Posts Tagged “Ontario vegetable shipments”
Ontario may be known for its bustling greenhouse industry, but growers of field-grown vegetables in the Canadian provience have made their own mark and are providing good volume this summer.
Ontario Potato Distributors Inc. of Alliston, Ontario launched its 2024 season with yellow potatoes the week of July 15, which were soon followed by white potatoes.
Ontario Potato ships year-round mostly to retailers but also has some foodservice and wholesale customers.
Procyk Farms (1994) Ltd. of Wilsonville, Ontario began harvesting in early June, a little earlier than usual because of warmer-than-normal weather.
The firm’s product line includes tomatoes, roma tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, red and savoy cabbage, sweet corn, zucchini and red, yellow and green bell peppers. All commodities were shipping by the second week of July.
Procyk Farms will ship until the first fall frost, which usually occurs by the Canadian Thanksgiving, which will be October 14 this year. Volume will be similar to last year.
Sweet corn is the major crop grown by Rouge River Farms in Gormley, Ontario. The company, which started in Ontario with a few acres in the late 1980s, now may be the largest fresh-market sweet corn grower on the East Coast.
Rouge River also has 8,000 acres of green beans, making it one of the largest growers of green beans on the East Coast. This will be the first year the company is growing green beans in Ontario.
The firm also has sweet corn and green bean programs in Florida, Georgia and Virginia.
Exeter Produce of Exeter, Ontario will have an extensive line of field vegetables this summer. Some of the items include broccoli, sweet corn, hard squash, garlic, rutabagas, green beans, cabbage, wrapped cabbage and wrapped broccoli as well as its new napa cabbage product and several new kinds of chili peppers.
The company grows on about 6,000 acres. Most of the local summer items from Exeter Produce will finish by early October, then the company will turn to squash, cabbage, rutabagas and heartier items until Christmas.
The fourth-generation grower ships most of its product to retailers and foodservice operators, 60% of which are in Canada with the remainder in the U.S.
Scotlynn Group of Vittoria, Ontario kicked off its sweet corn season the second week of July.
The company will ship pumpkins from Labor Day weekend through the end of October.
Sweet corn shipments should continue until mid-September.
The company grows 15,000 acres of vegetables in Ontario, Florida and Georgia and ships to retailers on the East Coast and West Coast of Canada and mostly to customers east of the Mississippi in the U.S.
The Scotlynn Group of Vittoria, Ontario has 5,000 acres of sweet corn, watermelon, asparagus, pumpkins and ginseng in Ontario. Volume is expected to be similar to last year.
The company launched its asparagus program the first week of May. Pumpkins will start the last week of August and continue until the end of October.
Welsh Bros.’ of Scotland, Ontario started its sweet corn loadings the week of July 10 with volume similar to a year ago. The company ships primarily independent supermarkets within Ontario, though the operation is looking to expand its distribution area.
Ontario Potato Distributors Inc. of Alliston, Ontario started its early white potato harvest in mid July as usual. Later potato crops will follow in mid-August, September and October. The company also has russet, red and yellow potatoes.
OPDI ships year-round, and volume should be up slightly on all varieties compared to last year. The firm packs its potatoes under the Champion brand and also distributes private-label tubers for chain stores throughout Canada.
August’s Harvest Inc. of Gads Hill, Ontario began harvesting seven varieties of garlic in July, but it already was shipping garlic scapes — the flower bud of the garlic plant — in June. The product is available in June, July and August. The company’s fresh garlic should be shipping until April.
Procyk Farms 1994 Ltd. of Wilsonville, Ontario began shipping numerous vegetables in mid July and has tomatoes, grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, red and savoy cabbage, sweet corn, zucchini and red, yellow and green bell peppers.
Quality is good this season, and volume is similar to last year.
The fourth-generation, family-owned company ships to customers on the Ontario Food Terminal as well as retail chains and foodservice operators.
While most reports on Ontario vegetable shipments seem to focus on greenhouse-grown products, Canadian government statistics show the province has plenty of field-grown produce.
There were double digit increases in 2017 over 2016 with Ontario-grown beets, Brussels sprouts, green onions, radishes, parsnips and celery.
Additionally, Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Rural Affairs reported double digit acreage declines for carrots, cauliflower, sweet corn, field-grown tomatoes, squash and zucchini, field-grown cucumbers, pumpkins and squash, bell peppers, and lettuce.
The Holland Marsh muck region, located about 30 miles north of Toronto, grows about 75 percent of vegetables produced in Ontario and 65 percent of vegetables grown in Canada.
The region produces nearly four pounds of carrots for every Canadian per year.
Shipments begin in May with lettuce, and carrots follow in June and while vegetables will continue through November. Root vegetables from the region are marketed year-round.
Located on about 7,000 acres, the muck soil of the region grows 66 commodities and is the second largest carrot producing region in North America region. Onions, celery, herbs, lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage also are among the top crops. In addition to the muck soil, there are about 6,000 vegetable acres in the surrounding highlands.
