Key Food Stores Co-operative Inc., a chain of independently owned and operated grocery stores, is opening its newest Key Food location on West 125th Street in Harlem, NY. A grand opening celebration was scheduled for Nov. 22.

Local officials and Key Food executives, including Chief Executive Officer Dean Janeway, Chief Operating Officer George Knobloch, Vice President of Strategic Planning Chet Koby and Vice President of Business Development & Chief Customer Officer Gino Palummo, were scheduled to be in attendance.

Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack recently appointed seven members to serve on the National Mango Board. The appointees include five new members and two reappointed members.

Walmart Stores Inc. announced that its board of directors elected company veteran Doug McMillon to succeed Mike Duke as president and chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1. McMillon was also elected to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately.

Ted Kreis, the marketing director for the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, located in East Grand Forks, MN, provided his trade — and The Produce News — with the following breakdown of the latest USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service potato crop production report on Nov. 12.

North Dakota’s 2013 potato crop will come in at 22.6 million hundredweight, down about 10.1 percent from last year.  Some were forecasting much worse.

The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market will be the site of the Eastern Produce Council's meeting in May 2014, which will feature a former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback as the keynote speaker.

This will be the second meeting at the state-of-the-art facility. The first meeting was held in 2012 and drew over 240 attendees.

Since its beginning a little more than 15 years ago, Santa Barbara Farms has stayed true to its mission of providing several commodity products to the produce industry on a year-round basis.

Headquartered in Lompoc, CA, which is near the coast about halfway between the city of Santa Barbara and the produce region of Santa Maria, Santa Barbara Farms specializes in Iceberg lettuce and celery, and also grows and ships several other items including cauliflower.