Stemilt’s cherry season kicks off this week in California and all eyes are on the crop’s upcoming promotional window and the fast-approaching Memorial Day holiday. The 2021 California crop projects more promotable volume compared to last year’s smaller crop, with good sizing and flavors predicted between now and mid-June.

Brianna Shales, Stemilt's marketing director, suggests retailers look to Stemilt’s cherries for the ultimate kick off to summer by planning a promotion leading up to Memorial Day on May 31.  Setting a high cherry quality standard and delighting consumers during the initial

Ahold Delhaize announced that David McInerney, co-founder and CEO of FreshDirect, the Northeast’s leading pure-play online fresh food grocer, stepped down effective May 5. He will continue in an advisory role through the end of October 2021. Farhan Siddiqi, chief digital officer of Ahold Delhaize, will serve as interim CEO and assumed overall leadership responsibility on May 5.

“FreshDirect has been an amazing, life-changing, 20-year adventure for me,” said McInerney. “I have been so fortunate to have worked alongside an incredible team of talented, dedicated people who all share the same

In an effort to address both the extraordinary opportunities and the extraordinary challenges the industry faces, the Hass Avocado Board, with industry participation, has developed BOLD: The Hass Avocado Industry Board Leadership Development Program. Helping the industry face an increasingly complex marketplace with sophisticated problem-solvers, BOLD is designed to develop emerging leaders who are both motivated and equipped to meet those opportunities and challenges.

“This is the first program of its kind for the avocado industry and we’ve received enthusiastic and unanimous support from

Ocean Mist Farms, a leading grower and marketer of fresh artichokes in the U.S., hired John Georgalos as sales commodity manager. In this role, he will be responsible for managing iceberg lettuce, Ocean Mist Farms’ leaf program (red, green and Romaine), and will handle select key accounts for the company.

“We are glad to have John join our team and have a key role in our iceberg and leaf programs,” said Joseph Angelo, director of sales of Ocean Mist Farms. “With his experience, he will make us stronger and bring value in the day-to-day management of our operations.”

Prior to accepting the

United Natural Foods Inc. is adding 53 all-electric transport refrigerated trailer units to its fleet located at the company’s Riverside, CA, distribution center. This effort is in keeping with UNFI’s Better for All 2030 Environmental, Social & Governance agenda, and the company’s commitments to take innovative action on global social and environmental issues that help transform the future of food. The company is one of the first wholesalers to utilize the innovative technology and comes as the California Air Resources Board announced plans in January to impose zero-emission requirements on

Potato sales for Q3 (January through March 2021) of marketing year 2021 have caught up to the changed buying habits that the pandemic brought about. March 2020 was an unprecedented time for potato sales in grocery stores as panic buying began a yearlong streak of record-high sales in dollars and volume. It is no surprise that sales in March of 2021 could not keep up with the buying patterns that occurred in that crazy month a year ago.

While sales of potatoes for the first two months of 2021 remained above the same time period the previous year, March brought the total store potato sales down