“Peruvian asparagus, both green and white, are currently hitting their stride,” Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for Southern Specialties, headquartered in Pompano Beach, FL, told The Produce News in late August. “We are looking forward to another year as ‘the’ leading grower and importer of fresh asparagus from Peru.”

The company’s asparagus programs offer customers numerous packaging choices. Its traditional one-pound bunches, packed 11 to a box is a popular pack with foodservice operators.

Jon C. Flora, president of Fry’s Food Stores in Arizona, passed away unexpectedly as the result of pulmonary thrombo embolism/deep vein thromposis Sept. 13. He was 58 years old.
 

Many of our readers have shared their views about what constitutes a “specialty” fresh produce item. When those comments are compared, they condense down to about a paragraph’s worth of similar responses.

Reputation is everything in the produce industry. Fresh Tex Produce of Alamo, TX, knows that and keeps a watchful eye on its client list.

“We are looking at a good total crop coming up” for the 2013 harvest of California kiwifruit, said Nick Matteis, an associate at Ag Association Management Services Inc. in Sacramento, CA, which administers the Kiwifruit Advisory Committee.

The committee is a federal marketing order that maintains industry statistics and specifies grade and size standards for all kiwifruit sold in the United States.

By the end of August, Stemilt Growers LLC had two weeks of solid apple marketing under its corporate belt. “Apple marketing is getting to be pretty dynamic,” said Director of Marketing Roger Pepperl.