The region has about 126 growers and 10 packing facilities.
The region was settled by the Dutch and still includes many family businesses and small companies. Asian vegetables have found traction in recent years.
The government reported the top acreage crop for Ontario vegetables in 2017 was sweet corn, with 19,003 acres reported. That was down 15 percent from 2016 acreage and off 18 percent from 2015, according to government statistics.
Ranking second among commercial vegetables for Ontario in 2017 was green peas, with 14,450 acres harvested, 7 percent lower than last year and 13 percent less than 2015.
Ranking first in sales among field-grown crops, field-grown tomatoes were No. 3 in acreage among Ontario vegetable crops in 2017.
Tomato acreage last year was 13,408 acres, down 13 percent from 2016 and off 2 percent from 2015.
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THIS PAST WEEK A FEW CALIFORNIA PRODUCE LOADS TO THE EAST COAST WERE GROSSING $10,000 AND MORE!
Examples: Desert vegetables to Baltimore – $9700 – $10,000; Kern District and Ventura County vegetables to Boston – $9400 – $10000; Salinas Valley vegetables to Boston – $9700 to $10200; and Santa Maria vegetables to Philadelphia – $9200 to $10000.
Ohio vegetable shipments have gotten an early start, while Ontario vegetables are building in volume. Eastern peach loadings remain steady.
Vegetable shipments out of Ohio got underway a week to 10 days early this year. For example, Buurma Farms of Williard, OH started with radishes mid-May, and dill, cilantro and turnip and mustard greens by the end of the month. Beets, lettuces, parsley, sweet corn, green onions and celery were to following in short order
Ohio radish loadings started in mid-May and continue to mid-November, with other commodities starting in June and winding down in October. For example, sweet corn, celery and peppers likely will start in mid- to late July and go to the first frost.
Ohio sweet corn and many other vegetables are shipped to destinations in the Midwest, East and South.
In late June, shipments begin for cabbage and green beans and the second week of July for corn.
Ontario Vegetable Shipments
Canada’s Ontario province vegetable shipments are now coming on and will be in full shipping mode in July. While asparagus loading have been occurring since early May, items such as zucchini starts in late June and sweet corn will be available the first half of July. Other items range from eggplant, to red and green peppers, colored potatoes and cluster tomatoes.
Eastern Peach Shipments
South Carolina peach shipments are good and will remain so approaching the 4th of July. Loadings are expected to decrease some after the holiday, but then pick back up the second half of July. Steady shipments are seen through August, before the season winds down in early September.
Georgia peach shipments remain strong, with a season similar to that of South Carolina. Georgia is reporting its finest crop in at least a decade.
Georgia peach shipments – grossing about $2600 to New York City.
Peruvian Avocado Imports
Peru should export about 100 million pounds of hass avocados to the U.S. this season — about the same as a year ago.
However, expect more fruit next season due to newly planted trees starting to bear fruit in 2017. Exports to the U.S. and other parts of the world will increase by 20 percent. About 25 percent of Peru’s avocado exports are destined for the U.S.
Here’s an international glimpse at fresh produce loading opportunities, starting with Canadian vegetables from Quebec, Northwest cherries, and the up coming Mexican tomato shipping season.
Quebec Vegetable Shipments
While HaulProduce.com has reported on Ontario vegetable shipments (see June 25th report), here we go with what’s coming soon out of Quebec.
While there are still a few onions from the past season still being shipped, the new crop of onions will be getting underway in mid July, with cantaloupes to soon follow the third week of July, along with carrots, lettuce and peppers.
Broccoli shipments recently started and will continue into early November.
While Quebec ships vegetables to the upper Midwest and some East Coast markets in the U.S., most of its apples never leave this Canadian province – shipping regionally, if not locally.
Quebec also has a couple of fresh cranberry shippers. They shipped over one million pounds last year, and expect to load even more this fall.
Northwest Cherry Shipments
Northwest cherries, led by Washington state are cranking up shipments. It is estimated the Northwest will load 22 million boxes, which could be the region’s second-largest crop behind 2012’s record shipments of 23 million boxes.
Mexican Tomato Shipments
Looking ahead to the 2014-15 season for Mexican tomato shipments, of which a good percent cross the border into the U.S., shows a slight decline projected by the USDA. Around 2.28 million tons of tomatoes will be shipped this coming season, down from 2.35 million ton from the season that recently ended. Acreage for Mexican fresh tomatoes is projected at 106,000 acres, off from the 111,000 in the 2013-14 season.
However, produce haulers will notice little difference in tomato loadings because Mexican yields are up due to expanded plantings in greenhouses, shade houses, tunnels and other forms of protected measures for growing. Many tomato growing operations are financed or owned by major tomato shippers in the U.S., especially growers from California.
Washington state fruit – grossing about $4200 to Chicago.