VINELAND, NJ - Exciting news is afoot for Trucco as it expands one of its distribution centers. The distributor recently received approval to add an additional 67,000 square feet to the facility, which is located in Vineland, New Jersey. Construction will be breaking ground soon and the expansion should be up and running by Q4 of 2023.

“We are proud to be investing in our operations here in Vineland, and we are excited to better serve our customers by expanding our packing and distribution capabilities,” Chief Executive Officer Nick Pacia said. “This expansion will not only benefit our company but will also contribute to the growth of the local economy.”

For the past five years, Trucco has been operating this sustainable, state-of-the-art facility for packing, storage, and distribution of its products, primarily kiwifruit, citrus, and blueberries.

As the company continues to grow, additional space is needed to meet increasing demand and to better serve customers. As a press release explained, the expansion will add approximately 15,000 square feet of production space and about 50,000 square feet of refrigeration to the existing facility.

Similar to the current facility, sustainability will be at the forefront of this project, which includes plans to outfit the center with solar panels and numerous energy-saving and water-reducing technologies. Trucco also prides itself on working with local farms to ensure organic waste produced by the facility is composted and has robust recycling programs in place. These programs will be scaled to support the expansion as well, the release went on to note.

Trucco’s dedication to its partners is reflected through this expansion, as it will allow the distributor to continue delivering a year-round supply of flavorful, nutritious products to its customers—large and small.

Keep reading us here at AndNowUKnow as we continue to report on the latest updates in the industry.

Trucco

SALINAS, CA - Nora Cortez will be taking on a new position in the industry. She joins Tanimura & Antle as its newest Chief Human Resource Officer.

“I am thrilled to join Tanimura & Antle as Chief Human Resource Officer and to work alongside such a talented and dedicated team,” said Cortez. “I am excited to bring my experience on board to help develop and implement strategies that will attract, retain, and develop skilled employees while fostering the company’s already outstanding culture. I look forward to contributing to the industry’s leading grower-shipper of premium fresh produce.”

Cortez brings over 20 years of experience in human resources, talent management, and compliance, having most recently served as the Vice President of Human Resources at Dole Fresh Vegetables. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Management and Human Resources from California State University, Pomona.

In her previous role at Dole Fresh Vegetables, noted the release, Cortez led the company’s human resources team, overseeing talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, employee relations, and talent development.

As Chief Human Resource Officer, Cortez will lead the human resources department and develop talent strategies that align with the company’s mission and goals. She will also play a key role in fostering and promoting company culture and engagement throughout the organization’s operating locations, including California, Arizona, and Tennessee.

“We are thrilled to welcome Nora to the Tanimura & Antle executive team,” said Scott Grabau, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Her experience in talent acquisition, HR management, compensation planning, and knowledge of the agriculture industry will add to our existing experience and makes her the perfect fit for this role as we continue to expand our operations and invest in our systems. We are confident that Nora will help us maintain a workplace culture that fosters our commitment to Quality, Service, and Innovation.”

Congratulations, Nora Cortez, on your new position!

Tanimura & Antle

CALIFORNIA - Bobalu is helping us end this week with an in-depth strawberry crop update covering its Oxnard and Santa Maria, California, growing regions. What does the grower have in store for buyers this season? Read on to find out.

“We continue to experience mild conditions here with highs in the 60s and could even see a cool down next week with chances of rain. This just confirms that this has been a season like no other, with [potential] rain in May,” the company said in a recent release exploring its Oxnard production. “We should be able to work around the forecasted showers and pick ahead, but it could disrupt our harvest schedule next week a bit.”

As Bobalu notes, quality and plant health is looking excellent, with large sizing and firm fruit with great color. The supplier is still on track for the Oxnard season to continue well into May due to mild temps, including nights hovering around 50 degrees.

Turning to its Santa Maria production, Bobalu reported signs that the region will start picking up on daily and weekly volume as we get into May.

“The temperatures are very similar to Oxnard, and we could get some rain here as well mid-week,” the release went on to note. “The good news is, our volume is steadily increasing each week, and we look forward to peak volume toward the middle or end of June. The fields look great, and the fruit is excellent in color, flavor, and size.”

As it just gets into its spring and summer strawberry volumes, Bobalu is already working the ground for its fall crop.

