Wednesday, July 1, 2020
NORTH AMERICA

Our team

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

Head Grower/Director of Growing - Crawfordville (FL) USA

Project Manager Assistant - USA

Flower sales Export Manager - Nairobi, Kenya

Apple Quality Manager - Wolcott (NY) USA

General Manager - Wolcott (NY) USA

Technical Services Supervisor - Hamburg, Germany

Cultivation Control Systems Manager - Colorado, USA

Sales Manager based in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany

Category Manager (Mangoes, Melons & Pines) - Sydney or Brisbane, Australia

General Manager - Commercial | Murcia, Spain | Fruit

Port of Long Beach saw more “blank sailings” as pandemic hit

As a major port for trans-Pacific trade, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) is playing an increasingly important role in shipping produce. Positioned in Long Beach, CA, the port…

Don Roper of Honeybear Brands:

"We're meeting current consumer demand with a packaging shift"

The onset of the pandemic forced everyone in the industry to make changes to how they operate. Some of these changes were to ensure the health and safety of the workers, and…

Sinclair discusses the impact of COVID-19 on produce labelling

Closer customer relationships, but shipping remains a challenge

Sinclair manufactures produce labels and labelling equipment for produce companies around the globe. The company has label-manufacturing sites in ten different countries and…

Romaine lettuce market heating up

The lettuce market is picking up in activity. “There’s a lot of local production around the country—those programs generally started around June 1st,” says…

USMCA goes into effect today, July 1st

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into effect today, July 1st, at a crucial time for farmers and ranchers struggling to recover from COVID-19…

Retail report for week ending June 21

US: Father’s Day provided big boost for retail produce sales

The week ending June 21st was Father’s Day weekend and it resulted in a significant boost for fresh produce, both fruit and vegetables. As a result, grocery sales, and produce…

PMA Fresh Summit goes virtual for 2020

Produce Marketing Association announced Tuesday, June 30 that the 2020 Fresh Summit Convention & Expo will be a virtual experience instead of an onsite event in Dallas. In a message to…

Hazel Tech announces partnership with PureFresh Sales

"We've seen a 55% reduction in quality claims since implementing Hazel Tech"

Hazel Technologies Inc., developer of new USDA-funded technologies to protect quality in the produce supply chain and fight food waste, announced a new partnership with…

Sun World reaches settlement with Australian grape grower

Breach of IP rights

Californian based variety development and licensing company, Sun World International, LLC, announced it has reached settlement of a dispute with a prominent Australian table grape…

Cindy Jewell of Jewell Marketing

"Getting ready for what's next: Recommendations for the next virtual trade show"

In light of the PMA announcement about Fresh Summit being launched as a virtual rather than an in-person event, Cindy Jewell of Jewell Marketing wrote a…

Special Latin America

FreshPlaza will be focusing on Latin America in our July Special. The region is dealing with some heavy blows in terms of the pandemic. How is the important fruit and…

Global Focus Soft/Stonefruit

Global Focus Soft Fruit/Stone Fruit

FreshPlaza will be focusing on soft fruit and stone fruit in our July Global Focus. There are many new challenges facing exporters and importers in this strange new world.…

Retail

Wakefern: S4RB online platform

Publix: High rankings on Newsweek’s 2020 America’s Best Customer Service list

Amazon to pay $500mln in one-time bonuses to front-line workersAmazon.com Inc said it would spend $500mln on one-time bonuses to its front-line employees and partners working…

USDA files action against Texas company for alleged PACA violations

As part of its efforts to enforce the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act and ensure fair trading practices within the U.S. produce industry, the U.S.…

Alberto Medina-Mora joins Fall Creek Farm & Nursery as regional director for Mexico

Fall Creek Farm & Nursery, Inc., a global blueberry breeding and nursery company, announced that Alberto Medina-Mora has joined the company as regional…

Homegrown Organic Farms announces two new additions to sales team

Homegrown Organic Farms announced the addition of two new members to their sales team with Amanda Vietti and Stefaun Avakian. Both Amanda and Stefaun will be operating as…

New York Apple Sales: Behind the scenes of apple businesses during Covid-19

Chelsea Van Acker of New York Apple Sales, Inc. shared how work has changed inside one of the largest apple sales organizations on the East Coast and about…

Ban to last for at least 15 days

Argentina establishes export ban for lemons to EU after finding Citrus Black Spot

Due to findings of Citrus Black Spot in Argentinian lemons in European ports, Argentina made the decision to put an export ban into place starting today (July…

US Postal Service reveals fruit and vegetables stamps with 10 designs

The United States Postal Service has created a new Fruits and Vegetables set of 10 non-denominated (55¢) stamps, which will be issued July 17. They will come out in a…

Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops Calculator now available on SupplyShift

Following last April’s news of their partnership and initiative to develop an on-line sustainability management tool, the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops…

