Damian Russo, the longtime president of Russo Farms, who helped modernize the company, died on May 12 after a long battle with cancer. He was 64.

Mr. Russo was born Sept. 18, 1959, to the late Pasquale (Charlie) and Mary (DeMaria) Russo. After graduating from Villanova University, he later went to work at Russo Farms, which was founded about 104 years ago.

Building on the momentum of its new initiative, “The Apeel Leverage,” Apeel Sciences launched its second pillar, “Helping You Sell More.” Apeel’s technologies are designed to significantly enhance retail profitability and consumer satisfaction through its plant-based coating that extends the shelf life of produce while reducing the frequency of restocks and spoilage, creating more sellable fruit.

Prima Frutta Packing is a family-owned business based in Linden, CA, that packs high-quality cherries using the latest packaging technologies to ship across the U.S. and internationally. It was founded in 1991 by Tim Sambado to pack the produce from orchards on and around the family’s ranch, which is marketed by Primavera Marketing, also run by the family.

As the new Secretary of Agriculture for New Jersey, I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share a bit of my background and some of the vision I have for advancing New Jersey’s agriculture industry — particularly the produce industry.

The April online grocery market grew 4.4 percent versus last year, increasing to $8.5 billion, according to the most recent Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopper Survey. The ship-to-home segment generated most of the gains, while overall penetration held steady and order frequency slipped compared to a year ago.

Last year was not a good cherry year for those in the Northwest, due to a large crop from both California and Washington and the states overlapping significantly.