Several tropical storms in October, including two hurricanes (Lidia and Otis), have combined with cold winter weather to severely limit supplies of vegetables from Mexico’s main winter production areas.

“Unfortunately, there is no way around it that this entire season out of Sinaloa will be one of the most challenging on record,” said Patrick Cortes, vice president of sales for Divine Flavor, which is headquartered in Nogales, AZ.

In a stunning admission in bankruptcy court in December, an attorney for Prima Wawona announced that the company was not able to receive a sufficient bid for its business through an auction process and would be liquidating its assets. In a companion move, several sources have reported that the company gave its nearly 6,000 employees 60-day termination notices, which is required by California law to continue with the closure of the operation.

Food waste in the fresh produce sector was the focus of an International Fresh Produce Association virtual town hall meeting in late December with two major retailers weighing in on their desire to be part of the solution.

In 1924, Paul Tavilla borrowed $500 from his wife, Stella, to buy a load of lemons. He sold them in one day and thus began a journey that continues to this day.

The exact day the business was started is unknown, but from that day forward there was a Tavilla produce company operating in the Boston area, although P. Tavilla Co. did not officially become its name until 1928, when it was located on Commercial Street in downtown Boston.  Sometime in 2024, the company will turn 100 years old and as such it is celebrating its centennial birthday all year long.

Susan Tavilla grew up in a Boston produce family with deep roots dating back many decades, but the old school nature of the Sicilian patriarch didn’t see a place for women in the family business.

“We are Sicilian and it was the belief that the men worked and the women stayed home,” said Susan as she ironically plans for the end of a successful and long career at P. Tavilla Co., one of the mainstays at the New England Produce Center.

The amount of data available concerning consumers' retail produce buying habits now rivals that of consumer packaged goods, and produce companies should be taking advantage of that fact.

That was the big takeaway from an hour-long International Fresh Produce Association virtual town hall presentation on Dec. 13 by Jonna Parker of Circana, which is the rebranded name of the company that resulted from the 2022 merging of IRI and NPD. Circana bills itself as the leading advisor on the complexity of consumer behavior.