Spring has sprung and with it has arrived a diverse set of apples and pears to transition the domestic to the imported crop. Rolling in with some of the best quality to date, Oppy looks to delight retailers and consumers with a freshly harvested mix from the Southern Hemisphere available coast to coast.

All offerings arriving from either New Zealand, Chile or Argentina, favorites like Royal Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, Granny Smith, Ambrosia, Smitten and Pink Lady along with exciting club varieties like Envy, JAZZ and Pacific Rose round out Oppy’s apple basket. Its familiar pear assortment of Bosc

BJ’s Wholesale Club announced that Lee Delaney, the company’s president and CEO, died unexpectedly on April 8 due to presumed natural causes. He was 49.

Mr. Delaney had been CEO since February 2020 and president since September 2019. Prior to that he was BJ's chief commercial officer for three years. Earlier in his career he spent 20 years with Bain & Co.

“We are shocked and profoundly saddened by the passing of Lee Delaney," Christopher J. Baldwin, executive chairman of the board of directors, said on behalf of the board. "Lee was a brilliant and humble leader who cared deeply for his

“I’m very glad about the coming season,” Carlos Bon Jr., vice president of sales for Divine Flavor, said of the Mexican grape deal. “We’ll have great quality and great-flavored grapes.”

Sonoran production is expected to run late this year, but Bon said his firm won’t ship before the time is right. “We’re not named ‘Divine Early’.  We are ‘Divine Flavor,’ and we are very excited about our strong investment in new varieties.”

This year, Mexico’s growers of older varieties like Perlettes, Flames and Sugraones are expected to be down in production. But the company isn’t seeing that on premium

Best known for potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes, Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC is becoming increasingly recognized for watermelons, and has recently announced a major expansion in its watermelon program, with year-round supplies coming from numerous production areas.

Heading that expansion effort will be Fran Torigian, a 44-year veteran of produce sales and marketing, whom Wada Farms, based in Idaho Falls, ID, has named to fill a newly created position of vice president of sales and new business development for its Eastern Division, headquartered in Raleigh, NC.

Torigian’s wife, Susi

In the last year, food and beverage providers have experienced so much change to the market it borders on chaos. Sporadic demand surges have meant far too many empty shelves and out of stock events. For the most part, consumers have remained understanding during these situations.

However, as the world starts moving closer to normalcy, consumers will once again expect full shelves. Out of stock events will no longer be a product of the atypical situation of the world but will instead reflect on the effectiveness of your business, which could put your reputation on the line and send consumers

“Right now, the only thing for sure is there is a lot of uncertainty,” Miguel (Miky) Suarez said at the end of March, about two months before the managing partner and sales manager of Nogales’ MAS Melons & Grapes LLC expected Sonora table grape growers to begin shipping promotable volumes of grapes.

His input from Sonoran growers brought mixed signals, but one consistent message is that it won’t be a full crop of Sonoran grapes this spring.

He added, “that every year the estimates for total production are calculated lower than they actually are going to be. But this time I tend to believe it