SAN FANCISCO, CA - Fresh & Easy has announced a new partnership with the San Francisco-based startup Instacart. Now Fresh & Easy shoppers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles will have access to online grocery delivery, the first time the retailer has offered its customers such a convenience, according to a press release.

“We’re excited to work with Fresh & Easy to deliver groceries in LA and the Bay Area,” shared Heather Wake, General Manager at Instacart. “Our customers are always looking for healthy and fast meal options, and Fresh & Easy, renowned for its prepared meals, is an excellent partner to help meet that demand.”

“Partnering with Instacart is a win-win for everyone – our existing customers will now have a convenient and reliable delivery option for their favorite products, and we will be able to extend our reach to new customers who may not have had access to one of our stores,” agreed Mike Evans, Vice President of Marketing at Fresh & Easy. “Online ordering and product delivery have been major priorities for Fresh & Easy this year and we are glad we are able to launch with such a strong partner in Instacart.”

Instacart shared that there are plans in place to eventually expand this partnership into other areas where Fresh & Easy has a retail presence. Considering that Fresh & Easy has 167 stores across Arizona, California and Nevada, there could be considerable growth potential for this partnership.

Instacart has been on the rise in recent months, announcing new partnerships with other leading retailers, including Whole Foods. 

Congratulations on this new partnership, Fresh & Easy and Instacart!

Fresh & Easy

Instacart

WASHINGTON D.C. - The USDA has filed an administrative action against Snokist Growers, a Yakima, Washington-based company, for failing to pay for produce under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA).

The company allegedly failed to pay eight sellers for 402 lots of produce valued at $696,853, according to a USDA press release.

Because of these violations, Snokist Growers will not be permitted to operate in the produce industry until July 25th, 2016. After this date, it will again be eligible to reapply for a PACA license.

Snokist Growers' principals, Belinda Cole, Jim Davis, Kailan Dunn, and Dave Olsen, may not be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee until July 25th, 2015. After this time, a company may once again employ these individuals, provided it posts a USDA-approved surety bond.

In the past three years, the USDA resolved approximately 4,600 claims filed under PACA involving more than $87 million. Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, members, managers, officers, directors, or major stockholders may not be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee without the approval of the USDA. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), PACA Division, regulates fair trading practices of produce businesses operating subject to PACA.

Agricultural Marketing Service

LOS ANGELES, CA – Chicago-based Farmer’s Fridge is bringing its salad vending machine to Los Angeles, California next year.

Luke Saunders, Founder of Farmer’s Fridge, tells the Los Angeles Times that he is on a mission to make healthful food accessible to people on the go.  We previously covered Farmer's Fridge's debut in Chicago.  Check out that article by clicking here.

“I was traveling a lot for work and really couldn’t find healthy food,” Luke said.  “I started thinking about ways to make it more accessible and how I could change the model of how healthy food gets distributed.”

According to its website, Farmer’s Fridge gets fresh, locally sourced produce every morning.  At 5 am, the team makes everything from scratch every day in its local, fully licensed, shared kitchen.  The salads are then delivered to the machine at 10 am.  Any unsold salads are removed and donated to a local food pantry. 

For the actual machine, it uses touch screens, bar code scanners for coupons and email receipts.  The product images, nutrition and ingredient information is available in a large, easy to read format.

"The response generally from people has been that they have really embraced it," Saunders tells the LA Times. "Right now we are trying to convince the next level of consumer – the ones who are still skeptical about getting their lunch out of a vending machine." 

The company is also interested in helping the environment.  The jars and lids are 100% recyclable and the bags, utensils, salad dressing containers and packaging are all biodegradable corn-based PLA packaging.  Also, the company states that power consumption for each kiosk is under $25 worth of electricity a month.

A lunch that is good for you and good for the environment?  I can get behind that.  Next time I’m in Los Angeles, I’m going to give it a try.

Farmer’s Fridge

PORTERVILLE, CA - Welcome to What's in Store. Business is booming this year for Homegrown Organic Farms' winter citrus program. With increased volume on the company’s full line citrus program, retailers need look no further than Homegrown Organic Farms for all their citrus needs this winter season.

Homegrown Organic Farms offers a wide variety of premium citrus products throughout the winter months. Navels, Cara Caras, Mandarins, including Satsumas, Clementines, W. Murcotts and Gold Nuggets, Pummelos, Grapefruit, and Lemons are all grown on Homegrown's Southern California and San Joaquin Valley farms.

