Are produce prices a trick or treat?

It all depends on how you look at it. The industry is seeing increased prices in berries, tomatoes, corn and mangoes. Despite last week’s heavy rain in Mexico, the supply of commodities such as cucumbers, limes and beans has improved.

According to ProduceIQ, strawberry prices are up 26 percent over the previous week and are expected to climb more. “Growers in the Salinas/Watsonville area are winding down production, and Mexican suppliers have yet to start exporting in a meaningful way,” said Mark Campbell, president and CEO of ProduceIQ. Strawberry prices

The much higher costs of produce items has become a challenge for produce directors and buyers. Farmers are getting hit with elevated operating and material expenses. Those costs are passed on to shippers, wholesalers, retailers and eventually reaches consumers at the supermarket. It could possibly be a rough growing season this coming winter based on the El Nino weather pattern forecast ahead.

We cannot control the weather nor El Nino this winter. In spite of that, the business will continue to move forward. Consumers still need to eat and will shop for produce items motivated by weekly ad

Western Growers and S2G Ventures named the three finalists that will compete in the 2023 AgSharks Competition. AgSharks is a unique event where startup companies pitch their innovations in front of a live audience of the world’s largest specialty crop producers to win a $250,000 minimum investment.

The finalists are:

• Climate Robotics, a developer of mobile biochar production systems for commercial agriculture. Biochar is a carbon-negative soil amendment made from waste biomass that helps reverse global climate change. When biochar is applied to agricultural soils, it boosts crop yield

The city of Elizabeth, NJ, has renamed York Street “Joe Sheridan Way” in honor of longtime Wakefern President Joe Sheridan. Sheridan will retire in December after nearly five decades with the company. Mike Stigers, a supermarket industry veteran, joined Wakefern in June as the new president.

Local leaders joined Wakefern representatives for a dedication and street sign unveiling ceremony Oct. 24. The event, which took place outside the Elizabeth Grocery Distribution Center on York Street, recognized Sheridan for his decades of commitment not only to the cooperative, but also to his hometown

GrubMarket has completed the acquisition of PA China Farm, a prominent wholesale distribution business based in Philadelphia. PA sells a wide variety of fruits and vegetables but is best known for its specialty exotic goods like black cabbage, baby bok choy, napa cabbage, papaya and durian, as well as yogurt, tofu and other products sourced from a global network that includes the U.S., Mexico, Uruguay, South Africa, Spain, Morocco and Thailand.

Founded by former grower Tony Lin in 1998, PA has cultivated long-standing relationships with a diverse array of supermarkets, foodservice businesses

The holiday season is just around the corner, and with it comes the annual surge in prepared foods orders that often overwhelms grocers. Instacart said many retailers have turned to FoodStorm, its order management system, to efficiently manage high-volume orders. 

Numerous retailers have onboarded over the past few months to prepare for the holidays, joining hundreds that already use FoodStorm to power their fresh departments, streamlining order fulfillment and modernizing holiday inventory tracking methods.

"That’s why today, we’re introducing several new FoodStorm features, developed