Oakes Farms offers a diversified portfolio of services that reach a global market that include farming, packing, shipping, retail markets and foodservice and seafood distribution.

The company plants, grows and harvests more than 100 fruits and vegetables and collaborates with regulated growers on all continents to negotiate year-round produce fulfillment orders. Its customer base is approximately 40 percent direct to retail, 40 percent direct to foodservice and 20 percent to wholesalers and terminal markets.

“We have over 2,000 acres of crops in Florida between Immokalee, Plant City and

London Fruit Inc., a south Texas importer and distributor of mangos, avocados, lemons and limes, announced a new partnership with Hazel Technologies for Limes. 

“We are excited to announce our partnership with Hazel Tech and to be the first in the industry to introduce this value-added service to our lime program," said Mario Cardenas, sales manager. “We see food waste as a growing concern to our customers and the consumer, using Hazel Tech for Limes will ensure the best quality product reaches our customers throughout the country.”

Food safety and quality is of the utmost importance to

Homegrown Organic Farms has been growing and marketing certified organic produce since 1998, and grows more than 60 percent of its own products.

“Citrus is our largest category, and we also have a very substantial stone fruit and fall fruit program with blueberries as well as grapes,” said Craig Morris, citrus category director for the Porterville, CA-based company. “Right now, we offer citrus year-round, but we define the season starting with the desert harvest with lemons, shortly followed by navels, and shortly after that clementines, grapefruit, blood oranges and the wave.”

That means

Apple volumes and dollars dipped slightly across the U.S. in October 2020 compared to the year prior, while bags continued to be a leading merchandising strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stemilt reveals these and other Fruit Tracker Fast Facts in its latest video analysis following the release of Nielsen retail scan data ending Oct. 24.

Apple dollars were down 1.2 percent nationally over the past 12 weeks when compared to the same timeframe the year prior. Pounds were down 0.5 percent, a trend that will likely continue because of the stark difference in crop sizes between the 2019 and

Tanimura & Antle Inc. is voluntarily recalling its packaged single head romaine lettuce under the Tanimura & Antle brand, labeled with a packed on date of Oct. 15 or Oct. 16, due to possible contamination with E. Coli 0157:H7. Packages contain a single head of romaine lettuce with the UPC number 0-27918-20314-9. No other products or pack dates are being recalled. There have been no reported illnesses associated with the recalled product.

"At Tanimura & Antle, food safety is a number one priority and the company prides itself on its preventative measures," the company said in a statement. "It

Joel Silverman was a successful salesman in the produce business when he was inspired to establish his own company.

“I got into a position where I realized I was making people a whole bunch of money, so I decided one day to try this by myself,” Silverman said. “I started in a room with one phone. I had a small customer list and I just started calling people, giving them prices. I was pretty relentless and didn’t take no for an answer. I just kept hustling, hustling and hustling. Before I knew it, I had three or four customers and it just grew from there.”

This year, the company he founded