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.

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.