Friday, March 13, 2020
NORTH AMERICA

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Marieke Hemmes
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Annika Durinck
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Astrid van den Broek
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Sander Bruins Slot
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Job Offers

Farm Manager - Riana, Tasmania, Australia

Industry Development Manager - Rocklea, Australia

Sales Manager

Commercial Manager | Huelva, Spain | Soft Fruits

Farm manager / Senior grower seeking for his next role

Fruit Export Junior Sales Manager (Europe Division)

Crop Team Manager Hydroponics - USA

Plant Production Scientist - Brooklyn (New York) USA

Quality Assurance Manager - Northern Europe

Horticultural Sales Manager - Fruit Industy, Europe

OVERVIEW GLOBAL POTATO MARKET

The potato market in Europe is now clearly divided between north and south. In the countries where the Coronavirus / Covid-19 is around, the demand is rising, but especially…

Job Offers:

Farm Manager - Riana, Tasmania, Australia

Deborah Dijkhuizen of Delina Fresh:

“Ginger prices have almost doubled due to shortages”

At the beginning of the Chinese and Thai ginger seasons, weather issues caused lower volumes and some shortages on the market. Then, with the extended holiday in China due to…

Fresh produce industry events cancelled due to coronavirus

As the coronavirus spreads around the world and movement is restricted and gatherings of large numbers of people are banned, a number of industry trade fairs…

Yakima Valley growers brace for COVID-19 impact

While March is the peak export season for Yakima Valley apples that were harvested the previous fall, now the Washington apple industry is not only dealing…

East Coast Satsuma supplies continue to be steady

Domestic East Coast production of Satsuma mandarins still looks continuous out of Florida. “We finished up mandarin supplies out of Georgia mid to late January,” says Eric…

Canadian grown pepper program to commence shipping beginning of April

Village Farms International Inc., headquartered in Vancouver Canada announced that their Village Farms Greenhouse Grown brand of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers are all…

suppliers respond

Delays in horticultural projects due to travel limitations

The suspension of all travel from Europe to the US will greatly affect the horticultural industry, especially since more and more travel limitations are expected or already in…

MSC sends world’s biggest containerships to US to collect empty containers

MSC is deploying the world’s biggest ships to evacuate empty containers from China to the US, as carriers on the transpacific try to overcome imbalances after weeks of…

Now topping $5 billion a year

Canada: Organic food sales rise 57%,

Data from Statistics Canada shows that annual retail sales of organic food and beverage products in Canada have increased 57% over the past five years and that consumers in…

Canadian potato storage holdings 11th March 2020

In British Columbia, potato stocks are 17% below 3-yr average

Total Canadian Potato Storage Holdings on March 1 in Eastern Canada are 0.8% above their three- year average. PEI holds the largest inventory of potatoes with stocks similar…

Special Australia / New Zealand

Jamieee Burns - JRs Orchards

Capital brand heading to UK for first time

In some regions of New Zealand, the apple harvest has been underway for a few weeks, but the harvest at JR’s Orchards in Wairarpa an hour’s drive from the capital Wellington,…

Global Focus Grapes

Mike Asdoorian of DLJ Produce, home of the RazzleDazzle grapes:

“Mid-May through December will see smooth transitions from Mexican to Californian supply”

With the multitude of new proprietary grape varieties entering the markets, it has become difficult to stand out. DLJ Produce, however, is finding much success with their…

Retail

Dollar General has extended streak of same-store sales growth to 30 consecutive years

Empire: Q3 sales and profit up

US: How Dollar General keeps growingDollar General has extended its streak of same-store sales growth to 30 consecutive years, with fourth-quarter same-store sales increasing…

Canadian government announces $2.3M for Potato Early Dying disease research

Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, spoke to growers from across the country at the Canadian Horticultural Council AGM in…

Owned by the Wonderful Company

Neptune Pacific Line acquires PDL from Pacific International Lines

Pacific International Lines (PIL) has sold its liner shipping business Pacific Direct Line (PDL) to Neptune Pacific Line (Neptune). PDL specializes in…

USDA proposes to amend US standards for grapefruit and orange grades

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposes to amend the U.S. Standards for Grades of Grapefruit (Texas and States other than Florida, California and…

Bobalu Berries signs contract with SCJewell, Inc.

Bobby and RC Jones, partners in Bobalu Berries, have just rounded out their sales and marketing program by signing a contract with the new marketing firm…

New York State Apple Marketing Order Advisory Board:

Proposals sought to enhance New York's apple industry

The New York State Apple Marketing Order (AMO) Advisory Board is seeking proposals to enhance the competitive position of New York’s apple industry, identify…

Cal Poly study focuses on women's health ... and strawberries

Kari Pilolla, an assistant professor in Cal Poly’s Food Science and Nutrition Department, is working in partnership with faculty and students at Humboldt State…

US: Navel cost production survey

CCM recently conducted a comprehensive survey of navel production costs to establish an average cost of production and to compare how farming costs, picking and hauling…

"Overall import volume of fruit in China is stabilizing"

Chinese companies have suffered the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic to various degrees since the Chinese Spring Festival [25 January, 2020]. Now that conditions are improving…

Large Chinese cherries from Linqu sell for high price of 240 yuan [34.14 USD] per kg

The cherry season has already begun. This is supposed to be the time of year when Chilean cherries take advantage of the festive period around Chinese Spring…

COVID-19 epidemic highlights supply chain problems in China's agricultural industry

Many Chinese fruit and vegetable companies faced serious challenges during the period after Chinese Spring Festival [25 January, 2020] because of the COVID-19…

