Opinion
To say retail produce training is essential is an understatement.
When customers see a familiar label, a popular growing region known for the elevated quality of fresh produce grown, they slow down, and they buy.
Statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the ebb and flow of retail and foodservice sales for the last 20 years.
Here is a quick look-in at fresh vegetable FOB and retail prices compared with both a month ago and a year ago.
Some of today’s management gurus may believe they have created or named the most-used business terminology. Specifically, one we hear all the time: time management.
Our values guide us in good times and bad, and a clearly defined organizational purpose will articulate the benefits of our organizations to our employees, customers and society as a whole.
When I think of sweet potatoes, I think of calling my mom back in college, asking for her sweet potato biscuit recipe, which was my nana’s recipe written in her one-room-schoolhouse-neat teacherly cursive script.
How is the retail grocery business? Glad you asked.
I really cut my teeth writing (what else?) retail produce bulletins. Mike Aiton, our director, was the real writing wizard and had a couple of us supervisors rotate to cover the task.
A year ago I was hopeful that the North American produce industry would get behind the meaningful incorporation of sustainability practices in its businesses to help mitigate some of the biggest risks it is facing.
I was sitting around the kitchen table last night, trying to recall to my wife, daughter and son-in-law all the excellent anecdotes and amazing insights gleaned from the general session speakers at Fresh Summit 2013.
Hoping to inspire a “food revolution,” Jeff Dunn, chief executive officer of Bakersfield, Calif.-based Bolthouse Farms, may also help ignite a new way of industry working together.
There’s a lot to be said about simple momentum. Take for example, my regular workweek. Like many other produce professionals, I have my share of paperwork.
In the past year, online grocery and e-commerce shopping exceeded previous highs and it is estimated that online grocery shopping will surpass $100 billion in 2021 (Chain Store Age, February 2021).
For the second time in under 12 months, the North American potato industry received news that no one wanted: more detections of the devastating potato wart disease found in fields in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada.
I raise a salute to Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senator from Kansas who died Dec. 5 at 98 years old.
The Packer received this letter to the editor from the Canadian Horticultural Council and the Canadian Potato Council in response to a recent opinion article.
Every decent story, and likewise many lessons begin with: Once upon a time…
Editor’s note: The following editorial, written by former Washington, D.C., editor and columnist Larry Waterfield, first appeared in The Packer in 1989. It has appeared in every Christmas edition since then.
I had the honor of being on Farm Journal’s AgriTalk today with host Chip Flory.
More than 100,000 people have dropped comments in the Federal Register document that spells out the Biden administration’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing: Emergency Temporary Standard.
I was nibbling on the last of some Christmas cookies when Russ T. Blade appeared from behind my Rudolph-reindeer coffee mug.
From the Garden of Eden to today’s refrigerator fruit drawer, the good old apple is a consistent heavyweight in the produce department.
No need to quibble; all fruits and vegetables should qualify for “healthy” labeling.
What is the most buzzworthy variety of fruit or vegetable that you have experienced/seen in the last year? What makes it special?
Everyone’s time is valuable. You never want to go into a meeting flatfooted.
Greenhouses for lettuce and leafy greens are being built at a rapid pace across the U.S. In contrast, in neighboring Mexico there is no similar greenhouse production and in Canada there is very little.
Should retail buyers or the USDA build in sustainability requirements in their contracts with suppliers?
I remember vividly where I was on Sept. 15, 2006, when the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory warning consumers not to eat spinach.