Gourmet Trading’s production acreage is located at the southern end of California’s San Joaqu

CALGARY, AB — BCfresh, a network of growers located in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, touted its grower families at the recent Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention and trade show, here.

Apio, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landec Corp. and a leading producer of fresh-cut vegetable products, announced the acquisition of GreenLine Foods from The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm. GreenLine Foods is a leading processor and marketer of value-added, fresh-cut green beans in North America.

Michael Muzyk, president of Bronx, NY-based Baldor Specialty Foods, told The Produce News that the company has added personnel to its purchasing department staff in recent months to allow it to better source wild mushrooms, such as Porcinis, Chanterelles and Morels from South Africa and other parts of the world.

Though Prime Time International, located in Coachella, CA, is typically identified as a grower-shipper of colored peppers, during the late spring and early summer time period, diversification is the firm’s calling card.

“We have a wide diversify of product during the spring, when vegetable supplies transition from Mexico to the desert,” said Mike Aiton, Prime Time’s marketing manager. “During the spring, we have corn, watermelon, green beans and eggplant as well as both greenhouse peppers and field-grown peppers.”

When Tom Glenos put his new, high-graphic, kid-friendly bins in supermarket produce departments last year, he was a little taken aback by the attention they received.

“Everybody loved them,” said Mr. Glenos, who grows and ships watermelons in Zolfo Springs and Trenton, FL, Cordele and Ashburn, GA, Leachville, AR, Vincenes, IN and Plains, TX.