United Kingdom

Whole Foods Market to Open 6 New U.K. Stores

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:36:12 GMT

Whole Foods Market plans to open six new stores in the United Kingdom over the next few months. In March 2025, the natural and organic foods retailer opened its first U.K. location in more than a decade with its 21,000-square-foot store on King’s Road in London.

The newest locations will open across Angel, Liverpool Street, Notting Hill Gate, Wood Wharf (Canary Wharf), Monument and St. James neighborhoods, doubling Whole Foods Market’s U.K. store count to 12.

“We’re happy to be expanding Whole Foods Market’s physical store presence in the U.K., allowing us to reach more customers with our uncompromising quality standards and carefully curated selection of natural and organic products,” says Jason Buechel, vice president of Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores and Whole Foods Market CEO. “Each new store represents an opportunity to bring responsibly sourced, high-quality food to more communities that share our values of nourishing people and the planet.”

The company says special features and products will include:

An array of certified organic and conventional produce.
Prepared foods options, including lunchtime salads, sandwiches and seasonal favorites, including Spanish-style free-range chicken, Teriyaki Salmon and Crackling Cauliflower.
Meat and seafood assortment featuring a variety of convenient grab-and-go offerings, including steaks, marinated and seasoned options for quick meals at home and packaged smoked items. All meat items are animal-welfare certified and include organic options, and all seafood offerings are either sustainable wild-caught or responsibly sarmed.
Bakery department offering fresh bread daily as well as everyday favorites, such as Whole Foods Market’s viennoiserie and brown butter cookies. The department also carries a wide variety of special diet items, including gluten- and dairy-free brownies, doughnuts and cookies.
Wellness and beauty department with a large assortment of supplements, skin care, hair care and more.
Specialty department dedicated to celebrating cheesemakers and artisan producers, featuring cheeses and charcuterie perfect for entertaining as well as local and premium range of beers, wines and spirits, including ready-to-drink options.
New and exclusive products.

“We are thrilled to bring Whole Foods Market to more neighborhoods in London,” says Jade Hoai, executive leader of operations for Whole Foods Market U.K. “We look forward to opening our doors to these wonderful communities and to providing great customer service and an excellent product assortment that meets our high quality standards.”

To celebrate the store openings, Whole Foods Market says it is making monetary donations to community nonprofit organizations, including FoodCycle, All Saints Food Bank, Independent Food Aid Network and Family Action Food Clubs.

Additionally, at the openings in Angel and Wood Wharf, Whole Foods Market plans to provide a food donation to The Felix Project, which makes regular surplus food pickups from local Whole Foods Market stores to help prevent food waste and serve the surrounding community. The nonprofit previously received a refrigerated van through Whole Foods Market’s Nourishing Our Neighborhoods program, which aims to enhance the ability of local food rescue organizations to transport surplus food to areas facing the greatest need.

The new locations also represent the international expansion of Whole Foods Market’s Daily Shop format, which launched in New York City in 2024. The Daily Shop store design maximizes the number of high-quality offerings available in locations under 14,000 square feet, according to the company. These six new locations will vary in size from roughly 3,300 and 10,000 square feet. The company says all stores will provide Whole Foods Market’s signature selection of fresh, high-quality products with a wide selection of organic products across its grocery, meat, seafood, cheese and prepared foods departments.

Chiquita yellow buses are back to brighten London streets

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 18:35:36 GMT

For the ninth consecutive year, Chiquita is participating in the London bus campaign to bring back its iconic yellow banana buses to London this summer.

The seven, fully electric buses will run along central and high-pollution transportation routes from the beginning of July to mid-August, helping to reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution while bringing some brightness to the streets of London, according to a news release.

The CO2-neutral buses, wrapped in Chiquita’s signature yellow and blue colors, showcase Chiquita’s commitment to fighting climate change by promoting the environmental and societal benefits of public transportation while highlighting the brand’s superior taste and quality, and encouraging healthy living, according to the release. The initiative goes hand-in-hand with the recent launch of Chiquita’s global campaign, “ It Peels So Good ,” which tells the story of Chiquita’s rich history and bright future. Much like the seven London buses, the campaign evokes an emotional response that goes beyond the moment of consumption and connects people to the brand, the release said.

“Chiquita is so excited to be back on the bustling streets of London embracing the tenets of sustainability as we forge ahead on our journey towards climate solution,” Peter Stedman, Chiquita’s director of sustainability, said in the release. “We remain unwavering in our mission to a sustainable tomorrow, and these bright buses will continue to help consumers to build an environmentally friendly future.”

John Cockle, Chiquita’s sales and market director for the United Kingdom and Ireland, said in the release that the campaign will help reinforce consumer awareness of Chiquita’s sustainability efforts.

