Posts Tagged “strawberry shipments”
California produce shipments
With the Huron shipping district in the San Joaquin Valley finished, the primary suppliers of the nation’s vegetable row crops are the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys.
These two areas on California’s coast are shipping Iceberg lettuce, all the mixed and specialty lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli and celery, plus dozens of other items in smaller volumes. California now has over 500 truckloads of head lettuce shipments weekly, mostly out of Salinas.
About the best thing for produce truckers this time of the year in California is fewer production areas, making it easier to get full loads due to the increased volume, plus a lot of product typically is loaded at one dock. This certainly beats wintertime when mulitple pick ups can start in Central or Southern California and extend to Coachella, the Imperial Valley and Yuma – and perhaps even Nogales. Not good.
Over the next two to three months California will be in its peak strawberry shipping period with 6 million to 7 million trays or more being shipped each week.
While Ventura County strawberries are in a seasonal decline, the Santa Maria district is shipping over 500 truckloads per week. Strawberry shipments are building from the Watsonville district, and will soon surpass Santa Maria in volume.
Produce Rates
Salinas Valley vegetables and berries – grossing about $4300 to Dallas; $7100 to New York City.
We’re rapidly approaching the prime shipping season for Florida spring vegetables.
Growing conditions have mostly been favorable and if anything crops tend to be maturing a little earlier than normal. Peak shipments will occur during April and May.
Overall, Florida should have normal volume this spring. Shipments are increasing on items from Southern Florida ranging from bell peppers to cucumbers, squash, sweet corn, beans, cabbage and eggplant. Shipments of red potatoes continue.
Brisk movement entering April will be pushed even more since Easter is early this year – April 5th….Cabbage shipments had been heavy leading up to St. Patrick’s Day (yesterday), but good volumes will continue.
An exception to normal supplies are Florida tomatoes. Cold February weather has reduced supplies and shipments of tomatoes, but are now starting to rebound and will be back to normal by late March.
Citrus shipments continue to be good and volume is steady from week to week from Central and Southern areas.
Florida blueberry shipments are just getting underway from Central Florida, with good volume by early April. South Florida watermelon loads should become available by the end of March.
Strawberry shipments from the Plant City area continue in good volume, but shipments will soon decline with the season ending in early April.
South Florida produce shipments – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Here we take look at Washington apple shipments, Idaho and Oregon onion loads, Idaho potatoes, plus the outlook for California strawberry shipments coming for Easter.
Washington state ships approximately 60 percent of the apples in the United States, but it is responsible for over 90 percent of the apple exports. In a typical year, Washington exports one-third of its production outside of the United States. Needless to say, exporters were relieved to see the port labor dispute on the West Coast settled.
Yakima Valley apples – grossing about $1000 to Seattle, $5000 to Dallas.
Idaho Potato Shipments
Looking at the Twin Falls, ID area, potato shipments remain pretty steady from week to week and are averaging around 1800 truck load equivalents per week….Moving to western Idaho and eastern Oregon, there are about 300 truck loads of dry onions moving from storages per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5600 to New York City.
Western Idaho and Malheur County, OR onions – grossing about $4700 to Atlanta.
California Strawberries
Easter Sunday is April 5th, and all three California berry growing regions will be up and running, and shipments should be good. Also, keep in mind the primary California strawberry shipping areas are cranking up a couple of weeks early this year because of excellent growing conditions.
Oxnard, which typically peaks from mid-March to mid-April is starting shipments about two weeks early. Santa Maria will also will have strawberry shipments for Easter, while Watsonville will play a supplemental role with light strawberry volume for the holiday…..Currently Oxnard not only has light volume with berries, but other items ranging from celery to romaine and leaf lettuce, as well as cabbage.
Ventura County (Oxnard) produce – grossing about $4500 to Chicago.
As we rapidly approach the New Year, vegetable volume will be increasing from Mexico through Nogales, as well as the California desert. Here also is a summary of what recent rains in drought stricken California will mean for produce haulers in the future.
Mexican vine-ripe tomato shipments will be moving into volume shipments around January 1st.
Mexican strawberry volume is increasing along with strawberries from the Plant City, FL area as well as fruit from Ventura County, CA.
Southern California strawberry shipments started the week of December 15th with very light volume. However, increasing the volume has been hampered due to rainy, cool weather. Mexican strawberry shipments have been steadily increasing, but decent volume won’t be available until the first or second week of January.
California Drought Update
A week of storms that swept through California in mid-December came nowhere close to ending the state’s drought. But with continued warm weather in the forecast, conditions are good for rapid crop growth — and possible winter shipping gaps. Celery out of Oxnard and iceberg lettuce out of Yuma, Ariz. are both coming on fast — where less rain fell but warm weather prevailed.
It has taken a crop that was well ahead of schedule and made it even more so,. The combination of rain, with mild conditions has created accelerated growth that is unprecedented. This is expected to result in shipping gaps during the next several weeks.
A NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory study released Dec. 16 found the water storage in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins was 11 trillion gallons below normal seasonal levels. It could take years to replenish that. The study was based on satellite data from earlier in 2014.
