Reggie Griffin likes to say he didn’t do too much but rather just surrounded himself with a very good team during his more than 40 years at Kroger. But suppliers and fellow retailers know better.

The Kroger Co. has received very high marks from the produce industry over the years as far as being an innovative retailer that has a great relationship with its suppliers and was not afraid to think outside the box.

Demand may be on the rise for fresh California figs, but markets are expanding as well for tree nuts such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts, and J. Marchini Farms in Le Grand, CA, sees greater opportunity in the nuts, with fewer obstacles.

Unlike some growers who have been pulling out fig orchards in order to plant nut trees, “we are going to keep our figs,” said Marc Marchini, sales and marketing manager for the company’s figs. “But I think that we are not going to expand the figs. Rather, I am going to go where the real growth is — tree nuts.”

There was concern that the 2012 beneficiaries of the North Carolina Value-Added Cost Share program would be the last, since initial funding sunset at the end of the year. But the program, which has doled out almost $1.5 million in grants to a variety of agricultural producers since 2009, has found new life and is accepting applicants for the 2013 awards.

Giumarra International Berry announced its recently completed agreement with Early Crop-Argentina for the upcoming 2013 import blueberry season. Early Crop is a newly formed company with a primary production region in Tucuman, Argentina, which leads the start of the import berry season each year.

Two seasoned sales and marketing experts recently joined the ranks at the Oppenheimer Group.

Thousands of produce industry members and affiliates headed to San Diego last week for United Fresh 2013, May 14-17. From the opening night gala aboard the USS Midway to the closing night awards banquet and even the post-show Produce Marketing & Merchandising Conference, the action was non-stop.