Month: March 2017

Do you ship human food? If so, the Sanitary Transportation of Food rule, which is a part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), will take effect on April 1 and impact many in our industry. We have received a variety of questions around this ruling and what shippers and carriers need to do to prepare. In this blog post, Chris McLoughlin, risk manager at C.H. Robinson, and I will cover what you need to know. …

After months of snow and freezing temperatures, Domex Superfresh Growers® is excited that spring in finally here. Now that that the ground has thawed, the orchard team is busy catching up from the long winter. The first project on the menu is planting a new orchard with Autumn Glory® apple trees. The Superfresh team met with Dave Gleason, Chief Horticulturist, to learn more about the latest in the orchards. …

The domestic marketing committee meeting began with a review of sales and marketing research. The volume and value of frozen potato product sales at retail for the past five years were up 2%; the volume of dehy is down 11% and value down 8%; and fresh refrigerated sales up 13% in volume and 19% in value. For fresh potatoes, the volume was down 6% but the value up 6% with russets contributing significantly to the decline, off 13% in volume and down 6% in value. This was countered by an increase in 7% in the volume and 14% in value of red sales; yellows were up 50% in both volume and value; and the volume of purple/blue sales were up 58% with the value up 46% for the five-year period. …

Zespri officially opened its Middle East office in Dubai earlier this week to manage its growing sales and marketing programmes in this region and other developing markets. …

Consumers are demanding a wider selection of fresh chile pepper varieties as part of their grocery shopping experience, and there’s no better time to stock up produce departments than Cinco de Mayo. Retailers and wholesalers can look to Frieda’s Specialty Produce as their comprehensive source for all their fresh chile pepper needs. …