in late summer.
The state produces over 250 apple varieties, 30 of which are available in commercial volumes.
Other favorites include jonamac, SweeTango, mcintosh, gala, Honeycrisp, SnapDragon, cortland, macoun, empire, red delicious, fuji, RubyFrost, Crispin, golden delicious and EverCrisp.
The state produced 32.2 million bushels of apples last season.
Eden Valley Growers plans to expand its value-added product offerings by increasing its production of packaged corn this summer, Walczak said.
Overall, volume for the 10-member co-op, many of whom are fifth- or sixth-generation growers, should be about the same as last year or possibly up slightly.
Western New York vegetable shipments got off to a good start in spring and early summer, and expectation are for this to continue on through the rest of summer.
Hansen Farms of Stanley, NY is has 1,200 acres of cabbage it is shipping, up slightly from a year ago.
This northern cabbage stores well for long periods at the farm at 33 degrees Fahrenheit and can be available year-round.
Apples, cabbage, sweet corn, squash, snap beans and pumpkins are top specialty crops for this state, according to the USDA’s 2021 state agriculture overview, updated July 1.
About 10,800 acres of cabbage for all purposes was harvested in New York in 2021.
In contrast, apples for the fresh market came from 44,000 harvested acres where apples were grown for all purposes.
Other produce for the fresh market are listed below:
- Sweet corn from 23,600 harvested acres.
- Squash from 4,400 harvested acres.
- Pumpkins from 5,100 harvested acres.
- Snap beans from 23,700 harvested acres.
Turek Farm of King Ferry, NY began shipping vegetables for the fresh market around July 10, first with zucchini, summer squash, cabbage and English peas, followed by sweet corn.
After watching sluggish volume movement out of Florida and Georgia this winter, Turek decided to plant 15% to 20% fewer acres of sweet corn, cabbage and zucchini in New York. For crops with more set prices from contracts, such as pumpkins, he didn’t reduce acreage.
SM Jones, based in Belle Glade, FL has New York grown sweet corn through fall, and in between, pumpkin, winter squash, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
Following fewer plantings and shipments a year ago due to the pandemic, it appears New York state vegetable shippers are back on track with more normal volume this season.
Turek Farms, King Ferry, NY reports volume was down about 20% in 2020, but this year, more normal volumes are seen.
Located in the Finger Lakes region, Turek also grows and ships broccoli, Brussels sprouts and a few other items. By mid-July, loadings of cabbage, summer squash, and sweet corn were underway.
Reeves Farms of Baldwinsville, increased vegetable acres by about 5%, slowly as the market demands, but like everyone else is planning no significant increases in acreage. The company begin picking sweet corn the second week of July 10. Summer squash started a in mid June 16. Cucumber shipments were launched in late June 27.
Torrey Farms of Elba in western New York has about the usual amount of cabbage, and grow in a five-county region. By mid July Torrey Farms was shipping green beans, zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers and cabbage. Harvesting cabbage continues into November, and some of it will go into storage, possibly into December. The firm will ship cabbage through May.
Besides the storage crop, the new crop of onions just got underway a few days ago and continue into October.
On the North Fork of Long Island, Satur Farms of Cutchogue has a cold storage and shipping facilities in nearby Calverton. Satur Farms has its usual mix and varieties of leafy greens. The volume is similar to past seasons.
Minkus Family Farms of New Hampton, started
shipping onions at the beginning of August.
New York vegetable shipments are just getting started with full volume expected in August.
Torrey Farms of Elba, NY grows, harvests, packs and ships everything it grows, while its sister company, Paul Marshall Produce and its drivers deliver prouct to customers.
The company expects 2,400 acres of onions this season in addition to its
cucumbers, green beans, squashes and potatoes. Most items got underway around July 10 – 15, while onions will start in early August.
Torrey Farms ships vegetables to destination all along the East Coast and as far west as Chicago.
About 70 percent of its produce goes to the retailer, with the balance directed to wholesalers and food service operations.
While Parker Farms is favorably known in the south for its marketing of broccoli, sweet corn, squash and peppers in partnership with nearly half a dozen farms on several thousand acres, come summertime, the company turns a great deal of attention to New York state.
Parker Farms of Oak Grove, VA works with Kludt Bros. Farm in Kendall, NY, who operate over 1,000-acres of vegetables, growing mainly broccoli and sweet corn.
Working with Kludt Farms in the summer allows Parker Farms to be a year-around vegetable supplier. the company distributes vegetables from Florida to Maine, with most its business east of the Mississippi, except for some sweet corn and other items it delivers to Texas.
