Month: February 2018

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking nominations for the National Mango Board to fill seats for six members whose terms expire Dec. 31, 2018. Nomination applications for the seats are due Feb. 21, 2018. Selected representatives will serve three-year terms of office. …

lef Farms is excited to launch its newly designed clamshell packaging in February. While the fresh and tasty contents of its packages won’t be changing, lef has adopted this much more popular packaging format by going to clamshells. …

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is updating its import requirements for fresh sweet orange, grapefruit, mandarin, clementine, and tangerine fruit from Colombia. After careful analysis, APHIS scientists determined that the import requirements originally established for citrus fruit from Colombia are no longer sufficient and additional phytosanitary measures are necessary to safely import citrus fruit while protecting American agriculture. …

With relentless pressure on margins in all commodity produce driven by the ever-increasing power of large buyers, the necessity of innovation has never been greater. Fresh Del Monte has invested in innovation, whether varietal — its Del Monte Gold Pineapple was the single greatest leverage tool in the produce industry for a while — or structural — methodically building a network of regional processors. Now Fresh Del Monte decided, in one fell swoop, to buy an innovation factory and scale up its product line to be able to face retailers across a broader spectrum. …