Latest News From Know Your Market

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Upward Farms is expanding and rebranding, including a rebrand from Seed & Roe and construction of a new Brooklyn aquaponics farm headquarters.

When you ask what’s happening at his company, Andrew Scott, director of business development and marketing at Nickey Gregory, says it’s been all about his state’s produce.

A few of the large wholesalers and distributors at the Atlanta State Farmers Market, Forest Park, Ga., have expanded by adding or moving into new spaces on the property.

Eva Moghaddam wants to make it easier for every family to find healthier food. It’s a value that many producers and distributors in this industry share, a value that can coincide with a healthier earth as well.

The Atlanta State Farmers Market is so much more than the name might imply. Yes, in the shed area, the general public wanders booths laden with fresh fruits and vegetables from area farmers.

Despite myriad COVID-19 -related challenges, Los Angeles area grocery stores have fared well from a sales perspective since the pandemic broke out.

The produce business seems to be gradually rebounding in Los Angeles as stores and restaurants start to reopen after more than two months of shutdowns triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keeping employees safe and getting produce to anxious consumers in the time of COVID-19 has become as big a challenge for farmers as growing a healthy crop. 

Atlanta's fresh produce market leaders share how the Atlanta State Farmers Market has been transforming since, not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but also beforehand.

When the state of Ohio shut down all restaurants and bars on March 15 with the words: “This is the real thing; this is not a drill,” Kirk Holthouse realized he had a big problem. 

Even a company founded on using food that would otherwise go to waste can improve its sustainability practices — evidenced by the latest efforts of Hungry Harvest.

Bowery Farming, New York, N.Y., is hosting a virtual happy hour to kick off the United Fresh LIVE! conference and trade show June 15-19. 

The new coronavirus COVID-19 hasn’t changed one reality: Publix has an iron grip on Florida grocery sales. 

COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the economy of Florida, nearly stopping tourism and related industry in its tracks since mid-March.

The year started off fine for The Fresh Guys, said president Peter Braidman. But then COVID-19 came along.

While vice president Mike Robertson said it’s pretty much business as usual for Lakewood, Colo.-based Pacific Shipping & Trading Co. Inc., he added, “I can’t say it’s totally normal.”

Honeyacre Enterprises Ltd. started its greenhouse program the second week of April with tomatoes and cucumbers and will begin shipping orange, red and yellow bell peppers in June.

A produce box program for consumers that Denver-based 5280 Produce launched about five years ago has exploded as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

A year ago, Colo-Pac Produce completed a major cooler expansion that greatly increased its cold storage capacity.

Coosemans-Denver is offering Gourmet Premium Food Boxes that Garrick Macek, vice president of operations, expects will become more and more popular as consumers cope with COVID-19.

Big Sky Trading is expanding its organic offerings, said J.T. Pickett, general operations manager and organic produce buyer.

Alpine Summit Sales will have an extensive line of fruits and vegetables this summer, sourcing from varied growing areas including Colorado, California and Mexico.

The COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to be having a major impact on sales at Denver distributors, expect for the foodservice segment, but companies have implemented various preventive measures.

Supplies of a few local products could be a bit tight this summer, but for the most part, Colorado distributors will have plenty of good-quality fruits and vegetables to sell.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on produce sales is playing out at terminal markets across the country, including the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market.

Texas onion grower-shippers opened their season with unprecedented market conditions that included a near-shutdown of foodservice outlets and booming demand from retailers.

Texas is taking a big share of Mexican import growth in recent years.

The decision to cancel the 2020 Viva Fresh Expo was a tough decision to make, but was the right thing to do, said Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association.

The world’s largest wholesale produce terminal market is not experiencing supply shortages of any kind, although statewide closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused demand to fluctuate wildly.

Bowery Farming, New York, N.Y., is increasing support for to nonprofits, including Table to Table and Maryland Food Bank, providing more than 400 pounds of fresh produce a week during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Suntreat Packing & Shipping Co., Dinuba, Calif., has donated citrus to New York City, the hotspot for COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S.

Anita Fial, whose work at New York public relations firm Lewis & Neale over five decades helped introduce consumers to Mexican mangoes, Mexican avocados and Florida sweet corn, has died.

Nina Balducci, a pioneer of specialty foods retailing in New York City at Balducci’s, and part of the foundation of Baldor Specialty Foods, Bronx, N.Y., has died.

Demand for fresh produce has skyrocketed at food banks from coast to coast since the COVID-19 pandemic forced non-essential businesses to close, leaving many workers without pay.

NEW YORK CITY — Throngs of commuters jostling each other on sidewalks and on sardine-can subway trains are a thing of the recent past, and at least some residents hope it will be a returning thing of the near future.

Produce Alliance LLC, Chicago, has donated fresh produce to health care workers at an area hospital.

New York City schools are offering three free meals a day to all New Yorkers at 400 locations starting April 3.

Limoneira, Santa Paula, Calif., is donating cartons of lemons to health care professionals, food banks and other agencies.

Even though New York state ranks No. 1 for the most COVID-19 cases in the U.S., people still have to eat, and that means Hunts Point Produce Market, Bronx, N.Y., is as essential of a business as it ever was.

NEW YORK — Online grocer FreshDirect, Bronx, N.Y., has partnered with all five borough presidents to launch a citywide food drive to help ease the recent spike in food insecurity due to the new coronavirus COVID-19.

Wholesalers, shippers and distributors are strategizing how to handle drastic changes in buying, selling, and how they manage employees as coronavirus COVID-19 has spread.

To help alleviate supermarket food shortages due to the new coronavirus COVID-19, Baldor Specialty Foods will make home deliveries available to people in a 50-mile radius of its Bronx, N.Y. headquarters.

Bronx, N.Y.-based FreshDirect is donating meals, securing trucks and providing employee volunteers to a food pantry experiencing shortages related to the new coronavirus COVID-19.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — When it comes to sustainability in the food world, think of fully using food, not avoiding food waste, Thomas McQuillan told about 50 people at the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Baldor BITE, an expo drawing more than 2,000 people, has been rescheduled for Sept. 9 because of increased concerns over the new coronavirus outbreak affecting the New York City metro area.

Bronx, N.Y.-based Baldor Specialty Foods is connecting chefs and suppliers through Baldor Bite 2020, an all-day expo.

A group of New York City teens grew enough food in an indoor hydroponic farm to feed more than 2,000 students at lunch, with the help of a Whole Kids Foundation partnership with Teens for Food Justice.

Newton Kalengamaliro is the new senior agricultural scientist at Bowery Farming, New York City.

Sunkist Growers treated Montreal residents to a bright, garden-themed pop-up to escape the winter blues.

UPDATED: Caito Foods LLC, Indianapolis, plans to close its fresh-cut facility and discontinue those products.