“When consumers see the London buses once again this summer, we hope that they recognize the mission behind our esteemed Blue Sticker, and our rich heritage and commitment to forging a sustainable future,” Cockle said in the release.

Chiquita has been an easily recognizable brand since 1944, when it introduced its world-famous Chiquita jingle, the release said. Today, Chiquita aims to educate and inform consumers of the nutritional benefits of Chiquita bananas and innovate sustainable practices through the Behind the Blue Sticker program, the release said. These efforts ensure that Chiquita is providing the highest quality banana while also supporting a sustainable future for its farming communities and consumers, according to the release.

Mission Produce plans to add mangoes, double ripening capacity in U.K.

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 14:08:57 GMT

California-based hass avocado producer and distributor Mission Produce Inc. plans to expand its distribution center in Dartford, England, which it says would double ripening capacity and establish mango operations.

Those plans include the addition of 50% more Mission Control ripening rooms, a mango-specific operations area and additional cold storage and warehouse space, according to a news release. The new development is expected to be completed in spring 2024, the company said.

“We’ve been growing our business in the U.K. by delivering on our commitment to be the go-to supplier of high-quality, ripe avocados — so with our facility expansion, we’re getting ready to grow even more and unlock the potential for mangos in the market,” Paul Frowde, managing director of Mission Produce Europe and U.K., said in the release. “We’re leveraging the capabilities of our global network and vertical integration to bring our customers the convenience of partnering with one supplier to expertly ripen both commodities, driven by our operational excellence.”

Related news: Mission Produce launches ‘Discover the Mission’ marketing campaign

Mission Produce is continuing its partnership with Cross Group to advance the facility with a specialized mango sorting and packing line, additional warehouse and cold storage capacity, and more ripe rooms featuring Mission Control, the company’s exclusive atmosphere-control ripening process, according to the release. Mission Control is an innovation that was developed in partnership with Cross Group and is proven to accelerate avocado ripening and improve product uniformity, according to testing results from Mission Produce and the University of Greenwich’s Natural Resources Institute.

“Consistent quality is key to promoting a positive consumer experience with mangos, so we’re leaning on our mastery in the art of ripening and industry-leading technology to create that reliability,” Mission Produce U.K.’s Senior Commercial Manager Michael O’Sullivan said in the release. “In the U.K. market, there is plenty of opportunity to drive demand for mangos. I believe that we’re well-positioned with a world-class supply chain to become the highest-quality product on the shelf.”

Companies plan ‘aggressive’ watercress campaign

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:40:18 GMT

United Kingdom-based The Watercress Co. and Newburgh, N.Y.-based leafy greens supplier Solata Foods have plans to elevate watercress in the U.S. with retail and foodservice products.

The companies announced plans to introduce combinations of value-added salad blends featuring watercress at the key ingredient, with retail clamshells packs and bulk foodservice offerings.

The companies plan an “aggressive campaign” supporting watercress products, according to a news release.

“For too long, watercress has been treated by American buyers as a cooking ingredient, rather than a salad ingredient,” Solata Foods CEO Roger Zlotoff said in the release. “The U.S. market is overdue to upgrade watercress beyond its current status.”

The Watercress Co. grows in the U.K., Spain and Florida.

“We are finally giving watercress the star treatment it deserves,” Tom Amery, managing director of the Dorchester, Dorset-based The Watercress Co. “Beginning immediately, The Watercress Company and Solata will showcase watercress as the hot new premium salad, because it’s by far the healthiest thing you can put in your body.”

Products include:

Nutri-mix: Watercress and other greens such as beet tops, chards and spinach;
Britaly: A play on Italian tri-color salad, and subbing British-grown watercress for arugula in the blend, which also contains frisee and radicchio;
Vita-mix: arugula, spinach, frisee and watercress; and
Hot and Sweet, a blend of baby sweet lettuces and watercress.

“The peppery taste is totally unique and will be a huge success in the mixes but also in the solo form as its great in salads, sides, pestos or smoothies,” Amery said in the release. “We have many years of experience and understand the strong relationship watercress has with its consumers — they will keep on coming back for more.”

The two companies plan to focus on the health benefits of watercress, which is the only food to score a perfect 100 on a list of fruits and vegetables ranked by nutrient density by researchers working with the National Institutes of Health, according to the release.

Hudson Valley Greens, regional distributor for Solata Farms, also distributes watercress to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, according to the release. Solata Foods sources baby greens and lettuces from the East and West coasts, according to the release.

Representatives from the companies will be at booth No. 110 at the New York Produce Show, Dec. 10-13 in New York City.

Brexit supply chain risks weighed

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:15:45 GMT

Brexit is coming. What will it mean for the fresh produce supply chain?