In New York, broccoli starts in the middle of July with corn following around July 20 and lasting until early August.
New York growers have been conservative planning for the 2020 summer shipping season in most part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turek Farms of King Ferry, N.Y. converted some of its vegetable acres into grain crops this year, because of all the uncertainty.
Sweet corn is Turek’s biggest crop, but also grows and ships cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, summer and winter squash, pumpkins and cauliflower.
Cabbage and summer squash loadings started in mid-July. Sweet corn shipments got underway the first few days in August, which is about 10-14 days later than usual.
Winter squash, broccoli and pumpkins are on schedule, with all pumpkins planted by the end of June.
A look westward at Torrey Farms in Elba, N.Y., reveals zucchini and yellow squash started about July 6 and cabbage and green beans July 12. Cucumbers and early transplant onions were ready about July 23.
Williams Farms of Marion, N.Y., has about 1,000 acres, and grows potatoes, onions and cabbage for the fresh market, field corn, and apples, carrots and beets for processing.
New York growers produced 14.7 percent of all the U.S. cabbage, 11.4 percent of the nation’s apples, 11.3 percent of the nation’s snap beans and 10.6 percent of the nation’s squash, according to the USDA’s annual statistical bulletin for 2017-18.
The state ranked second in highest production of cabbage, apples and snap beans.
A year later, New York growers produced 20.7 percent of all the U.S. cabbage, 13.6 percent of the nation’s apples, 12 percent of the nation’s snap beans and 10.9 percent of the nation’s squash, according to the USDA bulletin for 2018-19.
New York vegetable shipments were hindered by too much rain a year ago, but in 2018 farmers were wishing they had more rainfall. Still, crops seem to be in pretty good shape and normal shipments are taking place.
For example William Farms LLC of Marion, NY is reporting loadings occurring on a normal schedule thus far this season. In similar fashion, Turek Farms of King Ferry is reporting vegetables maturing on time, but could use some moisture.
Onion shipments for Raymond Myruski LLC of Goshen, NY should get underway the first half of August.
A look at USDA shipment figures for New York fruit and vegetable shipments showed mixed trends.
- Apple shipments, the top volume commodity in New York, were down 11 percent from 2016.
- Onions, the second-ranked fresh commodity by volume, saw shipments increase 18 percent in 2017 compared with the previous season.
- Sweet corn, ranked third in volume during 2017, recorded fresh shipments in 2017 that were up 30 percent from 2016.
- Cucumber shipments in 2017 were up 5 percent from the previous year, and fresh bean shipments were up 1 percent, according to the USDA.
- Cabbage shipments were off 3 pecent, and potato shipments were nearly unchanged from a year ago.
Green bean loadings started in early July for Torrey Farms Inc. of Elba, N.Y., while cabbage and squash have just started. Supply should be steady, and quality looks good.
At Eden Valley Growers of Eden, NY vegetable crops are coming on at about the same time as in 2017. The company started shipping lettuces, broccoli and cucumbers abut a month ago, which were followed by bell peppers and hot specialty pepper. Sweet corn loadings got underway the third week of July.
The company also ships squash and cucumbers. Eden Valley plans to ship through October, with hard squashes and pumpkins coming on in the fall. A majority of the New York vegetable shipments to markets in the Northeast which has 50 million consumers, but some product is destined to markets up and down the East Coast.
New York vegetable shipments are now moving to markets, while potato loads from the new crops for Washington and Oregon will be underway soon.
It was a drought in New York last year, but too much rain this year affecting vegetable shipments. For example, Turek Farms of King Ferry, NY has left a few hundred of its nearly 4,000 acres unplanted this year due to excessive rains. The company’s s corn harvest is just getting underway to be followed by cabbage, broccoli and Brussels spouts.
Torrey Farms Inc. of Elba, NY grows about 14,000 acres and faces similar issues. Torrey also grows cucumbers, green beans, yellow squash, cabbage, onions, potatoes and winter squash.
Meanwhile, Eden Valley Growers of Eden, NY, just got started with sweet corn, cabbage, squash, cucumbers and beans.
New York shipped sweet corn in 2016 off of 26,600 acres, amounting to 2.5 million cwt. Corn for the fresh market made up $44.6 million of a total crop value of $53 million. Green bean shipments last year came off of 28,300 acres, for a total of nearly 2 million cwt.
