John Shuman knows that one in every three dollars spent on onions is spent on sweet onions. The president of Shuman Produce Inc. in Reidsville, GA, also knows that while the Vidalia onion is king of the heap, consumers can and do enjoy other sweet onions — as long as they have the same familiar shape, aroma and taste profile as Vidalias.

Shuman Produce deals in flat, Granex onions, which makes its Peruvian product a perfect fit for its year-round “RealSweet” brand program.

Autumn King, Scarlet Royal and Vintage Red, all newer late season varieties, will all see increased production this year for The Grape Guys in Cutler, CA, according to President Shaun Ricks.

Those are all “varieties that we have had in development, and we are getting more acreage,” he said. “Some acreage is in full production this year,” and other newer acreage will be in partial production this year. In addition, “There is some acreage that is first leaf” and will not bear fruit until future seasons.


Green Giant Fresh Klondike Rose Potatoes is participating in the Box Tops for Education program, according to Potandon Produce.

Box Tops will appear on all sizes of Klondike Rose packages.

A new wholesale produce distributor, Philly Produce LLC, opened Aug. 26 on the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market.

Philly Produce is staffed by salesmen Jim Canterino and Jose (Blue) Flores. The firm is a subsidiary of Wuhl Shafman Lieberman Corp., based in Newark, NJ.

Philly Produce offers a full line of fresh fruits and vegetables, with a specialty in tropical products. This includes diverse precut fruits and vegetables, which are processed by Wuhl Shafman Lieberman and shipped fresh daily to Philly Produce.

LINKFresh Inc., with U.S. headquarters in Ventura, CA, was specifically developed to provide a simple approach to information technology in the food industry, where typically knowledge of IT is less developed than in some other industries, such as banking. LINKFresh is a standalone company that is a wholly owned North American subsidiary of Anglia Business Solutions in Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Despite the unusual and devastating weather conditions in many apple-producing states this year that resulted in a 14 percent drop nationwide, Rice Fruit Co. in Gardners, PA, has one of the nicest apple crops ever in its 100-year history.