Navels and organic lemons are available now for distribution. The same is true for Satsuma and Clementine mandarins. Homegrown Organic Farms has also begun its harvest of Organic Pummelos. This will be Homegrown Organic's second season offering this variety and the grower is excited to build on the positive impression the fruit established last year with shoppers.

Bulk and bagged packaging options, as well as a new line of pouch bags designed for in-store displays, are available for select items of Homegrown's diverse citrus varieties. These new pouch bags can hold 2 or 3 pounds of premium citrus and are designed to give consumers a premium view of the fruit while maintaining the familiar Homegrown look and feel which have become staples in the produce aisle. Thank you for watching What's In Store.

Homegrown Organic Farms

SANTIAGO, CHILE – The inaugural Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fruittrade Latin America, which took place in Santiago, Chile on November 12-13, hosted over 2,100 attendees from across the fresh produce supply chain.

According to a press release, this first-of-its-kind event for South America featured 100 exhibitors along with 98 speakers from 11 countries across 5 continents for a series of educational workshops.

Nancy Tucker, Vice President of PMA’s Global Business Development said, “The number and quality of the attendees, the strength of the trade show, the excellent educational sessions and the unique business roundtable made this event a great value for all."

Sam’s Club Senior Director of Produce and Floral, Russell Mounce, spoke on the event saying, “This event in Santiago, aside from providing a great excuse to do business in such great weather, gave suppliers a time and place at the start of the season to finalize plans with retailers for now, and for next year.”

The event’s inaugural session kicked off with Chile’s Minister of Agriculture Carlos Furche, Sam’s Club Senior Director of Produce and Floral Russell Mounce, ProChile’s Director Roberto Paiva and Fedefruta President Juan Carolus Brown.

“Here, it has been pointed out that the international demand for fruit continues to be very consistent, and, as demographic data shows, the world population will keep growing," said the Chilean Agriculture Minister, Carlos Furche, in the session.  He added that he valued the creation of the PMA Fruittrade Latin America to facilitate the supply of fresh food to the main world markets.

In the same session, Gustavo Yentzen, Yentzen Group’s CEO, added, “Today was the launch of a dream, a dream that is not just ours but shared by many who looked to accomplish a global trade fair in Latin America.  And here we are, creating a new way to connect the Latin American horticultural industry with the rest of the world.”

Roberto Paiva, the Director of ProChile, was also present.  He celebrated the fact that PMA Fruittrade Latin America brought producers and exporters from Chile and all South America together, to meet global buyers and increase their business opportunities.

"After years successfully promoting the direct trade between producers and importers, with business roundtables that have stimulated the growth of fruit producers in the commercial chain, we firmly believe that the alliance with PMA has definitely internationalized this event. The incorporation of educational conferences gave industry members the tools to make good business decisions,” noted Fedefruta President Juan Carolus Brown Bauzá.

At the event, about 100 buyers were able to meet with producers and exporters from Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia in an international business roundtable.

Congratulations on the successful event!

PMA

NEW ZEALAND – Zespri has appointed Simon Limmer to the new role of Chief Operation Officer (COO) to provide leadership on the supply side of the business. 

Simon joined Zespri in 2008, and has held general management roles with Zespri Global Supply (ZGS) and Growers and Government Relations and, since early 2013, as GM China, according to a press release.  He will transition out of his current roles as General Manager of both the Grower and Government Relations team and the China market by the end of the year.

Zespri Chief Executive Lain Jager says, “The new role of COO will better integrate Zespri supply as the Zespri Global Supply business continues to grow and new cultivars and markets are added to the business, as well as taking responsibility for relations with growers and the New Zealand government.”

According to a press release, Zespri is looking forward to strong global growth as the industry recovers from the impact of Psa and new SunGold volumes come online.

“The kiwifruit industry will experience very strong growth over the next five years and the new executive structure will support this growth,” says Lain.  He added that the new COO will help to generate and ‘end-to-end’ view of the supply chain.

In this new role, Simon will help support global collaboration, best practice and standardization of metrics and processes in the supply chain, all while leaving regional and country managers accountable for in-market options.

“I’m also pleased to announce another two important appointments to Zespri’s executive leadership team, with David Hazlehurst starting as CFO in February and Blair Hamill’s appointment as General Manager Supply Chain.  I’m confident that this new executive structure and these three appointments will support the strong increase in industry growth over the next few years,” says Lain.

