NewStar hires celery commodity manager
Salinas, CA-based NewStar Fresh Foods has hired Steve Cagel as commodity manager for its celery program. Mr. Cagel will manage the celery program in addition to supporting the company?s expanded value-added product line.
Mr. Cagel comes to NewStar with a background in both produce and accounting. Most recently he was a salesman for Steinbeck Country Produce. In prior roles, he inspected produce for Cproduce.com and worked in the finance department for Tanimura & Antle. Mr. Cagel is recently married and lives in Soledad, just south of Salinas.
Monsanto to acquire Seminis in $1.4 billion deal
Agricultural products giant Monsanto Co. announced Jan. 24 that it will acquire fruit and vegetable seed company Seminis for about $1 billion in cash plus the assumption of $400 million in debt.
SmartFresh expanding beyond apples
SPRING HOUSE, PA " Since 2002, many of the major U.S. apple shippers have applied the "SmartFresh? brand product to slow the ripening rate, thereby maintaining crunchiness and juiciness in fruit.
AgroFresh Inc., here, is now introducing SmartFresh to much wider segments of the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, with tomatoes, bananas and melons high on the firm?s priority list.
FreshPoint acquires Piranha Produce and Nashville Tomato
SYSCO Corp. announced Jan. 24 that its FreshPoint produce subsidiary has agreed to acquire Piranha Produce Inc., and has also completed the acquisition of Nashville Tomato Inc. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Piranha?s management team, staff and headquarters will remain intact and the company will function as an operating company of FreshPoint.
Gary Curry, CEO of Curry & Co., was 61
Gary Robert Curry, CEO of Curry & Co. in Brooks, OR, died Sunday, Jan. 23, in Salem, OR, surrounded by his family and friends. Mr. Curry, who succumbed to multiple myeloma, was 61.
A memorial service was held Thursday, Jan. 27 at St. Paul?s Episcopal Church in Salem, OR.
Born March 4, 1943 in San Diego to Beverly and John Curry, he is survived by his wife, Martha; his sons, Matt and Grant; his daughter, Megan; his daughter-in-law, Kari Ryan Curry; and two grandchildren. He is also survived by his mother and two brothers, Mike and Paul Curry.
Retail strike averted
Apparently neither side was willing to go through the type of strike that crippled Southern California retailers last year, as the three major California supermarkets reached a labor agreement with their Northern California employees late Sunday, Jan. 23.
IN THE TRENCHES: If we only had a weather machine
The year is 5021 and the scene is a unique weather station high on a hill in a very remote area of the country.
The people at this particular weather station do not predict the weather. Instead, they control it.
It hasn?t rained in two months, so growers send a special request to the station for some precipitation. The order is for two inches of rain.
Judge allows D?Arrigo plant
SALINAS, CA " After a three- or four-year gestation period, it appears that D?Arrigo Bros. Co. of California finally may be able to move forward on plans to build a 219,000-square-foot facility near Spreckels, CA, near its current base of operations, here.
A Monterey County Superior Court judge has upheld a board of supervisors decision last March to permit D?Arrigo Bros. to build the facility. Advocacy group LandWatch Monterey County filed a lawsuit last spring, challenging the board?s decision by arguing that an environmental impact report was needed.
Tsunami victims to receive shelf-stable tofu donation
Feed the Children, a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization, recently received a large donation of shelf-stable "Mori-Nu? tofu from Morinaga Nutritional Foods in Torrance, CA, for tsunami relief in Southeast Asia.
Susan Bucher, director of marketing for Morinaga Nutritional Foods, said that the pallets of aseptically packaged, protein-rich silken tofu will be distributed to victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia.
FPFC introduces new officers during annual dinner-dance
Nearly 600 members of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council and friends met at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa Jan. 15 for the group?s annual dinner-dance.
The event was the forum used to introduce Pat McDowell of Perimeter Sales & Merchandising as chairman of the board for 2005.