Plastic crates and bulk bins in Arizona

Lettuce season in Yuma

Yuma County is credited with about 90% of the leafy vegetables grown in the US from November to March. USDA NASS figures back the picture: romaine, head lettuce and leaf lettuce were three of Arizona's top four crops in 2025, worth about $526 million, $433 million and $201 million in value of production.

Leafy greens are cut, packed and cooled fast. Harvest crews and cooling sheds want produce crates with a vented wall for forced-air or vacuum cooling, and bulk bins for cores, trim and product headed to a fresh-cut plant. Crates should nest or fold so the empty trip back to the field is cheap.

Cooling method changes the crate. Hydrocooling soaks the load, so walls must drain and floors must not pool water. Vacuum tubes pull air through the carton or crate, which favors wide slots on every face. Forced-air tunnels need vents lined up when crates are stacked, otherwise cold air bypasses the product. Tell us which method the shed runs and we'll shortlist crates whose vent pattern suits it.

A border and cross-state trucking hub

Yuma is an important trucking station for freight moving between California, Arizona and Mexico. I-8 links it to San Diego and back east to I-10 near Casa Grande, and I-10 crosses Phoenix and Tucson on its way to Texas. I-19 runs south from Tucson to Nogales, and I-17 climbs north to Flagstaff and I-40.

For buyers, that means a seasonal crate order to Yuma may share a truck with produce traffic, while a Phoenix warehouse order rides general freight lanes. Small orders go LTL on pallets. If you need more than a couple of hundred crates, or any quantity of bins, a dedicated trailer usually prices better per unit. Read how ordering works for the steps.

Who orders what in Arizona

Vehicle parts at Casa Grande

Lucid builds vehicles at its AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande. Battery and body parts are heavy and bulky, so suppliers on this kind of program often specify the 48x45 bulk footprint with a drop door for line-side picking, plus custom dunnage. ORBIS lists its 48x45 BulkPak in 17 versions from about 19 to 50 inches tall, so give us the height your racking allows.

Smaller parts tend to run in euro-style hand-held bins. Tell us the outside size in millimeters and whether lids, labels or color matter.

Dairy and heat

Arizona had about 195,000 milk cows on January 1, 2026 and produced 4.76 billion lb of milk in 2025. Dairies and processors buy stacking crates and lidded containers for packaged product and parts. Desert heat matters for plastic left outside: ask about UV-stabilized resin, and store empties out of direct sun when you can.

Phoenix and Tucson warehouse work

Warehouses around Phoenix sit on the I-10 and I-17 corridors, and their pick lines usually run on hand-held nest-stack totes: the empty tote drops inside the one below it, so a return pallet takes a fraction of the space. Where totes travel between buildings and must stay closed, buyers choose attached-lid containers with hinged flaps that interleave and take a zip tie or seal.

Where heavier freight is involved, from Tucson to the Phoenix suburbs, parts travel in collapsible bulk containers on a 48x40 base. Flexcon, for example, lists a 48x40x30 folding container rated about 1,700 lb with an 89 lb tare and four-way forklift entry. Measure your dock plates and pallet racks before choosing a height; a box that clears the rack beam with a few inches spare is the one to buy.

Selling crates after the season

When a grower changes packing formats or a warehouse closes a pick line, we buy the surplus. Send count, size, condition, location and what the containers held. Produce crates sell better when they are clean and stacked. Begin at sell totes and crates.