For more updates from the year-round berry supplier and more, keep reading ANUK.

Bobalu

DELANO, CA - The produce industry is currently mourning the loss of Matt Steve Pandol, Jr. Pandol passed away on April 21, 2023, at the age of 60, leaving behind a cherished fresh produce legacy.

Pandol Jr. was born to Matt and Lucy (Tudor) Pandol on June 27, 1962. He graduated from Delano High School in 1980, after which he attended Fresno State University where he earned a degree in Plant Science. He later returned to Delano, California, after college to work alongside his family in their farming/produce-selling companies.

In 1994, Pandol married his best friend and life partner, Linda. Making Delano their home, the two raised their three children while farming some of the world’s best table grapes. As a release explained, Matt worked relentlessly to build and improve the Pandol Family organization, both independently and in collaboration with his family. He served on the Board of Directors of Pandol Bros. and he was also a member of the Delano Grape Growers Co-op Winery’s Board of Directors.

In addition, Matt was a member of the Greater Delano Area Youth Foundation, the American Slavonic Club in Delano, and the All-American Slavonic Association of Fresno, as well as St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Delano. He was also a member of the Kern County Gun Club as well as other athletic organizations.

Matt was a superb farmer, spending every day in the fields with filthy boots and sweat on his brow. On the Pandol Farms, he and his brother Andrew S. collaborated, treasuring their tight working connection and time spent together. He felt most at ease in the company of his farmworkers and deeply recognized their competence and admired their hard work and dedication.

During his off time, Matt enjoyed hiking and fishing, as well as spending time with family and friends at sporting shoots, hunting trips, and other outdoor activities. The massive Green Bay Packers fan was also known for enjoying vacations with his family and holiday gatherings with his in-laws.

Matt is survived by his wife Linda; children Matt III, Stefanie, and Mark; his mother Lucy Pandol; brothers Louis Pandol, John (Angelica) Pandol, Andrew S. (Beth) Pandol; sister Margaret (Scott) Curtis; mother-in-law Gerry Marcia; and numerous relatives, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. His father, Matt Pandol, Sr., passed before him.

On May 5, 2023, a viewing will be held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Delano, from 9:45 to 10:15 a.m., followed by a Rosary and Mass. The interment will take place at Hillcrest Mortuary in Bakersfield on Saturday, May 6. Donations can be made to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 916 Lexington Street, Delano, CA 93215; Honor Flight of Kern County, 8200 Stockdale Hwy – Suite M-10, Box 255, Bakersfield, CA 93311; American Slavonic Social Club, P.O. Box 91, Delano, CA 93216; or a charity of your choice in lieu of flowers.

Our hearts go out to all who are missing this great industry leader.

SEATTLE, WA - Amazon recently announced the expansion of its capabilities within its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. The tech giant added three new capabilities for Amazon GuardDuty, AWS’s threat detection service, that further strengthen customer security through expanded coverage and continuous enhancements in machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence.

“Tens of thousands of organizations across virtually every industry and geography use Amazon GuardDuty, including more than 90 percent of our 2,000 largest customers, helping to protect more than half a billion EC2 instances and millions of S3 buckets,” said Jon Ramsey, Vice President for Security Services at AWS. “GuardDuty’s new capabilities build on this powerful foundation to expand security detection and monitoring even further, to where customers tell us they need it most: containers’ runtime monitoring, databases, and serverless applications. We’ve now more than tripled the number of managed detections since we introduced GuardDuty.”

GuardDuty is part of a broad set of AWS security services that help customers identify potential security risks, so they can respond quickly, freeing security teams to focus on tasks with the highest value. The three new capabilities expand GuardDuty protection to container runtime behavior, as well as database and serverless environments.

EKS Runtime Monitoring deepens threat detection inside customers’ containerized workloads. The release continued explaining GuardDuty RDS Protection helps customers protect data stored in Amazon Aurora databases. GuardDuty Lambda Protection helps customers detect threats to their serverless applications.

The three new capabilities added to GuardDuty build on the hundreds of features and enhancements available since its launch and expand security coverage to other AWS workloads and core deployment use cases. The capabilities can all be easily enabled organization-wide with a few steps and no other requirements or prerequisites, resulting in actionable, contextual, and timely security findings with resource-specific details to help quickly investigate and respond.

For more information, click here.