Before this appointment, David served as CFO and Vice President, Commercial and Pacific Islands for NZ Steel, and Blair was recently the General Manager of Zespri Global Supply.

Congratulations on the new positions!

Zespri

AUSTRALIA & U.K. - Aldi annouced some major leadership changes to its UK and Australasia divisions, appointing Joint Managing Director of Aldi UK Matthew Barnes to CEO of Aldi UK and Ireland while Group Managing Director of Aldi Australia Tom Daunt will take over as CEO of Aldi Australasia.

In his new position, Barnes will be responsible for overseeing Aldi's ambitious £600 million expansion plan which entails almost doubling its UK store base by the year 2021. The completion of this initiative would increase Aldi's store count from a little over 500 to 1,000, according to the Guardian.

Regarding the appointment of Daunt, there is some speculation that by choosing him Aldi is signaling its intent to expand into New Zealand. At this time, however, the retailer has released a statement saying it has "no immediate plans to enter the New Zealand market,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

While the legacy of his term as CEO has yet to be written, it is worth noting that Daunt spoke earlier this year of investing $700 million in order to construct two new distribution centers and stores in Australia. This would bring Aldi's Australian investment to almost $4 billion, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Congratulations on the promotion, Matthew and Tom!

Aldi

SALINAS, CA - Andrew Smith Company has added 20 year industry veteran Dudley Brinan to its skilled sales team as its new Sales and Outside Procurement Manager. Andrew Smith's partners in the industry can rest assured that orders of fresh produce from the company and its affiliate, Colorful Harvest, will be backed by his wealth of experience as he sources, procures, and consolidates the balance of their loads.

“Maximizing efficiency and minimizing customer logistics is my mission,” said Brinan. “With freight rates going higher, when you can save the customer multiple stops it means a lot.”

“We’re happy that Dudley is part of the team,” agreed Dave Robinson, Andrew Smith Company's General Manager. “He’ll be a real asset in making Andrew Smith Company a one-stop-shop for produce buyers.”

Andrew Smith has also added Steven Garza to its sales division. Prior to this new position, he worked in sales support, logistics, and marketing for Colorful Harvest, according to a press release.

“Steven brings a new energy to the sales team,” Robinson shared.

Congratulations on your new positions, Dudley and Steven.

Andrew Smith Company

FRESNO, CA - Baloian Farms is launching a new website in order to further the company's overall mission to grow and solidify its place in the industry as a category leader in pepper production. This total brand positioning effort has been the focus of the last 18 months of the company's business cycle and has included the launch of several new exciting products.

“We’ve been looking for a way to tell consumers our story while showcasing how to prepare and cook our products in healthy and delicious ways,” Jeremy Lane, Sales Manager for Baloian Farms, shared. “The new recipe section helps consumers make a more personal connection with our company especially as a third-generation family farm.”

According to a press release, the intention behind the new website was to display the depth and variety of the products offered at Baloian Farms as well as to showcase many of the company's new offerings in a consumer-friendly format.

In an effort to share the Baloian Farms story and further connect the company's consumers and industry partners, the website will feature:

• Availability charts, category and consumer research, food safety and sustainability information and various other tools for retailers and foodservice managers.
• A new recipe section.
• Information about the Baloian family and the history of the company.
• A new simple, clean design in order to facilitate easy navigation.

Great work on the new website, Baloian Farms!

Baloian Farms

LOS ALAMITOS, CA – Frieda’s Specialty Produce is offering Green Dragon Apples with labels to distinguish these sweet, juicy and fragrant heirloom apples from other green apples.

“We launched the new stickers last season, and the feedback has been very positive,” said Karen Caplan, President and CEO of Frieda’s, Inc. “Our effort to educate shoppers and produce staff continue beyond just the stickers. We carry on the conversation about how freckles are normal for these delicious apples on our social media channels and website.”

According to a press release, shoppers love the company’s exclusive Green Dragon Apple’s sweet, low acid flavor that has hints of pineapple and pear. 

These apples have a lime-green, bruise-resistant skin and are dotted with brown freckles.  Frieda’s has seen success with these labels because consumers often mistake them for Golden Delicious or Granny Smith and considered them blemished because of their freckles.

The new labels inform shoppers that the naturally freckled skin of these apples is quite normal to help educate the shopper.

Frieda’s