Grapes, melons, citrus primary focus for fall at Chuck Olsen
Fresh California grapes are the primary focus for the Chuck Olsen Co. in Visalia, CA, for the fall season, along with melons and citrus, according to Vice President Jeff Olsen. The company also does “a little bit” of tree fruit that carries into the early fall period.
Stemilt adds Bartlett pears to its Lil Snappers line
August is National Back to School month and Stemilt Growers is celebrating by adding a new item to its popular line of kid-sized apples and pears, Lil Snappers.
Bartlett pears are now available in the convenient three-pound Lil Snappers package. This kid-friendly item is set to arrive in stores nationwide in September — just in time to help moms fill their child's lunch with healthy fruit.
Procacci Bros. announces promotions in sales and marketing departments
Procacci Bros. Sales Corp. and its affiliate, Santa Sweets Inc., jointly announced the promotion of Rick Feighery to vice president of sales and Kevin Delaney to director of marketing.
Mr. Feighery, formerly director of sales, has been involved in all aspects of Procacci Bros. growing and wholesale operations since joining the company in 1998.
He has accumulated extensive product knowledge and retail sales experience while leading the company's organic program, and will oversee business development and strategy for Procacci Bros. and Santa Sweets Inc.
Apple crop expected to be down 14 percent nationwide
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released projections for the upcoming 2012-13 season, and indications are that the crop will be down 14 percent nationwide.
Organzo seeks U.S. growers for Asian veg expansion
In its sixth year of growing Asian vegetables, Mont Saint-Hilaire-based Organzo is looking to add an American grower to its team. “We were recently in Georgia looking to add an American grower, it will be smaller acreage to begin but the goal is to achieve year-round growing,” said Julie Nichols, president and founder of Organzo. “We are also looking for additional growers in the U.S.”
Index Fresh hires Keith Blanchard
Bloomington, CA-based Index Fresh, a grower-owned packing, marketing and shipping company, announced that KEITH BLANCHARD has joined its field staff, effective July 31.
Columbia Marketing is ready to move a promotable pear crop
Columbia Marketing International, headquartered in Wenatchee, WA, will market a quality pear crop this season. “There will be plenty of promotable pears,” said Vice President of Marketing Bob Mast. His assessment comes on the heels of information about a July 20 storm cell that caused damage to fruit-growing regions in Washington.
According to Mr. Mast, Washington’s coming apple crop will be affected the storm. He said there may be some surface damage to the skins of some pear varieties. But he expects some of the blemishing will be resolved as the fruit matures.
Calavo completes expansion of Mexican fresh avocado packing operations
Calavo Growers Inc. announced the completion of the expansion of fresh avocado packing operations at its Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, facility to keep pace with strong consumer demand.
The company, a global avocado-industry leader and an expanding provider of value-added fresh food, said that the upgrades provide Calavo's Uruapan packinghouse with the capacity to pack at least 6 million pounds of fruit per week -- a 200 percent increase over prior output.
California apple producers holding firmly to niche window
In the mid-1990s apple growers in California were producing 10 million boxes of apples annually. Today, growers there produce between 2.5 million boxes and 3 million boxes, and that number has held as about average over the past several years.
Alex Ott, executive director of the California Apple Commission in Fresno, CA, told The Produce News that in the 1990s, mostly Fuji and Granny Smith apples were produced in the state.
National Mushroom Month kicks off with media outreach
Kennett Square, PA, bills itself as the Mushroom Capitol of the World, and producers there grow about 65 percent of the nation’s mushrooms. In the early 1980s, annual dinners were held there, and in 1985 the gatherings became more formalized with the Mushroom Festival, a celebration held the second weekend of September each year in downtown Kennett Square.
Starting in 1992, official proclamations of September as Mushroom Month from the U.S. secretary of agriculture and the governor of Pennsylvania added more formal recognition and notoriety.