For 40 years Jim Malanca has been at the helm of melon sales as an owner and integral leader of Westside Produce Co. This month he will step down from daily sales activities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture imposed sanctions on four produce businesses for failing to meet contractual obligations to the sellers of produce they purchased and failing to pay reparation awards issued under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

These sanctions include suspending the businesses’ PACA licenses and barring the principal operators of the businesses from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

The following businesses and individuals are currently restricted from operating in the produce industry:

DoorDash and ALDI formed a new partnership to bring on-demand grocery delivery to nearly all ALDI locations across 38 states. With the addition of ALDI, more than 98 percent of DoorDash’s monthly consumers in the U.S. have access to a non-restaurant store on DoorDash.

No matter when Ramadan falls on the calendar, it is one of the busiest times for date industry. Typically, preparations for the holiday require a 10-week pipeline in order to ramp up for the increase in demand. This year, however, that timeline coincided with Christmas, New Year’s and other holidays. For date shippers, that created an especially busy period from the end of 2022 well into 2023. “For us it feels very rushed,” said Mark Tadros of Aziz Farms. “Ramadan is much closer this year and our sales got off to a very slow start. All of a sudden the market woke up and woke up fast.

WF&FSA, the Wholesale Florist and Florist Supplier Association, will bring its Floral Distribution Conference (FDC) once again to the Doral in Miami March 6-8, 2023. This event is expected to gather more than 700 industry professionals, ranging from wholesalers to growers to hard good suppliers and breeders, for three full days of education, networking, and tabletops displays of the greatest floral products this industry has to offer.

March 8 is International Women’s Day when people around the world show appreciation for the strong women in their lives. They do this in various ways, but most commonly with a gift of flowers.

International Women’s Day is a global celebration of women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. Each year’s theme is different; for 2023, it’s #EmbraceEquity.