Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, produce professionals have talked about ever-increasing strong sales as people cooked at home more and were anxious to incorporate healthy foods into their diets.

The re-opening of restaurants gave the industry a boost as well, but when talking about 2022, Jason Turek said sales have slowed down.

Since its founding in 1948, D’Arrigo New York has established itself as a leader in the New York State produce industry. The experience of its leaders and staff have helped it navigate numerous challenges over the last two years, and it appears that things are heading in the right direction for the company in 2022.

Now that summer has arrived, New York’s deep collection of growers are busy at work, harvesting its finest produce over the next few months.

According to the USDA’s most recent Ag Census, there were 33,438 farms in New York State and 6,866,171 acres in production, with the state being among the top five in grapes, green peas and squash.

TOMRA Food’s integrated solutions automate the processing and packaging of blueberries to maximize efficiency in the packhouse and optimize the value of crops. Precise optical sorting and sizing of blueberries, using the KATO260, allows TOMRA’s customers to stream their products into various grades.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) developed the Virginia Grown domestic marketing program in 1995 to promote items grown or raised in the Commonwealth. Since then, the marketing program has grown to provide additional assistance to farmers, farmers markets, growers, and producers throughout Virginia. 

In March of 2022, VDACS rebranded the Virginia Grown logo and program.

When the calendar hits mid-June, all eyes in the produce industry turns to the Eastern Shore, as farmers are readying crops like cabbage, green beans, potatoes, sweet corn and more.

The Eastern Shore companies will start shipping produce at the end of June and go through the month of July, filling the important time slot between North Florida’s end and Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and the others that don’t start harvesting until late July.