Following a weekend of freezing temperatures with bouts of snow and ice, Canadian produce shippers are working hard to manage those conditions.
“The immediate effect is the slowing down on retail movement due to fewer shoppers wanting to leave the house to shop,” says Gino Boensch, manager at Star Produce Ltd. which is headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan but has offices across Western Canada.
In addition, there have also been weather-related logistics challenges. Boensch says Star Produce has seen a few delivery delays due to truck and reefer failures in the frigid weather.
“There’s a definite weather impact for us here as the I-5 from Los Angeles has been closed due to ice and snow. We are seeing 24 to 48 hour-delays on trucks heading north,” says Stefan Misse of Discovery Organics in Vancouver, Canada. “Delays on inbounds means we are running short on some items in-house and there is a bit of a feeding frenzy from customers who are seeing the same situation with delays on their inbounds.”
He notes that some of its customers in Western Canada are experiencing temperatures of -35ºC as a daytime high which has led to some frozen deliveries of fresh produce. “Even the best trailers have trouble maintaining optimal delivery temps in weather like this,” Misse adds. “In Calgary, our warehouse experienced overnight lows to -40 degrees, leading to some machinery seizing up.”
Photo: Dreamstime
More weather coming
Tuesday evening, a snowstorm is also anticipated to hit Vancouver which in turn is expected to impact all inbound and outbound freight for Tuesday and Wednesday.
South of the border, there was also a storm in Western New York. “We’re continuing production as usual, maybe with a couple of extra people out today,” says Tim Mansfield with Sun Orchard Fruit Co. in Burt, New York. He notes that storms in Western New York generally give off a “lake effect” given the proximity to the Great Lakes. That effect could mean 20-mile-wide bands of snow. “In Northeast Buffalo, we’ve received five inches but there are people who got three feet,” he adds.
Mansfield too is noting some delays in getting shipments to grocery stores, largely due to a travel ban on commercial trucking over the weekend because of high winds and snow. “So some stores are depleted in their stock though now that the ban has lifted and travel resumed, things will be going again.”
Along with the immediate concerns over logistics and product availability, there’s also an eye on future crops, particularly in a key fruit-growing region. “The Okanagan Valley had at least three days of very cold temperatures this weekend and there could be some orchard damage,” said Boensch. “It will take a few more days or weeks to collect information from growers to see if any of the trees are damaged.”
For more information:
The Star Group
http://starproduce.com/
Discovery Organics
www.discoveryorganics.ca
Sun Orchard Fruit Co.
https://www.sunorchardapples.com