Where has all the produce gone?

TK: A SOURCE AT USDA MARKET NEWS CALLED AND ALERTED ME THAT PART OF THE REASON FOR THE DISPARITY IN SHIPMENTS IS THAT USDA FIGURES ARE ADJUSTED UP TO THREE WEEKS AFTER THE FACT. SO CURRENT AND YEAR AGO COMPARISON, PARTICULARLY FOR IMPORTS ARE OF LITTLE VALUE IN THE WEEK THEY ARE REPORTED......




Where has all the produce gone? I speak in reference to the USDA report tracking domestic and imported fruit and vegetable shipments (measured in 40,000-lb truckloads) included in the USDA Truck Rate Report.

As you might have noticed, I'm tracking the weekly shipment numbers from the USDA truck rate report in a chart on the side of the blog. Clearly, the graph shows that combined truck shipments of domestic and imported produce are consistently lagging behind year-ago numbers. What the chart doesn't show is the ongoing cumulative difference in shipments.

Looking at the spreadsheet where I've been posting the data, I see that domestic fruit and vegetable truck shipments from March 23 to June 14 (no magic in that date - just the time I started the chart) totaled 329,566 truckloads. The same time period last year tallied 351,222 truckloads. That means total USDA-reported movement of domestic fruits and vegetables this year is off more than 20,000 loads - or about 6%.

Imports are also running below levels recorded in the same period a year ago. From March 23 to June 14, total import volume of fruits and vegetables totaled 119,455 truckloads, off 17% from 143,031 loads the same period a year ago.

Combined domestic and import shipments from March 23 to June 14 tallied 449,021 truckloads from March 23 to June 14, off 9% from 494, 252 truckloads for the same period last year.


Explanations? Pending further digging, the big disparity in imports could reflect shorter banana shipments from Latin America, and lower imports of certain commodities from Chile and other exporters. The domestic shortfall might be attributed to the economy, truck rates, tomatoes/salmonella and the fact that some smaller shipping regions are not tracked by the USDA in their shipment reports. With the importance of local and homegrown deals growing this year (commonly not tracked by USDA), watch for a widening disparity and deficit in domestic fruit and vegetable shipments this year compared with a year ago.