Jim Angelucci, longtime general manager at Phillips Mushroom Farms and a respected leader, mentor and friend whose remarkable career spanned more than 50 years with the company, has died at the age of 76.

Bolthouse Fresh Foods is launching limited-time 12-ounce Party Sticks, fresh carrots in bold patriotic packaging designed to drive incremental sales and impulse purchase behavior in the produce department.

This year, the avocado market has seen record volumes from Mexico and a third straight year of California eclipsing the 300 million-pound mark, so there is no shortage of fruit for the U.S. market.

That has led to a slow start for Peru, according to Isabel Tavera, vice president of Pacific Produce, who told The Produce News on May 25 that just 194 containers of Peruvian avocados had shipped to date compared to 1,124 containers the same time last year. 

Floral is one of the most operationally sensitive categories in fresh. It moves fast, responds quickly to disruption and leaves little room for error. In a category where timing, temperature, handling and consumer demand all intersect, even the smallest misstep can have immediate consequences.

That sensitivity is exactly what makes floral such an important model for the rest of the industry.

Kick off the summer grilling season by merchandising fresh mushrooms in June. 

Increase the produce department display space and promote mushrooms in weekly advertising flyers to boost your mushroom category sales. Be aggressive by setting up a secondary display through June to support the Mushroom Council’s new It’s not Magic. It’s Mushrooms campaign. 

Fox Solutions has entered into a strategic partnership with JASA, a Netherlands-based leader in weighing and packaging automation, to bring fully integrated packaging and automation solutions to the U.S. produce market. As one of only two authorized U.S. distributors for JASA, Fox Solutions will provide sales, service and parts support for JASA equipment, giving domestic growers and packers direct access to JASA's technology.