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.

Since 1946, Van Doren Sales has been dedicated to serving the fruit and vegetable industries by providing equipment that streamlines storage and packing processes for packhouse owners.

“As technology evolved, we have continually integrated and improved technology within our equipment solutions,” said Jason Skerlong, vice president of operations for the East Wenatchee, WA-based company. “Our focus has expanded to designing comprehensive packhouse solutions aimed at optimizing the fresh produce supply chain.”

The Wonderful Company is donating 3.6 million sweet, seedless and easy-to-peel Wonderful Halos mandarins to California Association of Food Banks, a partner of Feeding America, to bring awareness to the issues of global hunger and food insecurity in advance of World Hunger Day on May 28.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has filed an administrative complaint against CFG Produce Inc. and Red Wagon Groves Inc. for alleged violations of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

CFG Produce, operating from Texas, allegedly failed to make payment promptly to six produce sellers in the amount of $505,218 from September 2022 through February 2023.

Red Wagon Groves, also operating from Texas, allegedly failed to make payment promptly to 12 produce sellers in the amount of $402,982 from August 2022 through April 2023.