Tom Karst, editor of the The Packer, visits Oct. 3 with David Benjamin, the food and beverage supply chain practice leader for Resilience360, a supply chain risk management platform that helps businesses predict, assess, and mitigate the risk of supply chain disruptions.

Benjamin talks about the implications of Brexit scenarios both for United Kingdom operators and for U.S. food suppliers.

Earlier this year, Resilience360 published its first annual risk report, which outlined the top supply chain risks for 2019.

Some of those were:

Trade wars drive manufacturing network restructuring;
Rising demand and fragile supply create raw material shortages;
Recalls and safety scares put quality under scrutiny;
Climate change impact heats up;
Tougher environmental regulations make polluters pay;
Economic uncertainty and structural change, notably Brexit, put suppliers under threat; and
Cargo caught up in industrial unrest.

For a download of the complete risk report, see this link .

Westfalia Fruit investment aims to boost avocado growth

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:24:02 GMT

A Boston-based investment company is enabling London-based Westfalia Fruit International Ltd. To expand its ability to supply global markets with avocados .

Harvard Management Co. Inc. acquired a minority stake in Westfalia Fruit International gives the fruit specialist the capital to fund initiatives while “enabling collaboration with HMC’s accomplished team of natural resource investors,” according to a news release from Westfalia.

Westfalia’s future investments in global production and distribution are aimed at meeting the growing market demand of avocados, and expanding availability.

“(Westfalia’s) vertically integrated operations are uniquely positioned to benefit from the growth in global avocado consumption and make it a great fit for our portfolio,” Colin Butterfield, Harvard Management Co.’s managing director of natural resources, said in the release.

Related stories:

Westfalia plant signals rise of Colombian avocado exports

Fillmore-Piru Citrus adds avocado line, plans to pack for 2 companies

Westfalia partners with Agricom

U.S., U.K. reach organic equivalency agreement

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 19:36:46 GMT

With the new year, all products certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as organic can be marketed as such in the United Kingdom, and certified organic products from the UK can be marketed as organic in the U.S.

The U.K. and U.S. announced the organic equivalency agreement on Dec. 30, which affirms the countries have similar standards for organic food and other products. The agreement covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to a news release from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, which oversees the National Organic Program.

U.S. companies exporting to England, Scotland and Wales must include a new paper document, a Great Britain import document. Shipments to Northern Ireland will continue to use the European Union’s Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES).

The agreement doesn’t cover aquatic animals (fish, shellfish) or products derived from animals treated with antibiotics when exported from the U.K., according to the release.

Starting Jan. 1, goods imported into the U.K. from the U.S. and all other non-European Union countries must have a valid certificate of inspection (COI). A new import process will be in place for all USDA organic product sent to the U.K. under the arrangement, according to the release.

For organic products going to the U.K.-Great Britain: A USDA-accredited certifier must issue a paper COI before the shipment leaves the U.S. The COI goes to the U.K. Port Health Authority/Local Authority. The original document needs to be signed within 10 working days for the shipment to be marketed as organic.

For organic products going to the U.K.-Northern Ireland: EU regulations will remain in effect. Shipments are still subject to EU procedures, including an EU COl.

Brexit deal favorable for produce trade between EU and United Kingdom

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 23:23:49 GMT

For United Kingdom and European produce traders, the apple cart has not been upset after all.

More than three years after voters in the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, the terms of the separation are finally set.

The U.K. was originally scheduled to leave the E.U. by Jan. 31, 2020, but both sides agreed to extend negotiations until the end of 2020.

With the deadline fast approaching, the Brexit deal was agreed to on Dec. 24.
The deal will preserve duty-free and quota-free access to fresh produce and other goods between the U.K. and the E.U., but will introduce more paperwork for movement of people and cargo.

“I think in the last couple of weeks (in December), people had got to the stage where we thought that probably the chances of reaching no deal, which would see the U.K. and Europe sort of reverting to trading on WTO terms, were getting stronger and stronger,” said John Giles, a divisional director with Promar International, the consulting arm of Genus PLC.

The sense of “brinkmanship” during negotiations was predictable but there was a sense of relief when the deal was struck, he said.

Giles said the 2,000-page document still needs to be ratified.

The deal came into effect on midnight Dec. 31, and Giles said Jan. 11 that there have been minor problems but no major disruptions in trade.

“The nub of the deal was that there was that there would be no tariffs and no quotas on trade between the U.K. and Europe,” Giles said. At the same time, more paperwork and customs declaration forms are now required.

“I think there have been some delays, while people get to grips with the new paperwork, but I think so far so good,” he said.

The main concern about a “no deal” had been higher tariffs and food inflation, because the U.K. is a net importer of fresh produce from Europe, he said. With the Brexit deal, those concerns have been averted, he said.

Labor effect

The effect of the Brexit deal on the movement of farm labor is less certain, Giles said.