New York’s vegetable shipments extend into late November and even early December for some crops.
Washington Potato Shipments
In 2016 Washington growers planted 170,000 acres of potatoes, with acreage and volumes expected to be similar this season. The state typically ships about 10 billion pounds of potatoes each growing season.
Potandon Produce LLC of Idaho Falls, ID, will begin shipping russet and colored potatoes out of Osceola, WA later this month, while Norm Nelson Inc., of Burlington, WA expects to start loading spuds in September.
Washington’s Columbia Basin potato shipments – grossing about $3400 to Chicago.
Oregon Potato Shipments
Oregon potato shipments for the fresh market represents nearly 13 percent of total production in the U.S. Similar volume of about 2.5 billion pounds is seen for the upcoming season.
Strebin Farms LLC of Troutdale, OR will pack the old storage crop through the end of July, before starting with the new crop in early August. In similar fashion, Amstad Produce LLC, of Sherwood, OR also expects its new potato crop to be ready after the first week of August. The company will be shipping red and yellow potatoes August through the end of the year out of the Willamette Valley.
Most late summer and fall New York vegetable shipments are going to have substantially less volume, and loading opportunities are going to be a mess, because of unpredictable shipping gapes. Blame it all on Mother Nature and torrential rains in recent weeks.
The heavy rains resulted in flooded fields, disrupted plantings and are expected to produce supply gaps for many vegetables, including sweet corn, green beans, cabbage, squash, cucumbers, onions and potatoes.
For example the down pours delayed the planting of cabbage for 21 days at Hansen Farms LLC, Stanley, N.Y.. which will result in shipping gaps through out the season. Yields will be down, which means volume for shipping will be lower – probably significantly.
While there is little talk of quality issues at this point, and most talk is playing up less volume without quality being affected – don’t necessarily count on it. This should be a concern if you are hauling New York product and just be extra observant what is being put in the truck.
While no percentage losses for volume are available yet on most items, one number being thrown around is both New York potato and onion shipments are expected to be off by 30 percent.
Western New York vegetable shipments – grossing about $1200 to Boston.
Here is a look a new season shipments for New York and California apples, plus some other loading opportunities in both of these states.
New York Apple Shipments
New York state’s apple harvest is scheduled to begin August 15th, with shipments getting underway shortly thereafter. The Empire State expects to ship about 30 million bushels of fruit this season, down only slightly from the 32 million bushels shipped during the 2013-14 season. However, total volume is still expected to stay above the state’s five-year averages of 29.5 million bushels. Although the apple harvest should end in November, loading opportunities will continue well into next spring, if not summer. The Hudson Valley is New York’s leading area for apple shipments, although several other areas of the state also have the fruit in significant volume.
New York vegetable shipments are moving in steady volume, especially from western and central areas of the state.
Western New York vegetables – grossing about $1600 to New York City.
California Apple Shipments
Apple shipments out of California’ San Joaquin Valley got underway a couple of weeks ago, but are only entering volume loadings now. This is one of the earliest maturing crops on record. Overall, California expects to ship about 2.4 million boxes of apples this season, which is fairly normal.
While gala shipments started in mid July, granny smiths should get underway the week of August 11th, followed by fujis around August 18th. followed by Pink Lady apples in the middle of October.
California’s San Joaquin Valley produce shipments are in good volume with everything ranging from grapes to tomatoes, stone fruit and vegetables.
San Joaquin Valley vegetables and melons – grossing about $7500 to New York City.
While most upstate New York state vegetable shipments are getting underway as much as two weeks late this year due to weather factors, things are finally starting to pick up.
First of all, vegetables are grown and shipped from a number of different areas of the state. Here are just a few cities and towns located near some of the larger vegetable operations: Marion, Florida, Goshen, Holley, King Ferry, Pine Island, Marion and Stanley.
Mid July Starts
Just getting underway are items ranging from green beans to cucumbers, and cabbage. Just a note, there will be some slow starts. For example green bean shipments are expected to be off 20 percent until about about the first of August, with normal volume coming on by the middle of August. Cabbage is one of New York’s bigger items, but shipments will be down as much as 50 percent unil mid August, when normal volume should arrive.
Late July Starts
Vegetable loadings should start by late July or early August with sweet corn, which will continue until early October. Other similar starting dates apply to squash and red round tomatoes. Labor Day Starts
Both potato shipments and onion shipments should be starting in early September around Labor Day.
New York state continues to be one of the leading shippers of fresh produce, consistently ranking in the top ten among states.