Frcolaco

Dole signs deal with Shanghai Disney

Dole is one of the largest producers of fresh fruit and vegetables; now, the company and Shanghai Disney Resort announced that the two sides have inked a…

Hortimaq and UPM webinar looks at quality solutions for Mexican exporters

“Quality, less loss, more profit.” This was the name of the Hortimaq/UPM webinar last June 25th, for which more than 150 representatives of fruit and vegetable exports from…

The registration period is open from July 27 to 31

Aneberries will celebrate the 10th edition of its International Congress online

Mexico's Berry Exporters Association, (ANEBERRIES) is getting ready to conduct the tenth edition of its International Congress, which will be held online for…

Peru

Piura has exported more than 6,000 tons of lemons so far in 2020

The Peruvian region of Piura has exported 6,368.29 tons of lemon so far in 2020. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, the main…

Werdiam

Cuban government calls on citizens to grow their own food

Lately, Cuban food security has risen to the top of the national agenda in that nation, with countless news headlines and televised roundtable discussions dedicated to the…

Alfonso Velásquez, former president of Sierra y Selva Exportadora:

"Thanks to what I learned in Chile, I was able to introduce blueberries to Peru"

“In December of 2011, we decided to develop the first international blueberry seminar, relying on contacts with Chilean and American businessmen. The event was a success and…

"We want Colombia's Hass avocado exports to surpass $100 million"

"We want our Hass avocado exports to surpass 100 million dollars in 2020." This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture, Rodolfo Zea, within the framework of…

Japan: Heart-shaped "Junoheart" cherries fetch $186 per fruit

For the first time this year, heart-shaped "Junoheart" cherries were auctioned Tuesday. This took place in northeastern Japan. A pack containing 15 of them in…

"Covid-19 triggers discussions of Chinese fruit wholesale models"

“There are currently fewer categories of imported fruit on the market and the volume available is limited. There are only a few categories imported from the West such as South…

Food safety comes from extended vegetable disinfection time

Food safety has always been a concern in the fresh-cut industry. For ready-to-eat vegetables such as lettuce, the entire cleaning process usually takes 2 to 3 minutes, which…

Chinese businesses handle single fruit categories facing difficulties

"This year, the fruit market as a whole is facing many difficulties and it is difficult to increase the price. Many companies are operating at a loss, especially those…

"Price of Egyptian oranges in China picks up after reaching bottom"

"This year, the Chinese fruit market as a whole has been sluggish. Affected by this, the market for Egyptian oranges continued to decline, from 110-120 yuan…

WAPA releases apple and pear stocks for Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere apple and pear stocks have been released for June of 2020 by WAPA. According to the report, the big winners for the apple category are…

Frutmac

Zippmatic innovates packaging

After the success achieved in the past 18 months by the Blitzmatic+ packaging machines, Frutmac completes its range of tray packagers with Zippmatic in order to meet even the…

Nigel Bailey – Mushandi Holdings

Harvesting commences at one of Zimbabwe’s bigger blueberry projects

Mushandi Holdings owns and manages sizable blueberry and strawberry projects in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe. On Pinfields Farm at Ruwa, 40km southeast of Zimbabwe’s capital…

Jaap den Boer, Olympic Fruit:

"Even Navels are now being sold as juicing oranges"

A challenging market, that is the common denominator that Jaap den Boer of Olympic Fruit sees when it comes to the citrus market. “Logistics in South Africa is quite difficult…

New tray positioning system launched

Tray sealing specialist Proseal has launched a revolutionary tray positioning system - the first of its kind - that calculates the required tray-spacing set-up parameters for…

New plastic-free packaging for salads developed

A plastic-free salad packaging solution has been developed by Sirane as part of a project working with some major brands in France. (RE)SET Packaging are a consultancy company…

Berry producer expands Tasmanian operations

Queensland-based Piñata Farms is set to double production of specialty BerryWorld raspberries in Tasmania following a successful inaugural harvest at Orielton. Managing…

Vietnamese lychee exports to Japan offer great opportunities

A representative from Japan’s AEON supermarket stated that, in order to ensure optimum quality of the imported goods from Vietnam, fresh lychees sold at the supermarket were…

Coronavirus accelerates the rise of the robot harvester

When UK farmers found themselves short-staffed due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the government launched a campaign urging the public to cover the shortfall and “Pick for…

Mr.siwabud Veerapaisarn

Low demand and capacity withdrawal to persist for container shipping

Analyst Sea-Intelligence experts expect container shipping to see the current low demand levels persisting, consequently leading to high levels of capacity withdrawals. With…

Choosing the right vertical form fill seal (VFFS) bagger

It takes decades for a produce processor to build up its brand, but only seconds to ruin it. A product recall traced back to contamination in your packaging equipment can…

The durian purse that doesn't smell

In Thailand, a shop called Farmrak has designed a lifelike durian purse. They're quite the hit on social media, and the best thing? They don't smell as bad as a real durian!

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