ANUK will keep an eye out for more updates to optimize services, so stay tuned.

Amazon

IRVINE, CA - California growers weathered many a storm this winter, but producers like GEM-Pack Berries are hard at work ensuring their retail partners have high-quality berries heading into upcoming spring and summer promotions.

I spoke with Paul Kawamura, Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Sales for GEM-Pack Berries, to learn more.

“Although we have suffered some tough blows from Mother Nature this winter, we are back to harvesting at a steady clip,” Paul explained to me. “The California storms were very difficult, to put it mildly, but GEM-Pack and the berry industry, in general, is resilient and bouncing back.”

As spring progresses, Paul noted that the plants that made it through the storms are looking fantastic.

“Our crops have been delayed but as temperatures warm, promotable volume is just around the corner. Late spring and early summer will see terrific quality and steadily increasing volume,” he remarked.

Although the industry did suffer acreage loss, Paul assured me that he and the company believe there will be higher per-acre harvest yields.

“That will probably help offset the decreased acres,” he added, before diving further into the aspects of GEM-Pack’s program that help the grower stand out. “We are investing in genetics for better tasting and quality berries. For retailers planning for upcoming holidays, like Mother's Day, we will have the Stem packs available, which is a popular option.”

Continue reading us here at ANUK for the latest in industry news.

GEM-Pack Berries

SUNBURY, PA - Community members in Sacramento, California, gathered in local parks this past Saturday, April 22, for this year’s Earth Day celebration. Folks in Pennsylvania seem to be just as excited, as Weis Markets released its 2022 Weis Sustainability Report: Guided by Nature.

“Being good stewards of the environment and giving back to the communities we serve are central to Weis Markets’ mission,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Weis. “The 2022 Weis Sustainability Report: Guided by Nature reflects the ongoing commitment of our associates to live the mission in their work. In the years to come, we will continue to seek out creative ways to reduce waste, implement green design, and support our communities.”

Weis also donated $1,500 each to three organizations that work to improve the environment throughout its market area: Chesapeake Conservancy in Annapolis, Maryland; ClearWater Conservancy in State College, Pennsylvania; and Susquehanna River Cleanup Project in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

A press release added that Weis encourages recycling in the communities it serves. In observance of Earth Day, it donated benches made of recycled plastic grocery bags to Selinsgrove School District to reward students for collecting and recycling 10,000 plastic grocery bags.

Weis’ sustainability achievements in 2022 include:

• Delivered on commitments to reduce waste by:
• Diverting more than 10,000 tons of food from landfills
• Partnering with Invafresh to reduce food waste through artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Conducting a baseline waste audit to evaluate effectiveness of waste diversion programs
• Collecting 3,493 pounds of medication through takeback programs
• Made strides in green design by:
• Completing a five-year rollout of LED lighting in its stores, conserving over 44 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually
• Maintaining its Sustainable Food Retail Certification from the Ratio Institute
• Implementing thermal blanket and thermal heat shield insulation at production facilities
• Piloting HVAC ductwork sealing
• Adopting sustainable trucking practices like backhauling, Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems, and route optimization

• A multi-million-dollar charitable giving program in partnership with customers

Weis’ report can be found here.

Keep an eye out for more grocery news from ANUK.

Weis Markets

NEW YORK, NY - An exciting partnership between Bowery and Giant Food has taken place as the vertical farmer bolstered its product distribution. Eager shoppers will now see Bowery’s ready-to-eat salad kits in all 166 Giant Food locations in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the Washington, DC, area.

“This expansion of salad kits will help us meet booming consumer demand in the ready-to-eat category,” said Matt Williams, Head of Sales, Bowery. “Our salad kits provide a healthy, convenient option for a quick meal on the go, traveling fewer food miles and staying fresher longer due to reduced time from harvest to shelf. All Giant customers can now rely on Bowery for an elevated salad kit experience.”

As noted in the release, Bowery is reimagining the entire fresh food supply chain to be smarter, safer, and more sustainable. In 2022, Bowery expanded product offerings into the ready-to-eat category with the introduction of three salad kit flavors featuring forkable greens, bold flavor, and crunchy toppings from pepitas to Parm crisps: Zesty Caesar, Avocado Ranch, and Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Bowery salad kits feature a base of Crispy Leaf, which is grown indoors in completely controlled environments year-round, independent of weather and seasonality. Greens are harvested at peak freshness and on the shelf within days. Bowery designs and builds smart indoor farms near the communities it serves, using technology to create a smart, agile food system focused on flavor and freshness.