Mexican vegetables crossing at Nogales – grossing about $1000 to Los Angeles.
Imperial Valley/Yuma district vegetables – grossing about $5300 to Atlanta.
Here are some of the better loading opportunities occurring in the Eastern United States, although volume from most areas is modest at best.
Florida produce shipments and truck rates tend to get a little funky during the holidays as there is a rush to deliver product for Christmas, then reorder between Christmas and New Year’s. Rates tend to fluctuate more than normal during this time.
Tomato shipments in Florida’s Homestead region should kick off in January, but overall Florida volume will likely fall off as Mexican tomato shipments ramp up. Many Florida tomato growers simply don’t grow as heavily for winter as they do for fall and spring. Shipments in the Ruskin/Palmetto growing region of Florida pretty much finished last week, with Immokalee taking over the lion’s share of the Sunshine State’s tomato volume.
Florida strawberry shipments were slow to pick up thanks to cool weather, but that began changing last week. Volume should hit, good, normal levels in early January.
Central and South Florida produce – grossing about $3200 to New York City.
Sweet Potato Shipments
Domestic shipments in the USA for sweet potatoes has risen by 40 percent since 2008, with exports rising exponentially during the same period. North Carolina is the leading state in sweet potato shipments.
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
New York Produce Shipments
Apple shipments are originating out of Western and Central New York, as well as the Champlain Valley, but the biggest volume is from the Hudson Valley. Cabbage loadings continue from Central and western areas, while most onion shipments are coming out of Orange County.
Hudson Valley apples – grossing about $2000 to Atlanta.
Florida produce shipments
Florida isn’t exactly a hot bed for produce haulers this time of the year, but when you get right down to it, neither is Nogales, the Arizona and California deserts, or many other places. But here’s what’s happening in Florida, or will be occurring in the weeks and months ahead.
Grapefruit shipments provide some of the best loading opportunities. It started in October and will continue through April, although January through March provides the biggest volume. Florida typically ships 18 to 20 million boxes of grapefruit each season. Pink grapefruit comprises about 70 percent of the shipments, and Florida remains the world’s largest shipper of commercial grapefruit.
Winter veggies provide light to moderate loading opportunities out of Florida this time of the year. The state ranks second nationally in bell pepper shipments, which kicked off last October and should be available through June, Florida is number one in both sweet corn and snap bean shipments., which started in November and should continue through May. Typically April and May are the top two months for Florida veggies loadings.
Tomato shipments are just coming into decent volume and will be available through the spring. Loadings are originating from the Palmetto-Ruskin area, as well as Immokalee. There also is light volume with cherry and grape tomatoes from Central Florida.
Strawberry shipments from the Plant City area provide some of the best Florida hauling opportunities during the winter. Light volume is under way and good volume will be available in the next week or two. Shipments will continue into the middle of March.
Florida blueberry shipments have seen dramatic increases in recent years, but won’t be available until March, continuing through May….Likewise, watermelon shipments will start in mid-March and continue to early June. In fact, Florida is the only state shipping watermelons during much of this time period.
Central and South Florida vegetables and tomatoes – grossing about $2700 to New York City.
Here’s a shipping round up for deliveries in time for Thanksgiving, ranging from various shipping areas handling everything from strawberries to sweet potatoes, melons and veggies.
Strawberry Shipments from CA, FL, and Mexico
California is shipping about 2 million trays of strawberries per week, primarily out of Ventura County. However, this is expected to decline over the next few weeks.
Early October hot weather and cooler weather in November are two factors blamed for reducing California strawberry shipments. However, by December, Southern California, Florida and Mexico will be ramping up for holiday shipments including Christmas and New Year’s.
Mexican strawberry shipments are now moving into good volume. Florida berries should hit decent volume by the week of November 24th and hit heavy loadings by mid December.
Oxnard, CA strawberry shipments – grossing about $7000 to Boston.
Sweet Potato Shipments
Four states ship the vast majority of the nation’s sweet potatoes. However, North Carolina is shipping as many as Mississippi, Louisiana and California (Atwood/Livingston district) combined. However, volume from all of these states are increasing as we approach Thanksgiving. North Carolina is averaging around 250 truck loads per week.
Eastern North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
Nogales Produce Shipments
While Nogales, AZ will not hit peak produce shipments with product from Mexico until the end of the year, or January, decent supplies are currently available on some items. Watermelons are averaging about 625 truck loads weekly, with honeydew being about one-half this volume. A number vegetables ranging from various types of peppers to zuchnni and butternut squash are available in light volume, but seasonally increasing.
Unfortunately, there are too many mixed loads this time of year, due to limited volume. It’s not uncommon for produce haulers to start out in Central or Southern California and making several pick ups before filling out the truck in Nogales.
Mexican melons and vegetables through Nogales – grossing about $6000 to New York City.
It has been nearly three decades since TransFresh Corporation’s Rich Macleod created the Fresh Produce Mixer & Loading Guide and he still receives requests for 100 or more of the guides each year.
The guide continues to be a useful tool in preventing the transporting of incompatible fruits and vegetables, which can result in the loss of product quality, and even lead to claims or rejected loads.
