King Farms’ new farm and packing facility now in operation
King Farms, a Naples, FL-based grower-shipper, added a new farm and packing facility in White Springs, FL, a strategic location that will give the firm access to all produce grown in Florida and Georgia.
“We are now operating at our new farm and packing facility in White Springs, Florida,” Steve Oldock, president of King Farms LLC, told The Produce News. “Our first harvest will be during the first week of October.”
After more than a half-century, General Produce is still going strong
After more than 50 years as one of the Southeast’s premier providers of produce and logistics, General Produce Inc. is humming right along.
“We’re a well-oiled machine. We just keep doing the same thing over and over again but we do it well,” said General Produce Sales Manager Andrew Scott, who will also take over the reins as president of the Southeast Produce Council at the fall conference in Asheville, NC.
Awe Sum Organics adds Aloe Driscoll
Awe Sum Organics, based in Santa Cruz, CA, hired ALOE DRISCOLL as its new marketing coordinator.
Aspen Produce upgrades with traceability codes on bags’ Kwik Loks
CENTER, CO — Enhancing its vertically integrated farming-shipping-marketing package, Aspen Produce in Center, CO, has upgraded with a new Kwik Lok print system that codes all bag closures with traceability information.
The system was in place earlier this summer following testing Aspen conducted on the Kwik Lok prototype earlier.
Sunlight International Sales' fall-themed grapes now shipping
Both retailers and consumers can savor the holidays Dulcich-style, as from Sept. 4 through Oct. 31 Sunlight International packs and ships its “Harvest Hobgoblin” brand of premium California table grapes to locations across the United States and Canada.
Fresh “Hobgoblin” grapes are available in red, green and blue-black varietals.
Retailers fill shelves with pink mushroom tills to support breast cancer awareness month
Pink mushroom tills fill shelves across the nation as retailers participate in the Mushroom Council's in-store City of Hope Pink Campaign supporting breast cancer research and awareness to coincide with October's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
WSPC announces new hire for director of industry outreach
The Washington State Potato Commission announced the addition of Raina Spence as the director of industry outreach.
Vine-killing practices can help improve tuber maturity, crop quality
In a recent report, Sastry Jayanty, assistant professor and extension specialist-potato postharvest physiologist at Colorado State University’s San Luis Valley Research Center, said properly timed vine killing can improve tuber maturation and skin color, thereby improving the value of growers’ crops.
SLV potato crop looks good on slightly more acreage in 2012 than last season
MONTE VISTA, CO — San Luis Valley potato acreage is up slightly this year, from 55,000 in 2011 to 55,100 in 2012, and Colorado Potato Administrative Committee Executive Director Jim Ehrlich said indications are that the crop is of good quality and volume.
Shipments of the 2011 crop had continued into July 2012, with Aug. 9 Spud Facts figures showing year-to-date loads at 34,533 compared to 34,249 as of July 2010.
The Fresh Wave’s Tom Consalo gearing up for fall
VINELAND, NJ — The afternoon of Monday, Aug. 20, was sunny and warm in southern New Jersey, a typical summer day: highs in the 80s, a slight chance of rain. It was on this day, late in the afternoon, that The Produce News spoke to Tom Consalo of The Fresh Wave.
“This time of the year is sort of like the calm before the storm — between the summer crops and [the start of] the fall crops,” he said.