GLC Cerritos LLC, Jalisco’s leading avocado grower-shipper, has named Giovanni Cavaletto as president of its U.S. division.  Establishing the U.S. division and hiring Cavaletto is part of a strategic initiative to enhance service, communication and alignment with its U.S. customer base.

Village Farms has been farming in the Chihuahuan Desert, also known as the “Big Bend Region,” just north of the U.S. and Mexico border, for almost three decades. Here the company is rolling out a whopping 112 million pounds of fresh produce a year, all from their greenhouses located just outside the towns of Marfa and Fort Davis.

The organic produce category is alive, well and still growing, according to both the nation’s largest retailer and one of the East Coast’s larger service wholesale distributors.

Allan O'Donoghue, a longtime retail produce expert, has joined RJO Produce as its first-ever retail-grower strategist. The addition of O’Donoghue strengthens RJO’s retail engagement and gives the firm’s grower customers additional insight into the retail sector.

In this new role, O’Donoghue will be a liaison between retailers and growers-shippers, helping retailers make better buying decisions that recognize market realities, while boosting their bottom lines.

Taylor Farms unveiled a foodservice product line expansion in the form of premium, ready-to-use lettuce Toppers for every application — Taylor Toppers. The product line features Perfect Fit, Deli Gem and Whole Leaf Singles.

The Perfect Leaf is a hybrid of green leaf and Iceberg that delivers a consistently round shape and frilled edges for the “perfect” fit atop your hamburger bun — leaving no part of the leaf to waste. The Perfect Fit Leaf also presents less rib and a higher heat tolerance than traditional lettuces producing a fresh, high-quality product.

Fruit Royale Inc. has been successfully growing, packing, importing, exporting and promoting grapes since 2004, working directly with its contracted growers on all aspects of fruit production.

The company is responsible for more than 1,200 acres in California with the San Joaquin Valley helping to supply customers from July through December — accounting for more than 1 million cases of grapes in the state and imports from Peru, Chile and Mexico adding another million boxes.