“Bowery is a great local partner to Giant Food,” said Josh Hardester, Category Manager at Giant Food. “Their focus on sustainability, while also providing an innovative, high-quality, great-tasting product, really checks a lot of boxes for Giant and our customers.”

Bowery salad kits will also be popping up for sampling at the National BBQ Battle in Washington, DC, in June. Giant Food is a sponsor of this event.

The vertical company is also achieving new scale as it expands to more regions and more retailers. To meet the demand for its produce, Bowery has plans to open two new smart farms in Locust Grove, Georgia (the Atlanta metro area), and Arlington, Texas (the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area).

Keep an eye out for more updates on fresh produce at ANUK.

Bowery

IRVINE, CA - Our industry is advancing quickly, and with that growth comes the need for increased capabilities. One way operators are achieving this is through implementing innovative agtech solutions. A Specialty Crop Automation Report commissioned by Western Growers (WG) revealed that growers are now spending an average of $500,000 a year on automation in response to the persistent ag labor shortage.

"This year’s report takes a deep dive into some new areas: The European market, Controlled Environment Agriculture, and the innovator's side of automation," said Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation. "We found progress from a fundraising and traction perspective in key areas like weeding, spraying, and harvest assist—and less progress in other key areas, notably harvest."

This is the second year the report has been released by WG in collaboration with consultants at Roland Berger. It tracks and measures industry progress in harvest automation across the fresh produce industry and is part of WG’s Global Harvest Automation Initiative, which aims to accelerate ag automation by 50 percent in 10 years.

According to a press release, the report's findings include:

• Around 70 percent of participating growers indicated they had invested in automation in 2022, with an average annual spend of $450,000-$500,000 per grower
• Most progress was made in the weeding and harvest assist segments; market-ready solutions are able to meet grower economic targets and alleviate key challenges, such as lack of labor availability
• Growers want more trained agtech personnel, with 50 percent indicating that they had internal employees who dedicated the majority of their time to the integration of automation investments
• The time it takes to build automation solutions is getting shorter and the costs are getting smaller thanks to overall advances in robotics and non-agriculture fields that benefit agtech startups, as well as the increasing talent pool that agtech startups are able to add to their teams

The Specialty Crop Automation Report can be found here.

For more industry insights, keep coming back to ANUK.

Western Growers

OXNARD, CA - Whether you’re honoring it at home or in the restaurant, Cinco de Mayo is a festive holiday worth celebrating. One aspect consumers love about the day is the food, and Gary Clevenger wholeheartedly agrees. I tapped the Managing Member of Freska Produce International to see how the mango provider is preparing for the holiday.

“At the moment, mangos are very tight. As one of the largest shippers in Mexico, we are continuing to support our customers with mangos when others find it hard to source due to our long-standing relationships with packers,” Gary begins. “Cinco will be a tough promotion period, but we will have fruit and will be supporting our retail partners. Get your orders in early to set yourself up for success!”

Due to a shortage of red mango varieties, Gary predicts imports from Mexico will be on a bit of the lower end around the holiday weekend. However, full retail support will be in the cards, and Freska has another ace up its sleeves: avocados.

“We recommend cross-merchandising reds with yellow mangos to really liven up the produce floor,” Gary continues. “This year, there will be plenty of yellow or Honey mangos to display for Cinco de Mayo. Displaying mangos with avocados at the front will do a great job at pushing sales as shoppers enter the store.”

Colorful and attractive displays will surely be a crowd-pleaser as spirit-forward drinks and fresh salsa and dessert abound for the festive weekend. Having a mix of ripe and unripe mangos will also be a successful promotional plan for shoppers to enjoy their fresh fruit either that night or as a sweet treat later on.

“Spring is a great time for mango and avocado sales because shoppers are looking for fresh product now that it’s getting warmer,” Gary concludes. “Freska provides promotional materials and retail support to catch those impulse sales. Cinco de Mango!”

Whether it’s the holidays, seasonal shifts, or splurging on fresh fruits and veg, count on ANUK to bring you the latest.

Freska Produce International