“One of the reasons that the U.K voted to leave the E.U. was, not so much the issue of labor coming in from Eastern Europe, but uncontrolled labor coming in from Eastern Europe,” Giles said.

However, Eastern European labor is needed for U.K. farms, factories, health care and more.

“There have been big concerns about the restriction or potential restrictions on labor for the U.K.,” he said.

The Brexit agreement will allow a certain number of migrant laborers into the U.K. on a yearly basis.

Ultimately, Giles said the U.K. would like to encourage migration of skilled workers to the country.

“In terms of labor, there’s still a number of issues,” he said. “Labor has been an issue in the U.K. for the last 20 years, and labor, so it’s not going to go away just overnight.”

There have been some efforts to encourage U.K. workers to find employment at farms, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Giles said those efforts didn’t get far.

“They found that people, even in quite difficult and challenging economic circumstances, didn’t always want to do that type of work,” he said.
Robotics and mechanization are growing areas of focus for U.K. farmers, he said.

Trade

With a Brexit deal on the books, Giles said the possibility of a U.K and U.S. free trade deal may grow.

“It seems to me that the path is clear and positive to carry on the U.K.-U.S free trade talks,” he said.

However, the trade priorities of President-elect Joe Biden may put those talks on the back-burner if he wants to first address simmering trade friction with China and Mexico, Giles said.

USDA greenlights Norfolk Plant Sciences' Purple Tomato

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 19:46:29 GMT

A new, genetically modified purple tomato has received a green light from the USDA.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced it has reviewed the new tomato from Norfolk Plant Sciences, which was modified to alter its color and enhance its nutritional quality.

“We found the plant is unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk compared to other cultivated tomatoes, and is not subject to [the Code of Federal Regulations policy regarding the movement of GMO products]” the USDA said in a news release. “That means, from a plant pest risk perspective, this plant may be safely grown and used in breeding in the U.S. “

The USDA said its response was based on information from Norfolk Plant Sciences and the USDA’s:

familiarity with tomato varieties;
knowledge of the traits that alter fruit color and nutritional quality; and
understanding of the modifications.

Under federal regulations, developers may submit a request to APHIS for a regulatory status review when they believe a modified plant is not subject to regulation, according to the USDA.

USDA APHIS reviews the modified plant and considers whether it might pose an increased plant pest risk compared to a nonregulated plant, the release said.

“With respect to Norfolk Plant Sciences’ purple tomato, we did not identify any plausible pathways to increased plant pest risk compared to other cultivated tomatoes, and issued a response letter indicating the plant is not subject to regulation,” the agency said.

The USDA said the regulatory status review response is the first the agency issued under the federal code’s revised biotechnology regulations. The USDA review is available online .

“We are now one step closer to my dream of sharing healthy purple tomatoes with the many people excited to eat them,” Cathie Martin said in the release. Martin developed the purple tomato by engineering a precise genetic “on switch,” derived from an edible flower.

“This decision shows how the updates to APHIS’ regulatory framework will enable independent scientists and small companies to develop and compete on the market with better products, to the benefit of consumers and climate,” Nathan Pumplin, CEO of Norfolk Plant Sciences’ U.S.-based commercial business, said in the release. “This decision is a big milestone, which brings us much closer to a commercial launch of purple tomatoes. We are optimistic that we can begin limited distribution of purple tomatoes in the U.S. in 2023.”

In terms of next steps, Pumplin said in an email that the company has submitted information to the United States Food and Drug Administration seeking advice and counsel.

“We are looking forward to getting their response back,” he said.

Agriculture groups support U.K. trade opportunity

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:11:29 GMT

Multiple agriculture organizations are urging Congress to give President Joe Biden the authority to negotiate a comprehensive trade agreement with the United Kingdom.

Known as the UNITED Act , the legislation has been introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate. In a letter to members of Congress, agricultural groups said the companion bills would grant Biden, in consultation with Congress, the ability to seek a comprehensive trade agreement between the U.S. and the U.K.

“As supporters of trade agreements that advance American strategic and economic interests, we see these bills as a tremendous opportunity,” the letter said. “A comprehensive trade agreement with the U.K. would broaden the scope of exporting opportunities for American businesses, strengthen our supply chain resilience, and improve the well-being of our consumers.”

Some of the farm and ag groups that signed the letter include the International Fresh Produce Association, the U.S. Apple Association, the Northwest Horticultural Council, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas and the American Fruit and Vegetable Processors and Growers Coalition.

“The U.K. was once a significant market for U.S. apples and could be again with a trade agreement and a rational set of rules in place,” U.S. Apple Association President and CEO Jim Bair said in a news release. “We’re calling on Congress to pass the UNITED Act quickly and on the president to use the authority completely.”