Swinging toward the Southern Hemisphere

The Packer's David Mitchell did a great job in covering the California surge in clementine production that is troubling Spanish clementine suppliers. The increase in California production has also been accompanied by continued increases in Southern Hemisphere clementine volume. While Spain's volumes have risen modestly - from 59,000 metric tons in 2001 to about 62,000 metric tons in 2005 - Southern Hemisphere supply has risen much faster. South Africa's shipments to the U.S. tripled from 4,000 metric tons in 2001 to 12,000 metric tons in 2005. Chile's clementine shipments to the U.S. last year were 8,000 metric tons, the first full year of market access. Spain's share of clementine imports has slipped from 78% of import supply in 2001 to 65% in 2005. The Southern Hemisphere's expansion of clementines shipped in the U.S. summer months, combined with rising Southern Hemisphere navel volume, likely will continue to hasten the contraction of valencia acreage in California.

Wal-Mart Supplier Index

Maybe being a Wal-Mart supplier isn't so tough after all. A Reuters story notes that the International Securities Exchange launched an index to track companies earning a significant portion of revenue by supplying Wal-Mart. The "relationship-based" index is the only such one known to exist and includes 30 companies - General Mills and Energizer Holdings were the only two mentioned - with annual revenues from Wal-Mart ranging from 16% to 74% of their gross sales. For produce suppliers, Wal-Mart told The Packer in the past it doesn't want to account for more than 20% of sales for any one supplier, but I'm sure there are a number of produce companies above that threshold as they supply the world's largest retailer. One interesting aside; if calculated since 2002, the supplier index would be up 40%, while Wal-Mart's own stock has dipped 15%.

Suburbs home to poverty too

A new Brookings Institution report said there are now more people living in poverty in the suburbs than in cities. Overall, government statistics show that the U.S. poverty rate leveled off last year at 12.6% after having increased every year since 2000.

New York senator calls for produce tracking

The New York Senator not named Hillary Clinton has proposed that the Food and Drug Administration would operate an extensive tracing system for fresh produce. Under the proposal put forward by Democrat Charles Schumer, each carton of fresh fruits and vegetables would have a bar code with information on origin. What's more Schumer said Senate Democrats plan to reintroduce the Safe Food Act in 2007, a piece of legislation that would create a Food Safety Administration to oversee issues of food safety. Once these political dynamics begin in the next Congress, it will be a stout test of both the FDA and industry leadership to present a case that the current system - or the current system combined with new industry initiatives - is sufficient.

We are what we eat

A story from across the pond talks up the benefits of eating a rainbow variety of fresh produce. While some aspects of the "detox diet" were found to be a myth - the study found that liver and brain function were no different in a healthy eating group and a junk-food ingesting group - the study did show a positive impact on blood pressure and cholesterol from a diet high in fresh produce.

E. coli test

Dupont has received approval to sell an E. coli test kit to produce handlers in Canada, according to a recent story. According to the report, Canada Health approved the test, called BAX(R) for fruits, vegetables and dairy on Dec. 18. An earlier version of the test had been okayed in 2004 in Canada for raw beef, apple cider and orange juice. The test consists of a kit bulk powder or a soluble tablet and a device that can read the DNA fingerprint of the sample. The news report said the test can conduct 96 tests in four hours. Ch-ching, ch-ching for Dupont, I'm guessing.

They meet again

The USDA's Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee will meet again in January, and the agency's has just published notice of the date and location for the meeting. I've seen every meeting of the committee, and I believe all who serve on it do the industry a real service and take their jobs seriously. The USDA does a nice job of educating the committee on their programs, even if it does seem that they use the committee as political cover for user fee increases. One topic for the January meeting is fee increases for PACA, in addition to other planned discussions about immigration, the farm bill and food safety.

Clamoring for a new standard

The USDA has just announced they are proceeding with the creation of grade standards for cultivated ginseng. Evidently they received a request from a cultivated ginseng handler for the new grade standard. The clamor and din was impossible to turn away any longer!