The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas held its annual meeting on Nov. 1, 2022. Attendees joined in-person at the Americana Hotel. This year the FPAA hosted the meeting just prior to the start of the 53rd Nogales Produce Convention and Golf Tournament to celebrate FPAA members and elect a new board as the association headed into its convention. 

The FPAA membership consists of distributor and associate member companies. Open board seats available included two-year terms for eight distributor members and one- year terms for two associate members. During the 2022 Annual Meeting, members

United Natural Foods, Inc. and Square Roots announced a new agreement to co-locate Square Roots' indoor farms on-site at select UNFI distribution centers. The first Square Roots farm, approximately 20,000 square feet in size, is planned for UNFI’s Prescott, Wis. facility and is scheduled to open in 2023.

As part of its Better For All initiative, UNFI is focused on building closer relationships with its produce suppliers to build an efficient, expansive, high-quality supply chain network designed to shorten the time it takes to deliver produce to retail customers. Produce from the first Square

While vertical farming techniques have recently been producing an increasing amount of our food requirements, Local Leaf Farms has developed a novel approach to further reduce food miles and logistics headaches. Operating out of Barrie and Kingston, Ontario, Local Leaf Farms uses small footprint vertical farming operations to bring hyper-local production of high nutrient produce right to consumers with an ability to be on grocers’ shelves within hours of harvest.

“There are many advantages to producing in a smaller facility.” said Steve Jones, president and CEO of Local Leaf Farms. “Not only

Baldor Specialty Foods, announced they’ve signed a lease for a new facility in Lanham, MD to significantly expand and enhance their operations in the DC area. The new 100,000 square foot warehouse facility includes 35 dock doors which will allow Baldor DC to essentially double its number of routes over the next few years and provide quicker and earlier deliveries to their restaurant and food service customers.

Just 12 miles out of Washington, the warehouse will be located in the Hargrove Industrial Campus at 4450 Hargrove Drive in Lanham, MD. The large space and strategic location will allow

Arizona’s Governor Ducey has proclaimed Nov. 2022 as Arizona Leafy Greens month. Through this proclamation he called upon all residents to recognize the Arizona leafy greens industry during the month of Nov. for consistently producing an abundance of nutritious and safe leafy greens. This is the 10th annual celebration and during that time Arizona farmers have produced more than 90 billion servings of lettuce (based on the average production of 9 billion servings per year).

Arizona is known as the winter lettuce capital of the US providing Americans with an abundance of lettuce and leafy

Loblaw Cos. Ltd. reached a major milestone in its partnership with Flashfood, a digital marketplace that connects consumers to heavily discounted food nearing its best-before date. Loblaw has diverted 40 million pounds of food from landfills and helped shoppers save more than $110 million on groceries. The landmark achievement is due to the integration of Flashfood's program across 720 Loblaw stores and franchises.

As Loblaw fights climate change by reducing food waste, consumers save money on groceries.

Over the past two years, more than 1.6 million users in Canada have turned to Flashfood