"Chinese onion price is currently quite high"

India had an onion shortage last year because major production areas suffered from drought. Chinese onion export to India consequently increased. This year, however, the…

Mr Apple and China Resources Enterprise donate container of new season apples to Wuhan

With imported fruit now flowing through channels in China, Mr Apple and partner China Resources Enterprise have donated one container (1,176 cartons) of fresh, new season, New…

Freshdeal on sustainable packaging in Egypt

“At the beginning they didn’t realize the importance of replacing plastic with paper”

As in most parts of the world, getting rid of plastic packaging is a hot topic in Egypt. In the fruit and vegetable trade, the use of plastic packaging was the norm, but this…

Gerard Korse, Tolport

"By husking the cauliflower, you halve the wastage"

Tolpoort is a packaging and distribution center in the Netherlands. They provide their clients with broccoli and cauliflower throughout the year. This company gets Spanish…

"Some supermarket chains have placed orders that are impossible to meet"

Large retailers in Spain increase their fruit and vegetable orders due to fear of the coronavirus

The demand for fruit and vegetables from the Region of Madrid, the Basque Country and other areas with high rates of people infected with COVID-19 (coronavirus) has increased…

Colombian banana producers increasingly harmed by drug trafficking

The Association of Banana Producers of Magdalena and La Guajira, ASBAMA, has expressed its concern about the effects caused by drug trafficking, which during 2019 caused the…

Ecuadorian producers plant a new variety of purple pitahaya

Producers in the canton of Isidro Ayora, in the Ecuadorian province of Guayas, carried out the first commercial planting of a wild purple pitahaya variety,…

COVID-19 in Europe

The situation as of March 12th 2020

Pineapple production in Colombia reaches 70,000 plants per hectare

Edwin Orlando Zambrano Mena, the deputy technical director of the Trade Alliances Program of the United States Agency for International Development USAID, stated in an…

Rene Rooseman, Bel Impex

“Sweet potatoes now come in more colors than just orange”

The sweet potato market is growing and, for many people, fits in well with a conscious lifestyle diet. They are also a tasty alternative for ‘regular’ potatoes. There are,…

Jack Vera, Royal Netherlands Embassy

South Africa bids farewell to active Dutch agricultural attaché

Jack Vera, outgoing agricultural attaché at the Embassy of the Netherlands in South Africa (right), has just returned from a trade mission to Angola, the other country in his…

Piet van Liere, Gebroeders Van Liere

“In the Netherlands, we are 20 steps ahead of the competition when it comes to onions”

A large map of the world hangs in the Flevotrade offices in Dronten, the Netherlands. Piet van Liere owns this trading company, which exports products including onions for…

Geert Verweij, Verdi Import:

“Spain has better control of the market”

The effects of extreme weather only become evident a few months after the event. First, there is insufficient supply, followed by a surplus. Poorer quality may also play a…

How sustainability and social involvement became an increasingly concrete, professional, and competitive market aspect. And how banana prices will play an increasingly important role.

Sustainability in bananas - from a joke to a serious selling point

“What sustainability means is becoming more and more defined,” says Frank Vermeersch of the Dutch company, Agrofair - which, next year, will have been active in the sale of…

Dutchman, Jan van Bergeijk, brings commercial raspberry farming to Huelva, Spain

In 1989, Jan van Bergeijk moved from the Netherlands to the Spanish soft fruit region of Huelva. He saw opportunities for early raspberry cultivation there. And so, the Dutch…

Fyffes expands its offering in Germany by increasing its stake in vanWylick

The partnership between Fyffes and Fruchtimport vanWylick goes back to 2011 when Fyffes acquired one third of the business. Fyffes has worked during this time…

Self-assembly greenhouse nominated for sustainability award

Being nominated for a prize is awesome and so there was already a minor celebration at TAPKIT Hydroponic systems - but unfortunately the recent Covid outbreak throws a spanner…

First Sekoya blueberries planted in the Netherlands

This week, the Sekoya program's first blueberry plants are being planted. These will stand in a field near the Dutch village of Horst. In the Netherlands, abbGrowers is the…

"No workers means that fruit will not be picked"

The British government's new immigration plans could have far-reaching consequences for British growers. "No people means that fruit will not be picked," as strawberry grower…

Rootstock ‘SR1’

New Avocado rootstock in New Zealand

SR1 is the rootstock recovered from an ‘escaped’ avocado tree that was the sole survivor from a block of Hass trees grafted to unknown seedling rootstocks planted near…

Can AI help mitigate the impact of the weather?

How can you manage the risks created by weather? AI and data modelling are offering new ways to mitigate the impact: bespoke weather forecasting to optimise crop scheduling; a…

“There are enough organic onions to reach the finish line this year”

From February onward, the demand for organic onions increased, as was expected by traders and packing stations. Business from Germany also picked up. The demand for this…

HORTGRO concerned about possible COVID-19 impact on South Africa

The Deciduous Fruit Industry body, HORTGRO, says it is concerned about the possible impact of coronavirus on the sector. Agriculture remains a key economic…

WHO combats rumours about garlic effectiveness

Tunisians rush to buy garlic, thinking it will combat Coronavirus

The price of garlic has shot up in Tunisia amid a buying rush as consumers hope it will help protect against the new coronavirus. This is going on, despite a…

Advantages of differently coloured organic fruit and vegetables

Richly coloured vegetables and fruits tempt customers more often into buying. It’s as simple as that. Different colours indicate a wide variety of nutrients in…

FreshPlaza Funny

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