Divine Flavor to break ground on 90,000-square-foot warehouse
Divine Flavor LLC, which is located in the Rio Rico Industrial Park north of Nogales, AZ, is building a new 90,000-square-foot state-of-the-art warehouse and office complex on a 22-acre site on Mariposa Road in Nogales, which is expected to be ready next October in time for the 2014-15 season, according to Pedro Batiz, vice president of sales.
“We are breaking ground next week,” Batiz told The Produce News on Nov. 25.
“It is going to be a green warehouse” with solar panels, he added.
Agenda shaping up for fourth annual ATPC
Organizers of the America Trades Produce Conference announced that Christopher Wilson, associate at the Woodrow Wilson Institute's Mexico Institute, will be the keynote speaker at the fourth annual conference.
"We are delighted with how the agenda and speaker lineup is developing," Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, which runs the conference along with the Texas International Produce Association, said in a press release.
Pacific Trellis to buy Dulcinea Farms business from Syngenta
Syngenta announced Dec. 17 that it has signed an agreement to sell its Dulcinea Farms business to Pacific Trellis Fruit LLC, a Fresno, CA-based grower and marketer of fresh produce.
Based in Ladera Ranch, CA, Dulcinea was formed in 2004 in partnership with Tanimura & Antle, initially as a vehicle for branding proprietary mini-watermelon and specialty melon genetics directly to consumers through national food retail chains. Syngenta took full control of the company in 2005 and annual sales have since increased to around $80 million.
New warehouse enables Veggies Inc. to increase repack, production services
A little over a year ago, Veggies Inc. relocated to a new 25,000-square-foot facility, 75 percent larger than the company’s previous facility, that includes offices and a fully refrigerated warehouse with 13 loading doors, compared to just eight at the previous location, according to Marco Barrerda, vice president of the company.
The new facility has enabled Veggies Inc. to increase its cross-docking and sales business, Barreda said. “For that, we had to increase, as well, our fleet of trucks,” he said. “We added a couple of refrigerated bobtails and a couple of semis as well.”
Pura Vida Farms hires Jake Erickson
JAKE ERICKSON joined Scottsdale, AZ-based Pura Vida Farms earlier this year.
Customized Brokers’ customers expecting larger volumes this season
On Nov. 27, Nelly Yunta, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care, liner and logistics business groups for Crowley Maritime Corp. in Jacksonville, FL, and vice president of Customized Brokers, the customs brokerage and consulting division located in Miami, said although the primary produce items the company sees coming into the United States at any time of year varies depending on the region or country of origin, it is currently handling a considerable volume of tomatoes and okra.
Pacific Tomato bumping up grape tomato production in Mexico
Pacific Tomato Growers is expecting to increase its grape tomato production in Mexico by 10-15 percent this year while keeping its round and Roma production at about the same level as last year.
PassionGrowers named official rose of Rose Bowl for fourth consecutive year
When the TV camera pans to the scoreboard during the 100th edition of the Rose Bowl football game on New Year’s Day, a digital sign will show the PassionRoses logo. When the camera focuses on the Rose Bowl trophy, it will be adorned with some of the finest roses in the world: PassionRoses. Ditto for media events and formal ceremonies preceding the game.
SunFed continues to expand organic line
SunFed in Nogales, AZ, which significantly expanded its organic category last season with new items and increased volume on the organic items the company was already handling, has continued that expansion of its organic program for the 2013-14 season, according to Matt Mandel, vice president of sales and marketing.
In “our entire line of ‘SunFed Perfect Organics,’ we keep adding both volume and product lines to the mix,” he said.
Future ‘peachy’ as new crop makes inroads into Florida citrus groves
While Florida citrus growers have had to battle greening disease over the past decade with shrinking annual production, some are finding a way to take a tough situation and turn it just peachy.
Greening (also known as Huanglongbing or HLB) affects production in bearing groves, and the only solution for a severely infected grove is destruction. Florida has lost thousands of acres of citrus groves over the past decade — prime agricultural land sitting fallow.