Sliced apples specialist Crunch Pak hired Andy Kimbrel as director of sales and marketing. Kimbrel comes to the company with 12 years of experience in the footwear industry at LaCrosse Footwear Inc., where he directed regional sales for several premium footwear brands and managed accounts such as REI, Filson, Scheels, Zappos, and federal and local governments.

In addition to his sales and marketing roles at Crunch Pak, Kimbrel is charged with helping further grow brand awareness.

“All sales and marketing departments benefit from increased collaboration; we anticipate Andy’s experience with

Sandpoint, ID-based Litehouse Foods has developed a new line of refrigerated salad dressings to deliver on the product attributes today’s consumers are looking for, including fewer calories, less sugar, fewer ingredients, more flavor and a thicker formulation.

“The Purely Balanced product line is our new Greek yogurt-based salad dressing, and a complement to the Litehouse brand,” said Krystle Turnbull, product manager for Litehouse Foods.

“From consumer feedback, we knew there was a desire for a thicker Greek-yogurt based dressing,” said Turnbull. “We took this into account during product

Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A. Inc. announced that two of its energy-efficient container vessels, Del Monte Harvester and Del Monte Valiant, will be moving to the West Coast. These two vessels were launched in July 2020 along with four additional energy efficient reefer container vessels and helped mark a new chapter in environmental sustainability for the company.

Each vessel has a full cargo capacity of 1,276 TEU with 634 plugs for 40-foot high cube reefer containers, and given the perishable nature of fresh fruits and vegetables, the air-cooled containers will maintain the cargo at specified

Mission Produce Inc., a leader in sourcing, producing and distributing fresh Hass avocados, announced with its partner Mr. Avocado, one of China’s leading avocado brands, a shipment of avocados to China from California.
 
“Mission was the first to send avocados to China from Peru, Chile and Colombia — and now we’re the first to send from California,” said Steve Barnard, CEO and founder of Mission Produce. “Our goal is to provide a year-round supply of the World’s Finest Avocados, and now we’re doing so with more volumes and availability than before.”
 
Market access of avocados to China from

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has imposed sanctions on JLD Inc., doing business as North Country Wholesale in North Conway, NH, for violating the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. These sanctions include barring the business and the principal operators of the business from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

JLD failed to pay $260,260 to 18 sellers for produce that was purchased, received and accepted in interstate commerce from April 2018 to January 2019. This is in violation of the PACA. JLD cannot operate in the produce industry

Longtime grape grower and co-owner of Anthony Vineyards Robert (Bobby) Bianco died unexpectedly at 78 on March 6 after undergoing a routing medical procedure.

Mr. Bianco, along with his brother Dominic (Cookie) Bianco, was long associated with Sun World Inc. and was credited with being the first commercial grower of the red Flame Seedless grape in the mid-1970s. The brothers Bianco vertically integrated in the 1990s when they established Anthony Vineyards as a shipping operation as well as grower entity. Over the years, Anthony Vineyards established extensive operations in both the San