Earlier this year, Kroger invited growers and producers to join the retailer's first Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator, and now the company has announced its inaugural cohort.

"We invented the Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator to discover the best, most innovative, and freshest local and regional products — and our group of winners is just that," said Dan De La Rosa, Kroger's group vice president of fresh merchandising. "We are proud to partner with these extraordinary suppliers to bring exciting new products to our stores across the country — and introduce customers to more locally

As COVID-19 has brought so many highs and lows over the past 17 months, Bolthouse Farms continues to expand on a long history of growth and innovation. “When we bought the company back it was summer of 2019,” recalled Bill Levisay, president of Bolthouse Farms Brands. “We had a lot to fix, we had a lot to repair and mostly the thing we had to work on was to bring back the farming, the agriculture and the produce centricity.”

Levisay was part of the Bolthouse leadership team between 2009 and 2015 and a part of the team that purchased the company back from Campbell’s. “It’s been an incredible

Making the best of it is not the same thing as getting the best out of our team members. Many organizations pivoted quickly to address employee needs uncovered and amplified by the pandemic. If we are being honest, many of these challenges existed before the pandemic and we were conducting a bit of a balancing act that toppled under the global shakeup of lockdowns, school closings and remote work.

Many of these challenges overwhelmingly impacted those employees with families and specifically, according to Deloitte, women. They have taken on the lion’s share when it comes to  home and

I was watching a baseball game the other day. The batter was at the plate and the announcer described the action. “Here comes the next pitch. The ball is popped up a mile high in the air and the second baseman finally hauls it in for the out.”

The color commentator then chips in, “Wow, that ball was really hit a long way up there, but what goes up must come down.”

That up-and-down behavior was Isaac Newton’s third law of motion — every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The ball may go up, but also comes back down again.

So, what about produce sales? The growth has been outstanding

With many headed back to their classrooms, campuses and cubicles more regularly come fall, Oppy is putting lunchbox favorites from its exclusive collaboration with the Ocean Spray brand on full display in its back-to-school campaign. Oppy, leading grower, marketer and distributor of fresh produce from around the world is presenting its berries, grapes and citrus under the umbrella of the campaign’s positioning line: "The new school way to enjoy Ocean Spray." All items are available now.

“During the pandemic, consumers gravitated back to the brands they know and trust,” said Eric Sinsigalli

Dole plc announced the hiring of Scott Ross as senior manager of sales and new business development for Dole Diversified North America.

The Diversified products division of Dole operates the business of Dole’s year-round berries category — including strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries — in addition to other fruit products outside of its core tropical fruits. This year Dole Diversified NA also expanded to offer a 52-week supply program for grapes grown in Chile, Peru and California.  

Ross is a seasoned veteran of the produce industry, joining Dole with more than 25 years