Over the years Macleod believes increased knowledge of what produce items mix well together during transit has contributed to reducing problems with refrigerated produce loads arriving at destination – particularly on longer hauls. As stated on the guide, “Some items may tolerate less than perfect conditions for short periods (less than two days). Produce mix and temperature becomes critical with longer transit times.”
However, despite all of the information available on the topic, problems with arrivals of product at destination due to incompatibility of the produce on board still occurs.
“They (shippers) know if there is a load that is 90 percent head lettuce and there is a pallet of apples in the trailer, that is not good,” Macleod says. But sometimes chances are taken with incompatible items, especially if the transit time is not very long.
“The sensitivity of what does and doesn’t go on a load has really improved in the last five years,” Macleod notes.
He adds there are more larger carriers hauling produce and they are becoming more sophisticated with what to put in the trailer on mixed loads. He laments there seems to be fewer independent owner operator than in the past doing long haul trucking.
Macleod sees more shippers using their own brand on many fruits and vegetables, and they have become more particular how these products are loaded and transported because their name or brand is on the box.
He points out when a produce hauler picks up product in a warmer climate, there usually is a lot of activity, because a lot of produce is being moved. This increases the chance the product may not have been pre-cooled. While Macleod does not see this as a huge problems, he notes it still does happen.
“The primary protection for the driver (and receiver) is they know the pulp temperature of the product going into the trailer,” Macleod says.
Since Macleod works a lot with strawberry shipments, particularly through TransFresh’s Techtrol program, he is seeing less resistance to the driver being provided pulp temperature information on product just being load. He isn’t sure if it is a major problem with other produce commodities.
‘In the packaged vegetable industry they (shippers) clearly don’t want the driver punching a hole in it, but there is a way to do it. But it’s incredibly important to what that (pulp) temperature is going into the trailer,” Macleod stresses. “It impacts how much demand is going to be put on your reefer unit, the quality of the product, and it can impact the chances of rejected loads.”
Even if the driver did not observe the loading, he can still alert the customer (receiver) while still at the dock, if he notices the product is three to four degrees warmer than it should be.
(This is the fourth in a five-part series featuring an interview with Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division North America for TransFresh Corp., Salinas, CA. He has been with the company since 1976, and has a masters degree in post harvest science from the University of California, Davis.)
While California’s overall fruit shipments in the fall may not match those of summertime, there are some exception when looking at individual commodities. Here is a round up on leading California fruit shipments this fall.
Grape Shipments
At least 60 percent of California grape shipments occur after Labor Day and continue into January. Since California is easy the biggest table grape shipping state, we are talking about a lot of fruit. The shipping season actually started last May from the desert and the total season forecast calls for 116.5 million, 19-pound cartons to be shipped. That is less than one million cartons away from last season record setting shipments.
Citrus Shipments
Larger volumes of tangerinees (which includes mandarins) are forecast this fall. Numbers are not yet available, but last season there were 26 million, 40-pound cartons of tangerines shipped….Navel orange loadings should become available sometime in October, with full volume coming in November — and in time for Thanksgiving shipments.
Kiwi Shipments
Kiwifruit loadings are predicted to be about 7 million tray equivalents, similar to last season.
Pomegranate Shipments
Loadings of pomegranates have been increasing 20 percent annually in recent years, and volume once again should be bigger – estimated at 6 million 25-pound box equivalents.
Apple Shipments
California apple shipments pale in comparison to that of Washington state. Shipments have been underway since late July and will last into November.
Strawberry Shipments
Peak shipments from the Watsonville area occurred during July and August. There still good volume, but seasonally lower amounts are still occurring there. In October, strawberry shipments will shift to Oxnard and the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.
Watsonville strawberries, Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $5600 to Cleveland.
Central San Joaquin Valley table grapes, stone fruit, vegetables – grossing about $6,600 to Orlando.
This is an update on produce shipments from Washington, Oregon and California.
Northwest Onion Shipments
Potato shipments for the new season have recently got underway from the Columbia Basin in Oregon and Washington state. They are now moving into good volume.
In Walla Walla, WA, shipping of Walla Walla sweet onions have been ongoing for serval weeks and will continue until around Labor Day.
Northwest potato shipments from the old crop are still happening, but declining in volume as the season concludes.
California Produce Shipments
Strawberry shipments have been on a steady keel for a while now out of the Watsonville area averaging about 900 truck loads per week. Volume also is steady from the Santa Maria district, although volume is only about 25 percent of that from Watsonville.
Meanwhile moderate loadings of broccoli, cauliflower and celery continues. Lettuce, not surprisingly, leads Salinas Valley vegetable shipments. Head lettuce and romaine alone, are averaging over 1800 truckloads per week. There also are other types of lettuce and a few dozen different other veggie items being shipped.
Tomato loadings are available from the Central San Joaquin Valley, as well as the Oceanside area, and from Baja crossing the Mexican/US border at Otay Mesa.
Pear shipments are now ongoing from the Sacramento area and the northern San Joaquin Valley.
California pears – grossing about $4900 to Dallas.
Salinas Valley produce – grossing about $5600 to Cleveland.