The U.S. Department of Agriculture has filed an administrative complaint against Rain Forest Produce Inc. for alleged violations of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. The company, operating from California, allegedly failed to make payment promptly to 33 produce sellers in the amount of $1.57 million from October 2018 through February 2020.

Rain Forest Produce will have an opportunity to request a hearing. Should USDA find that the company committed repeated and flagrant violations, it would be barred from the produce industry as a licensee for three years, or two years with the

Over a million poles stretch toward the sky on 750 rolling acres in Oceanside, CA, graced by vines that will yield the season’s first vine-ripened Roma and round tomatoes come the Fourth of July.

A leading grower, marketer and distributor of fresh produce from around the world, Oppy offers its Californian pole-grown tomatoes in its Oceanside Pole label. This year, 2.2 million cases of rounds and 1.1 million cases of Romas will be shipped across the U.S. and Canada, and as always, arrive at preferred ripeness dependent on customer needs.

“Our team harvests each acre 18-20 times throughout the

Albertsons Cos. and DoorDash, a leading last-mile logistics platform, announced a new partnership to offer on-demand grocery delivery from nearly 2,000 Albertsons banner stores and more from the DoorDash marketplace app.

As expectations for convenience, speed and ease continue to grow, consumers can now order groceries and essentials on-demand for delivery within an hour through DoorDash’s marketplace with no time slot, queues or minimum order size required. Albertsons will offer more than 40,000 grocery items from stores for delivery via DoorDash, including fresh and prepared food, core

PlantTape, an automated transplanting system, announced the promotion of Lance Portman to president and Hunter Smith to vice president of agriculture and sales. The two key promotions will provide the innovative company with ample support for continued growth within the United States and globally.   

“Both Lance and Hunter joined our PlantTape team at a pivotal time of growth and have been there every step of the way during PlantTape’s commercialization,” said Brian Antle, prior president of PlantTape.  “Their combined knowledge, leadership skills and in depth understanding of the agriculture

Farzan and Jennifer Dehmoubed are on a crusade against plastic and they have taken their fight to one of the epicenters of plastic bag use: the retail produce department.

Consider that every time a shopper buys apples, zucchini and most items in between they tear off a bag from one of the ubiquitous dispensers spread throughout the produce department, it adds up to a lot of bags.

“The average family uses 1,500 plastic bags a year, and the average lifespan of a bag is 15 minutes,” said Farzan Dehmoubed. “It adds up quickly.”

The couple founded Lotus Sustainables, a company that offers

With retailers focusing intently on filling their produce shelves and navigating a stretched supply chain during the pandemic, promotion was often put on the back burner and new product introductions were postponed.

The Produce News convened a panel of produce-minded, independent marketing experts to riff on the past year and help suppliers chart a marketing course moving forward. Our marketing panel consisted of Dan’l Mackey Almy of DMA Solutions, Cindy Jewell of SCJewell Inc., Steven Muro of Fusion, Nicholas M. Pasculli of TMD Creative and Tristan Simpson of tristan michele marketing