The results of a strong Michigan harvest are helping the perfect cookout vegetable find itself on the top of many grocery lists at Meijer stores across the Midwest. The Grand Rapids, MI-based retailer saw twice as much asparagus in shopping carts last week, a trend expected to continue as it prepares to sell more than 2 million pounds this summer.  
 

BJ’s Wholesale Club now offers Citizens Pay, a flexible, buy-now-pay-later payment option that allows members to finance purchases. The new payment option is available for purchases made on BJs.com for delivery and with buy online, pick up in-club and curbside pickup. 

Melon is the name of the game at Legend Produce LLC, as the company is one of the largest year-round shippers of cantaloupe in the United States.

“We do about 5-6 million packages of cantaloupe throughout the domestic season and another 1-2 million packages during the offshore season when we import from Central America,” said Justin Bootz, sales manager for the Dos Palos, CA-based Legend Produce.

Legend Produce was founded in 1999 and is a family-owned-and-operated company that’s been in the cantaloupe business for four generations.

Shipments of avocados from Peru have been landing in U.S. ports since mid-May and are scheduled to continue well into late September.

“We are ready to fill the gap and help increase the consumption of avocados in the U.S.,” said Xavier Equihua, president of the Peruvian Avocado Commission and architect of the group’s U.S.-based Avocados from Peru promotion program. “Peru is going to be a good marketing partner and supply the U.S. what it needs.”

Walmart has given a grant of $510,000 to Second Harvest to fund a research project working with 50 companies in the food processing and manufacturing sector to explore and address the barriers to recovering and redistributing surplus food.

Provision Coalition and Enviro-Stewards are partnering with Second Harvest to measure and track environmental and social impact from this food loss and waste prevention and repurposing project.

The Fresh Produce & Floral Council board of directors announced that Don Gann has been named the president of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council.